Nina Frances and her cousins Jeanne and Dolly Florentin wearing traditional Greek folk costumes

This picture was taken in 1933.

We were at Lagkadas, a small village with natural hot springs located near Thessaloniki.

From left to right: my sister Nina Frances, nee Molho, our cousin Dolly and her sister Jeanne Florentin.

They are all dressed in traditional folk Greek costumes that they borrowed from the housekeeper.

We were living at Cyprus Street.This home of ours shared a common wall with the home of my grandmother’s brother, which was also a two-story house.

Inside our house on the wall, next to the escalator, we had opened a big hole in the wall, like a door, and we could come and go from our home to the home of my mother’s uncle and aunt.

The uncle was called Jacob Florentin, but we called him ‘Pasha,’ which is a Turkish word, because he was very handsome. His wife was Aunt Esterina and they had five children, two boys and three girls.

The oldest one, Sylvia got married at the age of 14 in Paris. She only died three years ago. I loved her very much.

The oldest son, Mevo, went to the army and the other son, Leon, was sent to Israel, then Palestine, when he was very young, to the first farm school, during the British Mandate, that was around 1933.

The second daughter, Jeanne, was the same age as my older sister. They were also sharing the same milk as both mothers took turns in breast feeding the two girls.

The youngest one, Dolly, was two or three years younger than me, so we were growing up all together.

Each Sunday we were playing ‘tombola.’ I still remember the pieces an when it was piece 22 my uncle would shout, ‘Ducklings, suckling,’ and when it was the 11, ‘Wood nails, wood nails.’

Wood nails were those small thin wooden nails used to repair high quality shoes.

Photos from this interviewee