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Volume 5 Number 3 August/Elokuu cool
Sauna Memories from Searsburg
by Sylvia Uitos Maatta
do remember the sauna experiences from my child-
hood. Saturday late afternoon was when we went to
sauna. Both mother Aino and father Viljo took all of us
four children to sauna. In the winter, we were bundled
up in our winter clothes and walked a little ways through
the snow. There seemed to be more snow in those days.
Our sauna was located near a creek where the water was
plentiful and easy to get.
One of the first things father did after they moved to
the farm was build a sauna. It was essential! The sauna
was built in 1929 or 1930. Mother and father both
scrubbed and washed our hair. We were very small and
young in those days and with four kids we were a hand-
ful. After Saturday sauna mother fed us the best pea soup
"heme soppaa" and homemade bread. What a treat. I
never had such good pea soup since. After that all four
of us kids were ready for bed.
Summer saunas were much easier for mother both on
Saturday nights and wash days. Mother did our weekly
wash there outside the sauna on good weather days. There
was plenty of water in the nearby creek and it was heated
in the sauna barrel. Even our neighbor Mrs. Tunison
joined mother and they did their wash together.
The big 1935 flood did lots of damage to our sauna.
The creek that ran through father's farm ruined many
areas of land. I don't know what caused the flooding but
it had rained for many days and the built-up water raged
with great force destroying land and everything in its
path down through Boulder Creek eventually reaching
Trumansburg. Trumansburg suffered many lost build-
ings and a person even drowned. The whole country-
side suffered great losses. Afterwards the state straight-
ened the land where father's creek went through. Bull-
dozers dug ditches on both sides of the creek 10 feet
deep. It solved the flood problem. We used our sauna
only in the summer time (never in the winter) after the
flood. There were neighbors that welcomed sauna guests
to their sauna and we did go to their sauna.
My husband Eugene was born in a sauna in northern
Wisconsin in 1919, as were many of his familv mem-
bers. His father was midwife when many of his children
were bom, because there were no doctors nearby in those
days.
When we bought our farm in Enfield, Gene built our
sauna for us more for pleasure and enjoyment (going
back to our roots). We had electricity, running water,
(we still had the boiler which heated the water) and we
had a shower. Our children (including our granddaugh-
ter) enjoyed this and often brought friends to enjoy the
sauna. We also had sauna guests (mostly non -Finns) who
enjoyed and got use of the sauna. Even after my hus-
band passed away, some friends came and heated our
sauna for themselves. They were welcome.
The sauna was a very important factor in our family
life. I have been in many electric heated saunas, spas,
and at the Y. But never have I felt so clean and relaxed
as when I was in the old-fashioned Finnish sauna.
There's nothing that can beat that feeling. These are
my memories of the sauna and our family life that spans
four generations.
The Ultos sauna with Herman, Esther and Sylvia Uitos.
About 1930.