I discovered the sauna when I was sent by the French Navy to Halifax, Nova Scotia, as a NATO exchange officer, in 1979
The year I was born! You were talking about being a boomer the other day - I am the last of Gen-X.
That is a great story. I think a lot of friendships are made in saunas here. Not as much now, but it also used to be the place where a lot of business was done - Sauna and vodka. Supposedly, a lot of the negotiations between Finland and the USSR happened in saunas too.
The other guy looked at him with a strange look!
:)
In some countries, the sauna is seen as some kind of sexual thing, but it is nothing of the sort here! Families go together.