[Cz-L] typical czernowitz

I think, that since i've been in touch with all of you, many childhood
memories, kept somewhere in the back of my mind, are being revived.
This is my Summer break story, aritual which was anually repeated from the
early 30s till 1935 or 36.
Part 1. School is over and our trip to Eisenau has been planned for some
months before. The planning consisted in mother having "special" dresses
made of cotton which could be washed and worn and suitable hairbands made
for each dress as vacation meant vacaton from dressing and hairdressing. A
few days after school vacation had started the flat in which we lived went
through an utter revolution. All carpets were first beaten with the
"trapatschka", then Naphtalin strewn all over and rolled up and stashed in a
corner of one room (I suppose my mother expected a moths invasion as soon as
she left home). All furniture covered in white sheets standing like ghosts
in their places then only started packing enormous heavy leather suitcases
for the exodus from home was for 2 full months!!! (Father, who because of
business had to stay behind, had to live in all that till he joined us).
Stage 2. the night before the departure father ordered the "Fiacker" for
06.00 the next morning and, to make sure that he'll come, took money from
him!!! and never were we left without transport from home to the "Bahnhof".
The train laft at 08.00 but we had to be there early so as to occupy and
lock both doors of a compartment so that no one else could enter "our
sanctum" and our family could have it all to ourselves.Every few minutes
another member arrived and we settled for our 5 hour journey. All the ladies
wore white gloves, as we had steam engines and coal dust flying through the
open window, hands had to remain clean as all food was served within the
compartment and we children always asked for something to eat out of
boredom, I guess.
Now, the train stopped in Eisenau for exactly five minutes so, as soon as we
passed the station before, the commotion started. The ritual was, all
suitcases came off the rack and were stacked nearest the door and as soon as
we entered the station first all children jumped off followed by an
avalanche of suitcases and the last mother jumped off just as the train
started moving.
Stage 3. On the station there was always the same man rough hands one leg
shorter than the other, a horse and cart.
He couldn't greet us until the train left because he was the station master
with his red flag, he received the mail for he was the postman, and then he
started loading his cart according to the adresses for he was porter as well
as transporter. We were walking behind the cart everyone was brought to
his/her room which has previously been rented in a farmhouse.
Eisenau was a Zipper village, our maids came from such villages too, they
spoke Zipperisch which was a kind of German, spotlessly clean everywhere.
The rooms were whitewashed an oil lamp with "Fliegenpapier" hanging from it,
a washstand where warm water could be filled into the jug on demand, which
means you went to the kitchen and fetched it,
toilette in the garden, I spare you the details, 2 cows in a shed and THE
SMELL
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Received on 2008-07-13 16:13:26