JOURNAL OF INNISH TUDIES F S Bittersweet: Everyday Life and Nostalgia for the 1950s Guest Editors Eerika Koskinen-Koivisto and Hanna Snellman Theme Issue of the Journal of Finnish Studies Volume 19 Number 2 July 2016 ISSN 1206-6516 ISBN 978-1-937875-93-0 JOURNAL OF FINNISH STUDIES EDITORIAL AND BUSINESS OFFICE Journal of Finnish Studies, Department of English, 1901 University Avenue, Evans 458 (P.O. Box 2146), Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX 77341-2146, USA Tel. 1.936.294.1420; Fax 1.936.294.1408 SUBSCRIPTIONS, ADVERTISING, AND INQUIRIES Contact Business Office (see above & below). EDITORIAL STAFF Helena Halmari, Editor-in-Chief, Sam Houston State University; [email protected] Hanna Snellman, Co-Editor, University of Helsinki; [email protected] Scott Kaukonen, Assoc. Editor, Sam Houston State University; [email protected] Hilary Joy Virtanen, Asst. 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For a cumulative bibliography of articles published in the Journal of Finnish Studies, see http://www.shsu.edu/~eng_www/finnishstudies/JoFS_Articles.html. Back issues are available directly from the editor at [email protected]. Cover: The old crest of Kemijärvi kauppala (incorporated town), designed by Ahti Hammar. This crest was in use between the years 1960 and 1972. Heraldic descrip- tion: on red field two winged silver heads of pike pole in saltire (https://commons. wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kemij%C3%A4rvi.vaakuna.1960.svg). For further infor- mation, see also https://helda.helsinki.fi/bitstream/handle/10224/4803/kemijar- ven_vaakuna.pdf?sequence=3 Cover design: Scott Kaukonen TABLE OF CONTENTS Eerika Koskinen-Koivisto and Hanna Snellman: Bittersweet: Everyday Life and Nostalgia of the 1950s 1 Eerika Koskinen-Koivisto: Negotiating the Past at the Kitchen Table: Nostalgia as a Narrative Strategy in an Intergenerational Context 7 Arja Turunen: “It Wasn’t Common for Women to Wear Trousers”: Memories of Women’s Dress in the 1950s 24 Lena Marander-Eklund: The Narrative of the Happy and Professional Housewife? Images and Practices Related to Housewives in Finland in the 1950s 49 Kirsi-Maria Hytönen: Heavy Sacks, Cold Stores, and Black Marketing: Reminiscences of Female Retail Store Workers during World War II in Finland 73 Simo Laakkonen and Timo Vuorisalo: Environmental Nostalgia and Discussions of the State of the Finnish Environment in the 1950s 96 Laura Hirvi: About Islands and Oranges: Nostalgia at Play in the Work of Juhani Seppovaara 115 Tytti Steel: Port of Emotions: Nostalgia in Harbor-Side Reminiscences 132 Hanna Snellman: An Ethnography of Nostalgia: Nordic Museum Curators Interviewing Finnish Immigrants in Sweden 158 Book Review Tuomas Tepora, and Aapo Roselius, editors. The Finnish Civil War 1918: History, Memory, Legacy. Reviewed by Paul Lubotina. 178 Contributors 184 BITTERSWEET: EVERYDAY LIFE AND NOSTALGIA FOR THE 1950S Eerika Koskinen-Koivisto, University of Helsinki Hanna Snellman, University of Helsinki The 1950s have been represented as a happy decade when life was simple and pleas- ant, as an era of happy families and an increasing concern with the welfare of the family. The Finnish ethnologists, folklorists, and historians who were involved in the research project Happy Days? Everyday Life and Nostalgia of the Extended 1950s, funded by the Academy of Finland (decision number 137923), examined reminiscences and representations of the 1950s. The aim of the project was to de- construct nostalgic popular images and thereby to paint a more complex picture of the decade. This project covers a variety of topics that reflect people’s experiences and explores some of the ideas that dominate the current understanding of this period of time. Instead of the visible representations of nostalgia as, for instance, in popular culture, the focus is on the less obvious side, the everyday life of Finnish people: work and the domestic sphere, the consumption of material goods, and various activities in the surrounding environments. These realms include the rural and the urban, the private and the public, and the material as well as the immaterial. The project members contributing to this volume present some of the core results of their research, starting on the individual level, and moving to everyday practices such as dressing and culinary activities, work and working environments, nature and memories of urban life, and finally to the institutional perspective of museum professionals interested in daily life. The 1950s is an interesting yet complex period. In Finland, it is characterized as a time of rebuilding. The rationing that was introduced during World War II ended in 1956, for example. War indemnities had to be paid to the USSR, and this accelerated Finnish industrialization. When the war ended, hundreds of thousands of veterans and war evacuees had to be resettled, and as a result, many small farms were established in rural areas and new homes were built in the cities. This legacy 1 Journal of Finnish Studies of World War II plays a crucial role in the reminiscences and representations of the 1950s. However, the postwar decade was future-oriented and optimistic. Several macro-level developments in Finland directly affected the daily lives of Finnish peo- ple. Many of these, although materializing in the 1950s or even the 1960s, were al- ready underway before World War II but were delayed by it. We, therefore, decided in our research project to refer to this period from the end of World War II up until the 1970s as the extended 1950s. The concept challenges former periodizations that positioned the 1950s in the shadow of the dramatic 1940s and the radical 1960s. Our research project represents a model of fruitful cross-institutional cooperation between universities and museums. Scholarly co-operation in this form thrives in many countries, such as Sweden, Denmark, and Hungary, and rich, joint research projects are carried out successfully. This was also the case with European ethnol- ogy in Finland in the early days of the discipline, but collaboration weakened when an anthropological turn was taken in the 1970s. Throughout our project, scholars and museum professionals met at various workshops to facilitate interdisciplinary research. The collaborative partners included the Finnish Labour Museum Werstas, the Finnish Museum of Agriculture Sarka, and the Finnish Forest Museum Lusto. This collaboration culminated in the exhibition Fields, Forests, Factories that opened in September 2013 in Werstas, Tampere. The members of the project were all in- volved in planning the exhibition from the very beginning. In addition, interna- tional scholars working in museums and university departments of ethnology were invited to join the advisory board that gathered once a year to comment on how the project was proceeding. At this point, we would like to thank them very much for the insights they provided and their commitment to collaboration with us for four years: Curator Dr. Zoltan Fejös from the Museum of Ethnography in Hungary, Vice Director Dr. Ruth Olson from the Center for Studies of Upper-Midwestern Cultures at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Intendent Dr. Eva Silvén from the Nordic Museum (Nordiska museet), and Curator/Senior Researcher Dr. Mikkel Venborg Pedersen from the Royal Museum of Denmark. BITTERSWEET NOSTALGIA In addition to examining daily life in and reminiscences about the 1950s, the arti- cles in this volume also focus on nostalgia. Scholars in the field of cultural studies have criticized the use of nostalgia as an easy way out (e.g., Stewart 1988; Tannock 1995). According to folklorist Seppo Knuuttila (2007, 9), nostalgia