FINNS: An Oral History- Keeping Services
Keeping Services - Interview with David Kangas
FINNS: An Oral History of Finnish-Americans in New Hampshire’s Monadnock Region
Excerpted from FINNS: An Oral History... by Patricia Kangas Ktistes, 1997, all rights reserved.
Keeping Services - David Kangas Interview
Regarding Finns with no Apostolic Lutheran background, by the time I grew up, most had integrated into mainstream America. There were blue-collar types and those who pursued higher education. There were ones whose hair was down to their shoulders and smoked marijuana. I noticed those Finns whose parents had been kind of leftist when my father was a child were influenced by the 60s and 70s pop culture. By then, the only ones who preserved distinct Finn culture were Apostolics.
Because they’ve gone into enclosed Northern communities, Apostolics seem to have kept some attitudes going for generations though contemporary Finns don’t think like that anymore. You’re dealing with people whose thinking, in one sense, reflects their immigrant forebears 100 years back. It’s an ethnic-cultural group that maintained a life that doesn’t exist outside their circles. The American mainstream is threatening and the simplest thing is maintain a semi-separate lifestyle because they don’t know how to assimilate the mainstream into their traditions. Historically, they adopted consensus outlooks regarding social norms. Many teachings weren’t written but were understood to be wrong. For example, television, movies, dances, and alcohol consumption were wrong. However, smoking and chewing tobacco were okay. Styled hair was wrong, but some women would curl their hair. Lipstick and nail polish were wrong, but some other kinds of makeup were okay. A certain Avon saleswoman said she “made good money off these people.”
At one time in Apostolic homes there could be no curtains. That was specifically from my maternal grandmother, Arline Somero. My mother said when they first got curtains, my grandmother was really sweating it because she was worried people would start preaching these fancy curtains were too worldly; no consensus had been reached on curtains at that time. I think a lot of these ideas got passed down and the original meaning lost. I wondered, “Well, how could this be sin and that not be sin?” Over the years, they’ve allowed in more things and gone back and forth about various issues.
The Apostolics have a kind of exclusivism in their doctrine. But all groups end up changing because reality runs counter to what they’ve been taught and in some cases the younger generation is saying, “We aren’t going along with it.” Many people from that background who get an education are unable to resolve conflict between what they see and what they’ve been brought up with. But despite Apostolics’ idiosyncrasies, they’ve done a good job overall maintaining a morally upright lifestyle in a country gone to the pits. I made the transition out of that lifestyle but in many ways I liked it because I knew I could trust them. There is closeness and an affinity amongst them I have not found replicated anywhere else. I see where Apostolics would retreat when they see the dirt going on in the world today. I know a lot of them think, “Maybe everything isn’t perfect in our midst, but when you look at what is good about our own culture, it’s better we stay amongst ourselves.”
My father said a lot of times Christianity wasn’t discussed openly at home when he was growing up; it was essentially the same when I grew up, too. It was just understood that you believed or were ‘in faith.’ It wasn’t a thing where parents took active roles teaching children. You’ll see a lot of leaving it up to the Sunday School to teach kids. That kind of standoffish, Lutheran type of understanding. The Finn mentality.
Another Apostolic group that seems to be maintaining that lifestyle is the Esikoinen, the ‘first born.’ Talk about hard-core. There is no deviation from what elders teach. They have nothing to do with anybody else and are absolutely sure they’re right. They’re insistent about the concept of the mother church and Elders of the First Born in Gellivara, Sweden, who need to be obeyed. To the Esikoinen, crossing the Elders is like blaspheming Jesus. They keep people in line because, from a very young age, they’re told to counter the Elders is damnation. They don’t want to associate with the New Ipswich group at all. From discussions with an Apostolic relative, I conclude the difference between the Esikoinen and regular Apostolics is a continuation of Finn factionalism.
It’s black or white, wrong or right. Very little tolerance for gray shades in between. Years ago you saw Finns dividing into Communist versus ‘White’ camps. Any cry for economic justice in Finland was automatically branded as Communism. And you see these trends keep going, like the radical right. Polarity: it’s built into people’s personalities.
Correction: Thomas Aho was with Leslie Wiik, not Steve.
Leslie Wiik and Steve Aho died in that car accident in the summer of 67. My brother drowned in the Souhegan on June 3, 1967. Thus my uncle Oliver Niemi lost 3 nephews in one summer. Having faith and belonging to a group, church or otherwise, can help one get through these these down times. I appreciate being educated about the Lutheran denominations since I was raised Catholic, an agreement my father had to make (he was areligious) if he was to be married in a Catholic church. Strangely, neither one of my parents attended church. I don't belong to any church.