[original page 24]
Vetchary
The basic ingredient required was beef bone, with or without much meat. Amounts of available items to be used were at the discretion of the cook. Measuring cups were unheard of. Cooked in a good-sized cast-iron pot on a wood-burning stove (made of fieldstone and cement) for eight hours or more, to be eaten late in the day, accompanied by hunger, [it tasted] very good. I had it for almost nine years, five days a week-hot or cold-and liked it. Also consumed were large quantities of homemade black bread.
A Sabbath Food
But we did look forward to the Sabbath, when the everyday meal changed to a different cuisine, limited only by what one could afford. A fat-saturated dessert everyone could afford was a Tzimis [typically, a mixture of dried fruits, such as prunes and apricots, and not “fat-saturated”].
The Blacksmith
The village blacksmith may not have been a learned man. He sat at the rear of the synagogue with most of us during services. However, he surely was an important and useful person when it came to repairing metal household items, at times for no charge. He also kept our only means of transportation (a horse and wagon) rolling. He was a kind man, made the youths welcome when they visited his shop to admire his strength, and smiled behind his soot-covered face. Despite the fire hazard from the blacksmith's wood-burning open fire and the red hot sparks of steel, the flimsy wooden house and shop were still there when we departed the village in November of 1906 ....
The Peasants
Our business was almost entirely dependent upon the trade with the peasants who worked the huge parcels of land around our village that were owned by the nobility. In general, the peasants were simple-minded people, not hard to get along with. But when prompted and incited by the Russian authorities -- and given the opportunity -- they could become very vicious and resort to jubilant plunder, destruction of property, and doing great bodily harm in any Jewish village or city.
The Local Aristocracy and the Local Doctor
On the other side of the river, which ran through our village, was the palatial estate of a family of the nobility, who owned all those huge farmlands that constituted their large estate. Their residence had every appearance of the palace built by Louis XIV in Versailles, France... They were very influential with the Russian authorities. They were also friendly with a Jewish doctor from Brest-Litovsk, a large city about seventy-five miles away. They would call that doctor to the estate to treat anyone of importance who had a health problem.
We in the village learned about [the doctor] when he walked into the village from the estate on a Friday afternoon to attend evening Sabbath services.
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