Mummu's Cottage
Finnish Grandmother's Cottage.42 total reviews
Comment from Crystal Pillifant
What lovely memories, it reminded me of my childhood. You write very vivid descriptions. The ending, however, left me with many questions. Why did the many Finns not realize their dream to retire there? Since her parents built a cottage, did they retire there?
reply by the author on 15-Jan-2022
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What lovely memories, it reminded me of my childhood. You write very vivid descriptions. The ending, however, left me with many questions. Why did the many Finns not realize their dream to retire there? Since her parents built a cottage, did they retire there?
Comment Written 14-Jan-2022
reply by the author on 15-Jan-2022
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Hi Crystal thanks for your review. Most of the Finns died early especially the men. Women from that generation didn't learn to drive very often, so couldn't get there. My parents had a cottage on Lake Simcoe and did retire but it was cut short due to my Dad's ill health.
Comment from Katherine M. (k-11)
The thing that strikes me most about this story is how love and happiness flow endlessly from it. Therefore, I conclude that you had a happy childhood. I hope this was not restricted to the holidays and that it has stood you in good stead in adult life.
reply by the author on 10-Jan-2022
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The thing that strikes me most about this story is how love and happiness flow endlessly from it. Therefore, I conclude that you had a happy childhood. I hope this was not restricted to the holidays and that it has stood you in good stead in adult life.
Comment Written 08-Jan-2022
reply by the author on 10-Jan-2022
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Thanks do much for your thoughtful comments and review.
Comment from Ethan Vandervelden
Thank you for your beautiful story about your Mummu! I appreciated the reminiscence and detail. Some punctuation editing is needed, but quite minor really, mostly a few commas needed etc.
A good story and I really enjoyed it!
reply by the author on 10-Jan-2022
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Thank you for your beautiful story about your Mummu! I appreciated the reminiscence and detail. Some punctuation editing is needed, but quite minor really, mostly a few commas needed etc.
A good story and I really enjoyed it!
Comment Written 08-Jan-2022
reply by the author on 10-Jan-2022
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Thanks very much.
Comment from JessicaAshley
This was a beautiful read. It definitely took me back to the days when we would load up and go to my grandmother's. They are such special people. I have wonderful memories, and I see you do as well. Thanks for taking me back to the carefree days, friend.
reply by the author on 01-Jan-2022
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This was a beautiful read. It definitely took me back to the days when we would load up and go to my grandmother's. They are such special people. I have wonderful memories, and I see you do as well. Thanks for taking me back to the carefree days, friend.
Comment Written 31-Dec-2021
reply by the author on 01-Jan-2022
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Thanks for your review and comments much appreciated.
Comment from Dolly'sPoems
Happy memories here of your beloved Grandmama and she sounded like a wonderfully caring person. You made me smile when she was picked up for the holidays with too much stuff! I was picked up recently for the Christmas holiday with 10 bags! Ha ha ha, a wonderful recollection, a pleasure to read, love Dolly x
reply by the author on 26-Dec-2021
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Happy memories here of your beloved Grandmama and she sounded like a wonderfully caring person. You made me smile when she was picked up for the holidays with too much stuff! I was picked up recently for the Christmas holiday with 10 bags! Ha ha ha, a wonderful recollection, a pleasure to read, love Dolly x
Comment Written 26-Dec-2021
reply by the author on 26-Dec-2021
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Thanks Dolly, Your review and thoughtful comments mean a lot to me. I hope your Christmas was wonderful, Laura.
Comment from RShipp
'...knowing when we were hungry we would come home.' (Haha. My mother felt the same way.)
Wow! They sounded like great times.
I am now Googling Finnish soups.... Do you have a favorite?
reply by the author on 24-Dec-2021
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'...knowing when we were hungry we would come home.' (Haha. My mother felt the same way.)
Wow! They sounded like great times.
I am now Googling Finnish soups.... Do you have a favorite?
Comment Written 24-Dec-2021
reply by the author on 24-Dec-2021
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Thank you, Fish soup.
Comment from Allezw2
Well done, memoir author.
Those were the days, and I have the gentle folk who cared for us during those years to thank for those memories.
Mine were summer weekends when our guardians took us to their son's ranger station at the Lewis Lake in Wyoming's Washakie National Forest. We would drive up the mountain at daybreak Sturday with a huge pan of baked beans in the trunk that we could smell all the way up the mountain. They had been cooking since Thursday. Their son was a student at the University of Montana at Missoula and worked during the summer as a forest ranger. As you described, there was a pump at the well and all heating and cooking was with wood. My brother and I slept in the attic on a bedroll. The parents slept in the bedroom and Lennox, their son, took over the front room on a cot. All day we'd run through the forest, swim in the lake and fish in the streams. Mrs. Dugan rang a large bell we could hear clear across the lake when it was time to wash up for lunch or dinner. We'd leave late Sunday and watch the deer hopping across the mountain road in front of us as we descended to the town.
These summers during the war years were idyllic as I compare them to those of my later years.
Only the unfamiliar uniqueness of my time as a young man in the western Pacific had a sort of parallel. It was the pleasure found in the enchanting beaches of Australia and the Philippines.
Later I was snorkeling in Palau and at the Midway Islands Atoll.
Using SCUBA, I dived outside the barrier reef there.
Still, there was a wonder in those earlier years that could not be matched ever again.
reply by the author on 22-Dec-2021
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Well done, memoir author.
Those were the days, and I have the gentle folk who cared for us during those years to thank for those memories.
