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By the way, in the year 1904 my parents moved to America. One of their sons was born there, my brother Leopold. Then they returned from America because they didn't succeed in making it there. When I recall my father and what he looked like, how he dressed, I think that my father dressed normally. In an off-the-rack suit, he wore a tie and also had a black hat. Payes or even a beard, that he didn't wear, because he wasn't particularly strongly religious. As far as my mother goes, she was on the contrary, as I've already mentioned, from a very religious family. She wore a wig and otherwise went about decently dressed, mainly because my sister Ela was an excellent seamstress and knew how to find nice clothing for our mother. My older sister and her sewing talents basically saved my life. But we'll get to that later.
My father was a house painter by trade, but had very few opportunities in his field, and so even though he was a master, he usually worked as a journeyman for this one painter, Szomolanyi. Many times it happened that he didn't have enough work, and was unemployed. Our financial situation was then in a corresponding state. We belonged among the poorest of the town's inhabitants. My mother was a housewife. You know, with so many children, she didn't get out of the house much. I remember that when I came home after graduating from high school, and announced that they've got a son who's graduated with honors, my mother wanted to show off and went out on the main square. I had to take her by the arm and she walked about the square to show that she had a son who was a high school graduate. In those days that meant a lot. In those days, to be a high school graduate, that was to be a cut above. Today it's common, but back then it was a big deal.
My father was a house painter by trade, but had very few opportunities in his field, and so even though he was a master, he usually worked as a journeyman for this one painter, Szomolanyi. Many times it happened that he didn't have enough work, and was unemployed. Our financial situation was then in a corresponding state. We belonged among the poorest of the town's inhabitants. My mother was a housewife. You know, with so many children, she didn't get out of the house much. I remember that when I came home after graduating from high school, and announced that they've got a son who's graduated with honors, my mother wanted to show off and went out on the main square. I had to take her by the arm and she walked about the square to show that she had a son who was a high school graduate. In those days that meant a lot. In those days, to be a high school graduate, that was to be a cut above. Today it's common, but back then it was a big deal.
Location
Slovakia
Interview
Alexander Bachnar