As I promised in my previous blogpost, I will now tell you about my lovely meeting with Pertti (Bert) Salonen. Bert lives in La Jolla, in White Sands with his friendly English wife, Amelia Jacobs. He contacted me via email, when he found out that I’m from the same little town in Finland as he is.
Our hometown Nurmes was almost only countryside when Bert moved from there to our capital Helsinki in 1947. Bert studied first natural sciences and then changed to another college to study finance. He found that way more interesting and graduated in mid-1950s.
His first visit to San Diego was back in 1953 when he had a student trip to the city. He could have stayed in the city because a wealthy local businessman wanted to hire him and pay his emigration to United States. However, Bert wanted to finish his studies in Finland and went back home.
He got married to Marjatta Vuolle in Finland and had a daughter, Riitta. In 1958, he found out about a work opportunity in San Diego and took his family to the West Coast.
“I instantly felt like home, but it took five years for my wife to call this place home,” he remembers.
Bert worked 38 years in different banks on the West Coast as a head of an international department and enjoyed his job a lot.
“I was first an intern and when they listened to my accent they wanted me to work in an international department,” Bert jokes.
Sadly, his wife Marjatta passed away in the beginning of 2000s. After being single for five years, Bert got to know Amelia and little later they got married. They both are enjoying their time in White Sands and are actively involved in sports and going to culture events.
“We have a lot of great neighbors. People here are friendly and helpful and that’s why it has been easy to blend in,” Bert notes. (I’m Hanna Laukkanen, a 26-year-old journalist, who moved from Finland to San Diego for an internship in San Diego Community Newspaper Group. In this blog I will compare Finnish and American lifestyles and try to find out a lot more about the Californian way of living. Please send me feedback at toimittajalaukkanen@gmail.com.)