Studying at HTOL 1968-71
The academic year consisted of four months in the autumn and spring. I was again one of the youngest in my class. There were 30 of us students, and I think 3 of us were born in 1949. Most students were already 5 to 10 years older than me, with a long experience in practical work. Being away from the school world caused them some problems in theory and it quite hard for them to adjust to studying.
Instead, I had a great memory of theory because I came straight from a 4-year machine vocational school to HTOL. I also had the practice in my hands because I had worked in the factory for a variety of jobs. I had worked with many types of lathes, used a milling machine, and grinded motor shafts and fastening bolts with a rotary grinder.
I had also drilled, welded and done a lot of many kind of metal works. I made a professional sample with level lathe: Turning of commutator lamellae. It was a groove shape turning. I rent an apartment from a female police officer. It was located on Tarkk'ampujankatu in Helsinki.
I lived in her living room and she herself lived in a large kitchen. I got into the study rhythm well and quickly mastered the different subjects in the course. The first year went by quickly. In the summer I worked for 3 months out of 4 at Oy Strömberg Ab machining many kind of motor parts with a lathe. Also with a turret lathes.
I had a small accident. As a result, a lot of water was formed under the left patella. It means: too much water in my knee joint. Therefore, I received 1 month paid sick leave. During that time I was paid more salary due to taxation than if I had been at work. Only 10 % tax was withheld during sickness instead of 25 %. That summer I read Leon Uris's 600-page Exodus, in 3 days, sitting comfortably in my parents' garden swing, Siuntio.
Then was a sunny and warm summer. My foot was supported with a spatula and I was advised to take a taxi from Meilahti Hospital to Siuntio, as my insurance covered the trip. The distance was about 40 km (24 mi).
Many in my home village watched in astonishment when I was brought by a gorgeous taxi (Ford Impala Model 1967) in my home yard in Siuntio, from Meilahti, Helsinki. I had to visit the hospital twice. Much of water was sucked up out of from my left patella, with a long and thick vaccination needle During both visits to the doctor. First 2 dl and then 1 dl. It didn't hurt.
That summer, during the remainder of my sick leave, my mother and my little brother Klaus came from Sweden for a surprise visit me to Siuntio and we visited my mother's relatives, two Rentola brothers with their families, in Helsinki. Klaus was driving a big Opel Admiral, so we fit in well with Lars in the back seat.
My foot spatula had already been removed. It was great seeing my mother and little brother after almost 10 years and my mother's relatives for the first time!
I had agreed with my two classmate at HTOL that I'll look for a shared flat in Helsinki by a newspaper ad, for us three. I got only one answer to that. It was suitable for us.
So I rented a living room of about 50 m2 from the large apartment of a colonel's widow at Ullanlinnankatu a room for three of us. It was located close to the then Soviet Embassy in Commerce. I got really smart buddies, Jyrki Koskinen and Reino Latvala. Because we were studying in the same class, we were able to help each other in many ways.
The landlord tried to raise the rent illegally
I remember two special cases from that time. Colonel's widow took quite a fair rent from us, FIM 150 each. It was a lot even though our room was well furnished. She also increased the rent by 2 months before the end of the spring semester. Jyrki was cunning about this too. He knew that the law on rent regulation was in force at the time, so the increase was illegal.
However, we paid the rent for March as it was unlawfully raised. But we only paid part of the April rent. That is, both increases were deducted from the rent. The widow threatened us with legal action and contacted a lawyer who advised her to surrender the case.
Everst's widow also did the following: Although the toilet papers were included in the rent, she sometimes left us without toilet paper. So stubborn and greedy when she was.
Reino made fun of it. When a high-ranking visitors came meet the widow and she again has forgot to put a roll of toilet paper in the toilet, Reino placed a small roll of thin and narrow cigarette paper in the paper rack.
It was the same toilet where the widow's guests also used. The guests were amazed! The widow came to us as embarrassed ja angry asking what a joke that was(?) Otherwise the year passed quite nicely. That summer I got a good training place at the Strömberg drawing department, at department for asynchronous machines.
I got very good documents for free
That made my studies a lot easier and they were also related to my future profession. At that department had a familiar friend who had taken the same HTOL Machine Engineering III course that I was studying. At the time he had already graduated as a technician. I use of him the alias Keijo Taskinen and later you will find out the reason for it.
He had done his studies in HTOL commendably and received grade of 9,25 or better in all lab reports on mechanical engineering and physics and electrical. The best grade at that time was 10. He gave them to me for free. If he had sold them, he would have received FIM 3,000. So valuable they were!
They made my study a lot easier as I copied all the content from the documents and only changed date and my name to the end. This kind of dishonesty was quite common in HTOL, because "crazy does a lot of work, the wise gets less." Later, I realized I had done the wrong thing. I did sin many times!
Then I could spent my time studying other theoretical subjects when I didn't have to write them, often 10-page lab reports that were of no use for the future. It was widely known at the school. That was one of the reasons I finally got a very good emissions certificate for year 3.
I also arranged a new rental apartment for me and my two friends for the third year too. It was really good and inexpensive. It was located in the embassyes area on Pietarinkatu 5, in Helsinki. The woman was also a widow, named Meri Streng. Her heart was gold! She was a true believer and civilized, who held Christian home meetings in Swedish.
We youngsters didn't know Swedish, so she didn't invite us to attend those home meetings. That year we lived in her big 3-room furnished room and paid rent only FIM 80 per month per person. Meri's daughter cleaned our room and bathroom for the same price once a week!
My warm thanks go to Adonai Yeshua, because of the both wonderful women!
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