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My husband worked as a musician in an orchestra, he was often summoned to different units for all kinds of events, but he later reached the conclusion that he couldn't support a family by playing music. So I sewed. Two, three nights in a row I'd stay up sewing. Sometimes the lights would go out [during the PRL there were often restrictions in the supply of power], so I'd sew by a kerosene lamp. Tailoring, if you want to do it properly, is a lot of effort. There was this institute in Gliwice where you could learn a trade and my husband learned two trades there: locksmithery and welding. In both of them he had excellent results. He got a job at the ironworks [the Lenin Ironworks, created in 1954, the largest industrial plant in the area of Cracow] and that's when we started to have more money. And that's when he threw all my customers out. I wasn't allowed to continue sewing. 'If I come home and these hags are here, I don't know what I'll do.' But there were always two or three, waiting for measurements. But I was well prepared for this job, my customers were always satisfied and the clothes were always very carefully finished, even embroidered.
Period
Location
Poland
Interview
Salomea Gemrot