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At that time you could buy in our shop, for example, carob-bean. Children loved it. I saw carob trees in Israel. Of course I didn't see carob-bean on it, which was elongated, and it was hard inside, but if you bit into it, it was like honey inside, it was this mass, and a little seed. Where this came from, I don't know that, but it came in sacks. [Editor's note: The pod of the evergreen carob tree (Ceratonia), which grows wild in the eastern part of the Mediterranean sea-cost, contains much sugar; both humans and animals consume it. Before WWII poor children ate it as sweets.]
Back then coffee was transported in the same manner, in burlap sacks. [Editor's note: The burlap sack is made of jute fibers, a plant growing in Asia]. I can't recall anymore from where my father got his merchandise. The shop had a part which was the grocery, and then there was the textile section, where one could buy drapery. The shop was spacious. We had all kind of groceries.
In the shop the shelves had little compartments, and in these compartments were, for example, nuts, figs, in another coffee and so on. The coffee wasn't really selling, because there wasn't a market for it. I think it was only us in the village who drank coffee; Mother was roasting the coffee, and it had such a nice smell. But I never drank coffee, I didn't drink it until my adulthood. Mother learned this at home, she was accustomed to it, but it wasn't customary on my grandfather's side to drink coffee. Mother was from the Regat [Romanian Old Kingdom]; she was the only one to drink coffee in our family.
Back then coffee was transported in the same manner, in burlap sacks. [Editor's note: The burlap sack is made of jute fibers, a plant growing in Asia]. I can't recall anymore from where my father got his merchandise. The shop had a part which was the grocery, and then there was the textile section, where one could buy drapery. The shop was spacious. We had all kind of groceries.
In the shop the shelves had little compartments, and in these compartments were, for example, nuts, figs, in another coffee and so on. The coffee wasn't really selling, because there wasn't a market for it. I think it was only us in the village who drank coffee; Mother was roasting the coffee, and it had such a nice smell. But I never drank coffee, I didn't drink it until my adulthood. Mother learned this at home, she was accustomed to it, but it wasn't customary on my grandfather's side to drink coffee. Mother was from the Regat [Romanian Old Kingdom]; she was the only one to drink coffee in our family.
Period
Location
Gyergyeoszarhegy
Romania
Interview
Magda Fazekas