Life in the country are filled with lots of work and adventure when you are a child. My little brother and I were always encouraged to help around the garden and we often got into trouble for our mischievous activities. Life was good in those days. Our father spent time amongst the family orchard. He was the original “green” farmer, carefully gathering the pests from the fruit trees, depositing them into buckets to be destroyed. Our mother had a vegetable garden she attended to quite happily since she loved her garden and spent her time tending the garden or she was in the kitchen baking bread and other foods to supply to our family. I truly believe that all this fresh food and air of my early life was the reason why I was able to survive the Second World War and lived such a long life in good health.
As children we were often had so much fun along with the regular chores to help the family. We would run and chase each other, jump over the short wooden fences and climb trees. I loved children and I would often read to the village children on the front porch of our house. I wanted to be a school teacher someday.
My little brother and I were as most children. We sometimes got into trouble with our parents. I remember one time when he and I were rough housing in the house and as punishment our mother sent us to the garden to pull weeds. Despite the punishment, we continued our naughtiness and proceeded to throw tomatoes at each other. Our parents never noticed until the next year when our mother said “I don’t know why but we have tomatoes growing all over the garden”. My brother and I just looked at each other. She didn’t mention it again and didn’t know for years what happened. When I did tell her she just laughed. It was rather funny in retrospect. I loved my mother so much and I miss her every day. It is such a joy to think back to those days with smiles and small tears. Life didn’t stay so idyllic considering this was the 1920-30s in what is now Poland. Those days were cut short.
