[Cz-L] The Katzepulka

The Katzepulka.

You don’t know what is a Katzepulka ?

 So you haven't grown up in Czernowitz otherwise you would know.

  It is what we called a slingshot in old Czernowitz.

   Where did the word come from ?

   We never knew or asked .

   Probably a Turkish word or maybe Cossack, who knows .

 Anyway any respectable "chloptchyk"( that is boy ) in Czernowitz owned one.

  All you needed was a bifurcated tree branch of the right size and a

  band of rubber of good quality . Bound together with a leather cradle for

  the projectile and here you were.

      Ammunition was small stones found everywhere.

   The best stones though were pebbles from the Prut riverbed.

    We used to go to the KleinerPrut (Little Prut ) past the cemetery in
Horecea ,

     This was a wild reach of the river we preferred to the bridge beaches.

    We collected pebbles , put them into our pockets , making the

    trousers so heavy they would almost fall down.

    Thus , full of ammunition we returned home .

      At what did we shoot ? At everything that moved : Cats , dogs, birds,
girls,

    mice, neighbors , lizards but mostly at boys of other gangs .

       A gang was a Bande

            You could also call a Katzepulka –Rugatka.

        This was in Ukrainean.

       In German – Schleuder - a term we never used.

Once we were ambushed by the Ukrainean Byelohuz Bande with the

 sharpshooter Igor who had only one eye.

    The battle took place on the Turkengasse stairs.

    The outcome of this battle ?

       This is a different story…

  Hardy
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Received on 2009-12-07 04:13:18