Mine were summer weekends when our guardians took us to their son's ranger station at the Lewis Lake in Wyoming's Washakie National Forest. We would drive up the mountain at daybreak Sturday with a huge pan of baked beans in the trunk that we could smell all the way up the mountain. They had been cooking since Thursday. Their son was a student at the University of Montana at Missoula and worked during the summer as a forest ranger. As you described, there was a pump at the well and all heating and cooking was with wood. My brother and I slept in the attic on a bedroll. The parents slept in the bedroom and Lennox, their son, took over the front room on a cot. All day we'd run through the forest, swim in the lake and fish in the streams. Mrs. Dugan rang a large bell we could hear clear across the lake when it was time to wash up for lunch or dinner. We'd leave late Sunday and watch the deer hopping across the mountain road in front of us as we descended to the town.
These summers during the war years were idyllic as I compare them to those of my later years.
Only the unfamiliar uniqueness of my time as a young man in the western Pacific had a sort of parallel. It was the pleasure found in the enchanting beaches of Australia and the Philippines.
Later I was snorkeling in Palau and at the Midway Islands Atoll.
Using SCUBA, I dived outside the barrier reef there.
Still, there was a wonder in those earlier years that could not be matched ever again.
Comment Written 22-Dec-2021
reply by the author on 22-Dec-2021
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Thank you for your review and interesting comments yours is a story worth writing about!
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Everybody has a story. If only more would listen. Have you seen the Rod Steiger movie, THE PAWBROKER?
In it, there is an elderly black man who regularly visits the store to pawn an article. Steiger's Holocaust Survivor character brusquely handles the tiny transaction and dismisses the customer. At the end of the movie, Steiger's character wearily asks the old man what he had this time. "Well, nothing. I just wanted to talk with you."
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Thanks for talking to me Mery Christmas Laura.
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The pleasure was mine.
Comment from Ramona Scarborough
Thank you, I so enjoyed your memories. I have similar happy memories of my childhood. The pictures also added to your story.
Some suggestions to make your excellent story even better. Perhaps arrange your 1st paragraphs in this sequence. The 1st sentence followed by: My dream brought back that feeling of joy and excitement. The school year was over. Holidays were beginning. We would spend two glorious months at the cottage.
THEN: a new paragraph. On Friday night, we were-etc.
Condense by saying: We would go places like an apple orchard, which we called "an apple fort." (Did you get a tummy ache eating green apples? I did)
Mummu worried about us,
Instead of using they, maybe say kids or children.
In those days,
Condense: The best dinners were her beef or fish soup served with-etc.
(Did your brother snatch the most pancakes or did he eat faster than everyone else?)
Is red cap a brand? If so, it needs to be capitalized.
Two separate paragraphs: the one about the raccoon and Mumma's broken arm. Then one about playing games-different subject.
Bible is always capitalized.
Twenty-years-old, songs are Italicized, close to there, cottages, and thirties,
I will look for more posts from you. Thanks again for sharing.
Instead of "that" kids who came every year.
reply by the author on 22-Dec-2021
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Thank you, I so enjoyed your memories. I have similar happy memories of my childhood. The pictures also added to your story.
Some suggestions to make your excellent story even better. Perhaps arrange your 1st paragraphs in this sequence. The 1st sentence followed by: My dream brought back that feeling of joy and excitement. The school year was over. Holidays were beginning. We would spend two glorious months at the cottage.
THEN: a new paragraph. On Friday night, we were-etc.
Condense by saying: We would go places like an apple orchard, which we called "an apple fort." (Did you get a tummy ache eating green apples? I did)
Mummu worried about us,
Instead of using they, maybe say kids or children.
In those days,
Condense: The best dinners were her beef or fish soup served with-etc.
(Did your brother snatch the most pancakes or did he eat faster than everyone else?)
Is red cap a brand? If so, it needs to be capitalized.
Two separate paragraphs: the one about the raccoon and Mumma's broken arm. Then one about playing games-different subject.
Bible is always capitalized.
Twenty-years-old, songs are Italicized, close to there, cottages, and thirties,
I will look for more posts from you. Thanks again for sharing.
Instead of "that" kids who came every year.
Comment Written 21-Dec-2021
reply by the author on 22-Dec-2021
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Thank you for your review and help. I appreciate it. Laura.
Comment from Frank Malley
This memoir has such real feeling to it that any "improvement" would seem artificial. The settings, people, and details within this recollection generate a bloom of emotions. This catalysis of feeling via memory is an almost universal human experience. Dickens might have made a book out of a reality like the one Lauralumumu captures, but even a splendid narrator would have a hard time matching the empathy and envisionments that this author creates in "Mumu's Cottage."
reply by the author on 14-Dec-2021
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This memoir has such real feeling to it that any "improvement" would seem artificial. The settings, people, and details within this recollection generate a bloom of emotions. This catalysis of feeling via memory is an almost universal human experience. Dickens might have made a book out of a reality like the one Lauralumumu captures, but even a splendid narrator would have a hard time matching the empathy and envisionments that this author creates in "Mumu's Cottage."
Comment Written 14-Dec-2021
reply by the author on 14-Dec-2021
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Thank you Frank your review and stars mean so much to me. God Bless you.
Comment from Paul McFarland
I miss those days too, Laura. My grandmother rented a cottage every summer when I was young, and we invaded it for a week or two after school got out. Later my father and grandfather built a cottage on the same pond. That was over sixty years ago. I own that cottage now, and it will be left to my son. Thanks for bringing those old memories back.
reply by the author on 14-Dec-2021
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I miss those days too, Laura. My grandmother rented a cottage every summer when I was young, and we invaded it for a week or two after school got out. Later my father and grandfather built a cottage on the same pond. That was over sixty years ago. I own that cottage now, and it will be left to my son. Thanks for bringing those old memories back.
Comment Written 13-Dec-2021
reply by the author on 14-Dec-2021
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Thanks, Paul, a different world we live in now. Your review is appreciated.
