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Sune, are you sure it was the heat of the oven that attracted the dog, and not the cake baking in it...? 
Päivi T
Päivi T
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Saunas in North America
I'm sorry to say that we didn't have the sauna habit in our Swede-Finn community when I was growing up. My grandparents didn't have one and I don't remember anyone even talking about it.
However, putting a sauna into upscale homes here, seemed to be popular through the late 70s. The sauna seemed to fit with the backyard pool. In our house, built in 1978, we have a sauna on the bottom floor of the house. It is off the hallway leading to the outdoor pool. Although we've lived in this house more than 3 years now, we've never used the sauna. It is really nicely made of cedar inside. We have the "shower everday" habit, which I believe is typical of most North Americans. It does the job but not so relaxing and sociable.
Saunas do appear in public facilities where there is an indoor pool for recreation.
Our family enjoys hot springs, where ever we can find them. It is a enjoyable activity for us, particularly in the summer months.ClaireComment
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For us, it's definitely an integral part of our way of life.
Before our daughters were born, we lived and worked abroad for a couple of years, first in Sydney from -94 to -97, then in Singapore from -98 to -99. Sauna featured very high on our list of things that we really missed. Especially because we've always been very active in sports and have played competition-level squash since our university days. What more relaxing after tough games than a nice, long hot saunabath... We played a lot of comp squash in Sydney and would dearly have loved a saunabath after a long comp night. Actually, some sports centres did have a "sauna", however not the kind we Finns were used to. For one thing, the temperature there was set fixed at around 60 to 70 degrees Centigrade, and throwing water on the stove to generate "löyly" was expressly forbidden! A cold sauna with no way to regulate "löyly" qualified as torture to us Finns.
We found it amusing that along with a lot of other things in Australia, the sauna was also contrary to what we were used to. In Finland, a sauna can help up the selling price of a house or an apartment -- in Australia, the opposite happened!
Päivi TComment
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It was the heat all right. The dog preferred hot sun spots for day time naps.Originally posted by Paivi T
Sune, are you sure it was the heat of the oven that attracted the dog, ...?
SuneComment
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Have I been doing it all wrong again?
Hello all
Well, this should get the thread going again. For years now I have been having saunas at my local sports centre, a rather "down market sports centre" to be truthful. Without the twigs/sticks, I really thought this was as close as it got to a true Finnish type sauna, with the hot coals in the corner (minus the water bucket in the last year or so, as people had been going a bit mad with that). However, this week a friend and I visited another, very much grander and upmarket sports centre, and in the 4 hours we had there (couldn`t tear ourselves away from all the luxury and as we had complimentary passes, we made the most of it) we managed two saunas, but only the bottom bench as the top bench was way TOO HOT. The only thing missing was the coals!! Couldn`t find them. Have I missed something? Have saunas gone electric? Also, tried the steam room for the first time (twice again actually)which was a fantastic experience - does anyone know where they originated from?
GwendaComment
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Saunas
I found 3 articles about Saunas in my files and will attach one here and will send another separately. I think I may have posted one of them earlier. Anyway, they provide some interesting background.
June
See article 121 in the Delphi acticle collection at http://sfhs.eget.net/wikijp.html /HasseJuneComment
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Saunas
Here's another Sauna article.
June
See article 120 in the Delphi acticle collection at http://sfhs.eget.net/wikijp.html /HasseJuneComment
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Saunas
Sorry folks, but the sauna attachments to my mail are not what I attached - I don't know how that genealogy record got there. I've asked Hasse if he can figure out what happened to my articles.
JuneJuneComment
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Re: Saunas
I entered the URL addresses to the articles in June's Delphi article collection instead and deleted the direct attachments of June's posting.Originally posted by June Pelo
Sorry folks, but the sauna attachments to my mail are not what I attached - I don't know how that genealogy record got there. I've asked Hasse if he can figure out what happened to my articles.
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Tar as remedy
Sometimes I visit my friend Esko Käyrä on Kayuquat Island west of Vancouver Island for a magnificent fishing experience. Eskos parents moved to Kayuquat Island in the 1920's with half a dozen other Finnish families. They came from the village of Ii in Ostrobothnia. Originally they came from Kemi and their surname was Kemiläinen. Peer pressure make them change their surname and since they had homesteaded in a river bend they took the surname Käyrä (bend in Finnish). Esko was a sick child, suffering from allergies and exzemas and what not. His mother took him to the local naturopat practitioner in Ii. He prescribed a decoct consisting of two drops of tar mixed in warm milk to be taken daily at bed time. When I last saw Esko some years ago he was past 70, walking straight as a flag pole, strong as a black bear, had not been sick since childhood. Esko has a tame harbour seal, Charley that swims freely in the Kayuquat sound. When I met Charley she was past 30. Originally they thought Charley was a male, however that turned out to be a misconception. Since 25 years, Charley has a crush on Esko and rejects any invitations from male harbour seals.
GunnarComment
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