It was in the hot and sultry summer of 1968 on the shores of Shuswap Lake that we were running for our lives. My brother had picked up a big stick down the creek where we were fishing for brook trout, and we came upon a monster-size beehive. He poked it, and the bee swarm was about to teach us a lesson. Of course, you know my grandpa sat us down and laid out what we could have done better: Was it right to disturb those bees? Should we have just kept fishing, instead? We listened.
My grandparents had packed the car and me and my three siblings, and we left to spend a week at the cabins on Shuswap Lake in Salmon Arm, British Columbia, in Canada. The drive was long, and if you asked how much farther, the answer was always 105 miles. This is the town where my father was born.
Axel, my grandpa, was born in Carbonado, Washington. His family had immigrated from Kauhava, Finland. Axel was the older of two boys. They moved to Salmon Arm, British Columbia, when he was a young child. As a boy, he worked on the farm, fished when he could, and before he was finished with high school was working at the paper mill as a lumber carrier.
He met Lila, my grandma, in the early 1930s, and the two made plans to marry on Valentine’s Day, 1934, traveling to town in a horse-drawn buggy. But it was too snowy, and they had to turn back. They went the following day, February 15, and got married. Axel was 5 feet 11 inches, dark complected, had perfect posture, strong tanned arms and pretty green eyes. Lila was 5 feet 2 inches, with blue eyes and a fair complexion, and her breath always smelled of peppermint.
They had one child, my father, and when he was 2 years of age, they left Canada and made their new home in Hoquiam, Washington. They enjoyed the ocean beaches, fishing, crabbing, and clamming. Again, Axel worked at a paper mill. After my Dad graduated high school in 1954, they left and settled in Everett, Washington, where they had family. Axel and his brother Sol both hired on at Everett Pulp and Paper Company until their retirements. They were now near their Finnish relatives.
Axel was patient, proud of us all, and it showed. One summer, I think I was 12, I asked him to let me mow the backyard with his new self-propelled lawn mower. I was hooked! He also took me fishing one very early morning, and I baited my hook, caught a fish, and gutted and cleaned it right on the boat! I loved spending time with him.
Axel was a hard worker, kind, patient and a giving man. He would catch a big fish, then clean and gut it and slide it right into the old refrigerator on the back step that he had turned into a smoker and smoke that fish or three to perfection! He would then offer a nice big chunk of it to anyone who asked. He kept friends for life, especially his fishing friends. I can almost see their faces but can’t recall their names anymore. They were good men.
Another memory was when the Finnish smorgasbord came to town. I think they bought tickets for it. So we drove downtown, and once inside the place and in line I spied a whole fish, eyes intact in gelatin. More fish, salt fish, herring, lots of breads, desserts, and even though I passed on the fish that stared at me, we were full and glad we went.
My grandma, Lila, would sew all three of us girls our Easter dresses. One Easter, they were gingham, so very sweet, and mine was pink. Later in years, one Christmas she sewed a beautiful blue-lined dress coat for our little daughter.
Sophie was Axel and Sol’s mother and my great-grandmother. She didn’t speak a lot of English but lived across the street from my grandparents; Uncle Sol lived with her. I loved going to visit and sit around the kitchen table and listen to them speak in Finnish. She would serve us kids tea and angel food cake.
There were lessons learned at that table.
Once I married, Axel took a special liking to my husband. We would visit, and many nights the two of them would play cribbage. We all enjoyed each other’s company and my grandma’s Finnish baked goods. Royal romance bars were often on the table, a Finnish recipe I make to this day.
As the years went by, Axel grew tired, and I knew the cherished times we visited were coming to a close. Our two kids loved them very much, as we did, and I believe today that Axel made a deep impression that shows through many of us. His answers were “yes” or “no,” not “maybe,” and you could count on it. I’m pretty sure that’s how I parented, too, because it is the Finnish way! Our daughter has three sons and a daughter. Her second son is named Axel, and do you know, there is an uncanny likeness to Grandpa Axel in his looks and mannerisms, his posture, haircut, and he is sometimes referred to as the family spokesman. No kidding.
Axel passed in July of 1992, Lila in 1997.
There were many trips up to the lake. The sweet smell of summer couldn’t keep us away, but none of them compared to that summer of 1968 with our grandparents, Axel and Lila.
