Travelogues

I grew up in Southeastern Wisconsin – where my father was a family practitioner. His one man practice was on the second floor above the Canteen Pharmacy which was owned by two brothers. One of whom was our next door neighbor growing up (the other lived a few houses down the street). The other occupant of the second floor above the pharmacy was an older dentist who also ran a one person practice.

One of the family events that we often went to especially during winter months in Wisconsin were travelogues. These were often shown in one of the auditoriums of a middle school and it was not unusual to have a few hundred people attend the showings. In some rare cases the travelogue was presented by a professional videographer – while in other cases it was a local resident that visited another place and used their 8 mm or 16 mm movie camera to capture the local sights. The professional travelogues often included narration and captured local music and other sounds from the locale of interest. These were usually edited to be one hour or so in length. Often times the home-made films were shorter (30 minutes or less) and they usually lacked audio so the individual presenting the travelogues would narrate the movie. These were often paired together for an afternoon showing. A neighboring Wisconsin city’s public museum maintained an annual travelogue series for 80 years – it finally ended just a few years ago (2019). Travelogues often visited US National Parks, places in Europe, and other places that seemed quite exotic to a child growing up in the midwest. My dad took these to heart and often shot mini-travelogues of family vacations. He’d become frustrated if we kids decided to become part of the action!

Why do I mention this experience? Like the travelogues, the next few blog entries are my reflections on the last few days spent in Finland and Estonia.