BRIEF LIFE HISTORY

My name is Valto Antero Tolvanen. I was born in Finland in North Karelia in a village named Lieksa (Pielisjärvi) near the Russian border. When I was 2 years old my parents moved to Helsinki where my mother (Ida Sofia Huttunen) died when I was 8 years old. I had two brothers younger than me and we had every now and then somebody to look after us. The so-called Red Rebellion started almost at the same time. My father (Pekka Tolvanen) was on the wrong side. The Reds were beaten and my father spent about six months in the concentration camp. My brothers (Veikko and Voitto) were looked after by the Salvation Army and they did their best, but there was a famine and we children were always hungry. It has not been any trouble at all for me to "bare the head before the bread" after that. We were pretty much by ourselves when father was working. When I look back I realize that we were becoming real street urchins. I was fortunate because the habits of the street didn’t seem to affect me too much. I must have had a special angel looking after me. Surely there was quite a lot of mischief and childish thoughtlessness, but I didn’t have to carry them into my later life.

My father married again in 1920 and we boys were lucky to get an excellent mother (Selma Lähteenkorva) to look after us. She kept us clean and fed and taught us proper behavior (about which we didn’t know very much). I did fairly well in the school and should have started working after six grades. I have many times thought how lucky I was that I was so small of stature - second smallest in a class of 40 - that nobody wanted to hire me. It was for this reason that I was sent to try entrance examinations to the Lyceum. I was in the top ten and got started on the long road of learning.

I could attend only 3 years when I had to start working. I tried night school, but it didn’t work out. Mathematics was a problem and money was another. I had been delivering papers then already 6 years, but had to give almost all my earnings to the family to help out. One thing I got from the Night School was the English language - the elementaries of it anyway. I was so interested in it that I read by myself and have been reading English ever since. All I know now about the English language is self-taught - even now I many times have trouble trying to find the right words to say or the right pronunciation.

I joined the Post Office and worked for it for 28 years. Last 9 years were in Lapland, first as a Postmaster then couple of the last years as an Expediter. I was ready to build my own home in 1957 in Rovaniemi when we had the general strike. In couple of months the Finnish currency lost 20% of its value. I realized it was needless to try any longer and emigrated to Canada.

We have been here for 21 years and as members of the LDS Church for 16. When we had been here couple of years I got work as field assistant in the International Pacific Salmon Fisheries Commission. It was mostly working on rivers counting and caring of the salmon runs. In wintertime it was hatchery work sometimes - mostly lay-offs for a few months. But we managed, bought a small home, reared our two daughters and are now retired.

That’s my personal history in broad lines. At present I am alone - even my wife is visiting my daughter’s family in Provo. The other daughter is married too - she lives in Mantua on the way to Logan. I have lots of time to read and study - but I have to do my garden work on the side.

My first assignment was not what I wanted it to be. It is so long ago that I have had to do anything like this. I guess my thinking is rusty. We have to hope that it gets better when the time goes by.

At the present time I don’t have any questions. I want and see what you have to say and will ask then. Today is Friday the 28^th of April and I got in the mail a letter from the BYU Bookstore. They let me know about their payment policy and asked me to send the price of the books. I am prepared to wait another two weeks before they are here. I will try to do something with my second assignment before that.

In conclusion I remind you again that all my English is self taught. Now is the time to get some polish and some solid direction how to write. The same goes with my thinking - it seems to be a little muddled at present. It could be only that, that I have been so concerned about the essay. I hope I can be more relaxed later on. This is by the way my first tape ever!

I hope to hear from you soon.

VAT to Don Norton, April 1978

IN DEFENCE OF MY CHOICE OF READING

For the most part my reading habits have been haphazard, to say the least. I have always been a voracious reader right from the time I could start putting words together from my basal reader. I naturally finished my schoolbooks to start with. The only book we had at home was the Bible. It took me over a year to finish that. I must have been big enough to make the trip to the library which was two miles away. I could go only there once a week on Saturday afternoons when my father was home and could look after my two younger brothers.

We were only allowed to take out two books at a time, and they had to last me until the following Saturday. For my trips to the library I started using a system which gave me the widest selection of books, but not always those which would have been the best suited for my purposes. I made a list from the catalogue of those books which were over 600 pages. That way the librarian selected the books after my list, because those were the days when books were not yet on open shelves. The system worked very well. Many times I had to read at night time to get my books read before I had to return them.

I was an omnivorous reader, who did not care what the book was about as long as I had not read it before. That’s why I came to read Nansen’s book Across Greenland on Skis. I remember the book well, because about six years later in high school (lyceum) my teacher asked if anybody had read it. I was the only one. My teacher seemed to be impressed, but asked if I had not found it a bit long winded. I had no answer for that, because I had never thought it to be anything else other than a task that had to be finished. But now I know that I would never anymore find the necessary patience to read it again. Later on in night school I had one year of English. I did very well and liked the language so much that I read it by myself. Pretty soon I was able to read pocket books, which I bought from second hand bookstores. They were mostly cowboy and detective books, and for over twenty years I didn’t read anything but them. I left over 500 paperbacks behind when I emigrated in 1957.

The next phase came when I moved to Lapland and got interested in fishing. The hobby developed first into fly-fishing and then into fly-tying. All literature available was in English, and even that had to be borrowed to start with. I promised to return the first two books on fly tying in two months time, and there was no way to learn the skill in that time period. That’s why I translated them, and it started a trend which is on going. Afterwards I was able to buy my own books, and because books were almost the only item which could be imported without a license, I started building up my own library. Or better to say my collection. Now I have read most of those books at least twice, some of them many times. And those most dear to me I have translated into Finnish.

When we emigrated to Canada (1957)and in a few years time joined the LDS Church, a new avenue of study opened to me. Since then I have read several of the Church books yearly. When I found one which was especially interesting I translated it. Then one day reading the Book of Mormon I got a bright idea (I had been thinking about it already earlier too) that why not join two purposes and read languages using the Book of Mormon? Last summer I just started that. I had the English, Finnish, Norwegian and German versions to start with. Later on my daughters sent me Swedish, Danish and French versions. I finished the project only about two months ago. I don’t think my pronunciation in Norwegian and Danish is right, but my purpose is to be able to understand what I am reading and get used to it so much that I can translate from those languages if need be.

My reading habits have been changing through the years. One could call me an unselective (eclectic) reader for the most part of my life, but now my interest is directed mainly to two fields of knowledge, namely the Gospel and fly fishing. These are going to keep me busy in the future. Reading about and studying these things should give me enough of a variety with my translating activities.

To avoid monotony I still have other fields of interest. Genealogy has always in the later years taken a part of my time. To add some more to the list, I would mention the Finnish language and its etymology, Finnish history, ancient history and archaeology. Not to mention different languages - I always seem to reach farther out in that field and try to learn a new one every now and then.

My reading seems to be still quite diversified, but now I have special goals to reach. Religion gives me a purpose in life, and when I need a change in pace, I follow one of my favorite authors to the clear waters of salmon and trout rivers, wherever they might take me. The beauty of the Gospel and the beauty of Nature are my constant companions. How could I ask for more?

VAT to Dr. Don Norton, BYU, 1979