I would love a copy of this. Leander and Amanda were my great grandparents. They are buried in New Ipswich . I never knew my great great grandparents names. So funny, I have always loved the name Anna. John was my grandfather, his name was Lars John. He bought a farm in New Ipswich where I grew up. I never knew when he came to America. Thank you for this story.
Walter Thayer loaned the Finns money. This must have been a previous generation Walter Thayer. I worked at Tricnit when a Walter Thayer has an office and I would apologize to him as I came in to empty his waste basket. The Finnish language is a tough one to learn and in Finland I would start a conversation in Finnish with a local person (like a bus driver) and he immediately would answer me in English. Thus, I suspect my Finnish wasn't very good. However, it made me feel good to use it. As a kid from New Ipswich attending Catholic school in Greenville I felt like I was in a different country.
People on the street spoke French, the nuns had us do a Pledge of Alliance (in French) to the Canadian flag. The nuns were from Quebec. You weren't allowed to speak English in the AM. My broken French was obvious and made me an 'outsider'. Got into many fights, got rescued by Leonard Twiss (an older non-French Highbridge boy). Finnish came in handy however. I ask my father for Finnish words that covered or related to human anatomy. When I got disciplined by a nun for something I thought was trivial I would look her in the eye and say; "Up your _______" in Finnish.
I would love a copy of this. Leander and Amanda were my great grandparents. They are buried in New Ipswich . I never knew my great great grandparents names. So funny, I have always loved the name Anna. John was my grandfather, his name was Lars John. He bought a farm in New Ipswich where I grew up. I never knew when he came to America. Thank you for this story.
Walter Thayer loaned the Finns money. This must have been a previous generation Walter Thayer. I worked at Tricnit when a Walter Thayer has an office and I would apologize to him as I came in to empty his waste basket. The Finnish language is a tough one to learn and in Finland I would start a conversation in Finnish with a local person (like a bus driver) and he immediately would answer me in English. Thus, I suspect my Finnish wasn't very good. However, it made me feel good to use it. As a kid from New Ipswich attending Catholic school in Greenville I felt like I was in a different country.
People on the street spoke French, the nuns had us do a Pledge of Alliance (in French) to the Canadian flag. The nuns were from Quebec. You weren't allowed to speak English in the AM. My broken French was obvious and made me an 'outsider'. Got into many fights, got rescued by Leonard Twiss (an older non-French Highbridge boy). Finnish came in handy however. I ask my father for Finnish words that covered or related to human anatomy. When I got disciplined by a nun for something I thought was trivial I would look her in the eye and say; "Up your _______" in Finnish.
May I also get a hard copy of my aunt Mildred’s story?
Mildred Somero Kuusisto was my auntie. I have been amazed and very excited to stumble upon this writing of hers