Mochiu Rotaru as a soldier

My father, Mochiu Rotaru, in 1934, while doing his military service - he was private first class in the gendarmerie.

My father's name was Mochiu Rotaru, but they called him Marcu in the family. He was born in Saveni on 7th September 1910. My father finished elementary school. That's about all the education a child coming from a poor family could get in those days. Thus, my father finished the four elementary grades. Then he worked with my grandfather - his father - in his workshop, as a blacksmith. Afterwards, he started an apprenticeship in a shop. There was a manufacture shop right there, in Saveni - a manufacture in those days was a shop where they sold fabrics, cloth, accessories for clothes, for tailoring. Well, he worked there for several years. In the beginning, he was basically the owner's servant for the first two or three years; he took care of the owner's children - he took them to and from school - he did the shopping for the shop owner's wife. I'll admit, employers in these small towns were not great businessmen or what not, but compared to the rest of the people they were wealthy.

He worked there for a while, and in the meantime he also did his military service. When he was in the army - around 1934 - he was a private first class in the gendarmerie. He was drafted, he served his due time, I don't know exactly where, but in any case it was somewhere in Oltenia. Back then the military service lasted - I couldn't tell you for sure - about two or three years.