Family and friends at the beach


This photograph was taken in Altinkum,  how old am I here?  It is around 1925-1926.  From the left, my father, my mother, an acquaintance of my father, I do not know who, these are the Frunkins, my father’s friends.  I am the child in front on the very right, the others are the son of the Frunkins and my older sister.
I do not know the name of the son of Frunkins.  I think he lives in Switzerland now. 
What I remember about those days is that we were very close.  We saw a lot of each other with the Frunkins.  My parents were friends, they were very close.  My father was a serious and hardworking person and a very, very good father.  He was especially very fond of his children. He was excessively fond of them. We, 5 kids, went to school at the same time. All the children attended school.  At the Saint-George school, and there was a Goldschmith school at the time. He educated all of us. He was so fond of us that, in summer we would go to the sea as a family. He would go into the sea, he would only allow us to go in until the water reached our knees, he would not allow us to go deeper, he was scared that we could drown. None of us learned how to swim because of this.  He did not allow us to eat green plums. If we drank water following that, we could get sick.
And that day, were we there to swim, we did swim, but my father did not allow us to go far.  He was very particular about his children, my father.  For example he did not allow us to eat green plums. If we drank water following that, we could get sick.

Again when I was little, we would go to the movies on Sundays.  My father, mother, sister and I would go.  The other siblings were all much older than us.  They would go out with their friends, they were grown up.  There was Modern movie theater in Tepeba??.  There was a variety show before the movie here.  Singers would perform, there would be theatrical plays, there would be songs, short parodies.  Then the movies would start.  There would be movies like dramas, comedies, adventure movies and so on.  I have not retained any of the movies I watched in my mind.  There was Cumhuriyet casino in Tepebasi on Friday nights.  There were big stars, Turkish style and European style there.  I remember that cover charge was 11 pennies then.  Money was valuable then.  When the famous stars appeared, the red carpet would be rolled out on the floor.   I do not remember the names of the stars of the time now.
When we grew up a bit more we started going to the movies with friends. For example there was first class in the movie theaters in Beyo?lu, this was 35 pennies.  We would go to the movie theater, then we would go the milk-pudding store, or there were bakeries, we would go there.  We could not spend one lira.  Sundays were spent like this.