The town I was born and raised in, Mukachevo, Czechoslovakia, was modern as well as quite old fashioned. There were horses and buggies bringing in wares from the neighboring farms to sell in the very large open market, which was filled with stalls and pushcarts. Cars and trucks also drove around the town. We also had telephones, although not in every house, but as I remember in all businesses. The town also had a theater.
In our backyard, we had a vegetable garden with chickens and geese running around. There were three buildings in the backyard as well. One was a place used for bottling beer, which was delivered to customers directly from there. Next to it was a very large structure, which was the icehouse. Early in the spring trucks full of large blocks of ice were brought there from the Latorca river. The ice was used for refrigeration in our house. As the icehouse emptied out, we children and our friends used the building as our playground for hide-and-go-seek. Someone I met a few years ago reminded me of those great times.
There was also a garage for the car and a stable for a horse and a cow. The cow was milked every day and we had butter and delicious buttermilk and, naturally, milk, which I hated because it was fresh and awful. We also had a septic tank in the very back, which was emptied periodically by people who specialized in that work.
My parents were quite modern and forward-looking for that time. Amazing, how old and new coexisted. ©2013, Ruth Cohen. The text, images, and audio and video clips on this website are available for limited non-commercial, educational, and personal use only, or for fair use as defined in the United States copyright laws.