Read Online Tailor of Inverness, The by Matthew Zajac - Free Book Online
Authors: Matthew Zajac
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heads of cattle, four working horses and two riding horses you see. A mass of geese and ducks. I don’t know how many… geese chasing me many a times because geese quite vicious sometimes, oh chase you! Many times I been bitten by the geese…the hens… about a hundred anyway…and land, it was about two hundred and fifty hectares. And, well, we children, it was nothing like a modern music nowadays, cinema or any thing like that, we have to make our own entertainment.
Used to make swings from the trees, from the rafters in the barns and ting like that. And make our own toys, like a man jumping up and down when you press the wee ladder on the bottom you know. I still know how to make it. Even playing cards we made from a piece of cardboard. One time, Kazik – Kazik was a bit older and he decided to make a set of dominoes and he cut the bits of wood and now to get the eyes
on, so we burned the eyes on with a piece of wire, heat it in the stove and burn the eyes on. Took about a week but we have a set of dominoes!
Father always got a weekly gazette, the Citizen, Obywatel and sometime he bought magazine and that was where we got to know the various way of playing cards or the dominoes and ting like that.
Marvellous summers we had, it was always very hot. We grow tomatoes outside and all sorts of vegetable that doesn’t grow here in Inverness grow there. Grow prolific. Nobody looked after them. Father used to plant them and they just grow and a mass of tomatoes without any care because the ground was very fertile you see, not need much manuring because the black earth you see?
There was a burn running through the village and in the middle of it, there was a mill. The wheat and barley was all ground on a great big stone driven from the water wheel, and we used to watch how it was, slowly, slowly and grind and grind. Sometime a hundred kilogram sack of wheat took a day to grind! Ground non-stop all the time you see?
Reasonably good life we had, you know. We never went hungry in those days. To sell our produce father had to travel quite a few kilometres to different towns to see where the price is better. We were self-sufficient, so we didn’t need to go to town to buy this, buy another. We didn’t need to do that, were self-sufficient completely.
We ate all sorts of things. There was some meat. We used to kill a pig or a bullock you know, it was salted and cured and all that. I was involved in the curing yes, but the killing no, father used to done that with some friends and made the sausages from the pork and things like that. But mainly it was vegetables and floury ting like noodles, like macaroni. Mother made herself of course. And potatoes, turnip, beetroot, cabbage. Was barrels of cabbage, pickled cabbage.
Polenta was often cooked, you know, the cornflour. And it was very tasty, mother used to make it with cream and sometime even with the fried bacon. We drank milk, the children and the adults. But sometime father made beer. He tried to make vodka once, but didn’t come out right, and he abandoned the idea ‘cos they weren’t drinkers. He says I’d rather buy a bottle. Juices, from a brambles, blackcurrant, redcurrant and cherry. Into the jars with sugar and just left there to ferment in big containers, about 25 litres. Sugar was expensive, comparison with other tings. The juice was quite strong. One time when I was wee I took a cup and I slept for about two days yes, I did. I didn’t realise it was so strong. Mother and father, they give me a row like anything. If you misbehaving you got a belting and that was that. Here! Lie down! One time, how was it…och we nearly set the house on fire.
During the First World War, there was a front in our area, you see? And each time you dug anywhere you always found a bullet or a grenade or an artillery cartridge. And they were still perfectly sound. So one time, me and my brothers dismantled them. We had quite a heap of gunpowder and started hammerin’ with a hammer
Used to make swings from the trees, from the rafters in the barns and ting like that. And make our own toys, like a man jumping up and down when you press the wee ladder on the bottom you know. I still know how to make it. Even playing cards we made from a piece of cardboard. One time, Kazik – Kazik was a bit older and he decided to make a set of dominoes and he cut the bits of wood and now to get the eyes
on, so we burned the eyes on with a piece of wire, heat it in the stove and burn the eyes on. Took about a week but we have a set of dominoes!
Father always got a weekly gazette, the Citizen, Obywatel and sometime he bought magazine and that was where we got to know the various way of playing cards or the dominoes and ting like that.
Marvellous summers we had, it was always very hot. We grow tomatoes outside and all sorts of vegetable that doesn’t grow here in Inverness grow there. Grow prolific. Nobody looked after them. Father used to plant them and they just grow and a mass of tomatoes without any care because the ground was very fertile you see, not need much manuring because the black earth you see?
There was a burn running through the village and in the middle of it, there was a mill. The wheat and barley was all ground on a great big stone driven from the water wheel, and we used to watch how it was, slowly, slowly and grind and grind. Sometime a hundred kilogram sack of wheat took a day to grind! Ground non-stop all the time you see?
Reasonably good life we had, you know. We never went hungry in those days. To sell our produce father had to travel quite a few kilometres to different towns to see where the price is better. We were self-sufficient, so we didn’t need to go to town to buy this, buy another. We didn’t need to do that, were self-sufficient completely.
We ate all sorts of things. There was some meat. We used to kill a pig or a bullock you know, it was salted and cured and all that. I was involved in the curing yes, but the killing no, father used to done that with some friends and made the sausages from the pork and things like that. But mainly it was vegetables and floury ting like noodles, like macaroni. Mother made herself of course. And potatoes, turnip, beetroot, cabbage. Was barrels of cabbage, pickled cabbage.
Polenta was often cooked, you know, the cornflour. And it was very tasty, mother used to make it with cream and sometime even with the fried bacon. We drank milk, the children and the adults. But sometime father made beer. He tried to make vodka once, but didn’t come out right, and he abandoned the idea ‘cos they weren’t drinkers. He says I’d rather buy a bottle. Juices, from a brambles, blackcurrant, redcurrant and cherry. Into the jars with sugar and just left there to ferment in big containers, about 25 litres. Sugar was expensive, comparison with other tings. The juice was quite strong. One time when I was wee I took a cup and I slept for about two days yes, I did. I didn’t realise it was so strong. Mother and father, they give me a row like anything. If you misbehaving you got a belting and that was that. Here! Lie down! One time, how was it…och we nearly set the house on fire.
During the First World War, there was a front in our area, you see? And each time you dug anywhere you always found a bullet or a grenade or an artillery cartridge. And they were still perfectly sound. So one time, me and my brothers dismantled them. We had quite a heap of gunpowder and started hammerin’ with a hammer
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