LIFE HISTORY 1919

1919

The Cool Crowd or the “Stadi Gang” Years

     After the war it became fashionable for older boys and adults too who were considered part of the “cool” crowd, to wear velvet trousers which were tight at the hips and widened out in the legs to where the wide bottoms totally covered the shoes. The velvet had to dark blue, and these trousers were a sign that you belonged to a group or gang. Fights between rival gangs were also in fashion, but we didn’t participate in those — we just heard about them.

We also learned to speak the Helsinki slang spoken by these gangs, a type of “pig Latin,” and I can still remember quite a lot of it even though I can’t always recall what it means. For instance, “Tshiikaa tshakia kun paasaa pulisena,” meant, “Look at the way that guy is walking” — how’s that? Well, it’s not going to hurt anything if I can’t remember this slang anymore. It seems evident, however, that among today’s youth in Helsinki there still are remnants of this slang in the way they speak. There have also been several books published — childhood remembrances — where this language is used as would be expected. It would be fun to read some of them.

Learning to Sing

    I can remember one song from those days, but it may be a Scout song. I don’t think there is any translation available for it because it’s kind of a group song — such as sung by Scouts. So I’m going to write it down so that others can see it also. Perhaps someone else will remember this song better, or at least the meaning of it:

Ging, gang, gulivili veissan, gulivili veissan, gulivili veissan goo,

(Repeat),

Iila iila jaava, iila jaava malagoi, iila iila jaava, iila jaava malagoi.

Jim jam jassa gili gili massa, jim jam jaa, jim jam joo.

(Repeat)

Iila iila jaava, iila jaava malagoi, iila iila jaava, iila jaava malagoi, etc.

I think Mother taught me a lot of these songs once upon a time — I’m not sure if she taught them intentionally, but they have certainly stayed with me — the words as well as the melodies.

Someone told me — perhaps it was Mother — that when I was small I sang the following: Lännen lannalla lutkottaa, lutkottaa . . . . I can’t remember the tune to it, but “Vienan Rannalla” [On the Viena Shores] was Mother’s favorite song and so I learned it by heart.

Discovering the Movies

    I already mentioned earlier that we yearned to go to the movies in those days. At the end of Punavuorikatu on Frederickkatu there was a movie theater, but I can’t recall the name right now. Then on Iso Roobertinkatu there was the Casino, and on the corner of Erottankatu was located Lyyra 3. They usually played serials such as, “The Man in Black, A Voice on the Phone,” which was about an invisible man. It consisted of a person taking some kind of potion after which he threw on a cloak which then made this person invisible. Another movie was “Captain Nemo.” [rt. Captain Nemo, 20,00 Leagues Under the Sea. Silent]They all had one thing in common, which was that little boys had to use a lot of brain power to figure out how to get the money to attend these dens of delight. We didn’t succeed all the time no matter how hard we tried, so they had to either stay away or try to sneak into the movies through the back door. There was one time when I also tried this and was successful. The theater was at the Casino, and it was the only time I succeeded in getting in the show that way. I think Veikko and Manne Seitola were with me on this occasion.

    Veikko became very skilled at these types of capers, but since he was very independent by nature I knew very little about his escapades. In about 1919 we had a renter living with us, and the man often would leave his wallet on the table. Of course he started wondering why he had less money than he should to have had. The rest of us wondered where Veikko was getting all of his spending money. He explained to us that he had found where Jori Tirkkonen had his money stash, and we believed it without question. It was quite alright to steal from the rich — it was like an article of faith in those days. We didn’t question this line of reasoning which shows how little good sense we had, but what we lacked in common sense we made up in imagination. Well, the truth finally came out when our renter took up the matter with Father and the guilty party was finally apprehended. I can’t recall what the final outcome was.

Early Singing Career

It was about that same period of time that we learned to sing Tatu Pekkarinen’s [rt.] songs with the combined voice power of all three brothers. At the movies you see, it was still the custom that the entre act was some live production and it seems that Tatu sang at several of the theaters. That’s where we boys picked it up, the words and the melodies. I believe Veikko was the best out of the three of us, but he probably had a chance to attend the theater more often. We had quite a large repertoire: “Renk Jussi Returns from the Wars” was one song that has stayed in memory, and I probably could still sing it all the way through. What the others were, I can’t recall at the moment, but if I could get hold of a list of his songs, I’m sure they would quickly come back to me.

     We were often called on to sing at different functions, and it didn’t even have to be a special event if we had visitors over to our home. We sang in Tohmajärvi and Värtsilä. [rt. Värtsilä Lutheran Church]. My aunts in Värtsilä, Joosefiina [Tolvanen] Nousianen and Vilhelmiina [Tolvanen] Laasonen, were both born again Christians and belonged to the White party, so they couldn’t ask us to sing for them in the presence of other people. But one day we went berry picking and there they asked us to perform for them. I said that the songs might not be really suitable for their ears, because in one of the songs there were some swear words. It was that “Renk Jussi” song where there was some swearing, but it was very innocent: “… there the sky and hell gaped open….” So it’s no wonder this song has stayed in my memory! But this happened during our holidays, and I will talk about our holidays separately.

Adventures in Swimming

     I don’t think we went on any holidays yet in 1919, because that was the year when I learned how to swim. We usually played at the swimming pool in Ursini, and there we had a lot of fun because we were allowed to splash around to our hearts content in the shallow pool. But of course then we had to pay, and earnings were pretty unpredictable in those days between all of us. There were, of course, other beaches. There were the cliffs at Ursini which were so smooth and at other times very warm from the summer sun, so it was really a great place to sun ourselves there. And there was nothing to keep us from going further: we ventured all the way to Ruoholahti where there were actual sandy beaches, and the water was still very clean in those days and not polluted from raw sewage as it was in later years.

We also went to Vantaa! It was a very long way for kids our age to travel, especially since we didn’t have any money for the trolley car. But in spite of it all we went there — it was an actual trip. We had to travel through the whole city including Soornainen, Vallila and Vanhakaupunki (Old Town), but we were able to find our way there, but we ended up on a beach on wrong side of the river. Well, we found a quick remedy to the situation because our friend Hono had with him a lifesaver tube, and with the aid of the tube he transported each of us across the river to the other side. When my turn came, however, things turned a bit dangerous.

     We had already crossed the river and were close to the other shore when the lifesaver tube for some reason tipped over and I fell in the river. I wasn’t able to swim a stroke and got into a real panic, so I grabbed Hono around the throat so tightly that he too started to sink and gulp in water, and started to panic as well. When I realized that he wasn’t going to be of any help I abandoned him and started thrashing toward the shore on my own power. The distance was only a few yards — the beach had been washed away, but the shore was only a few feet above the surface of the water — so it wasn’t much of a feat for a frightened little boy to reach dry land. And that’s when I started gaining the confidence that I could swim.

    The shore of the Vantaa River is still etched on my mind, however, and I can clearly recall the feelings I experienced at that moment. I recall my panic and how tightly I squeezed Hono around the neck. His skin was moist and warm – it was a summer day. And I can still remember the panic I caused, squeezing him around the neck so tightly so that he was no longer able to keep his head above the surface of the water. His eyes, very close to my own, were round as circles and literally popping out of his head. I guess those eyes were the reason why I finally let go of him. He was actually a very good swimmer, because he had received the Expert Swimmer diploma at the Ursini Swimming Hall. But then he was a few years older than the rest of us. 

Translated from the original Finnish: Marja-Leena Tolvanen-Rogers