"Too busy! No Time!" --
Ich habe keine Zeit.
by Alfred Opp
During the course of the World War II, my family lost most of
their material possessions. We were able to bring only a few items
of special value with us to Germany and then later to Poland. As
we fled back to Germany my family was stripped of everything. When
my grandparents fled Poland they too could bring with them only what
was necessary to live on. Most of that was left behind in
Eastern Germany as we fled to the Western sector. My family arrived
in Stuttgart with only the clothes on our backs. All we had left
were memories of our time in our Bessarabian homeland and the life
we walked away from in an attempt to live in freedom.
Once the post-war economy in Germany had improved so that I had the
resources to travel, I chose to emigrate to Canada in 1955 to begin
rebuilding my life. When Helgard and I married in 1962 we started
with very little. With
"Fleiss" - hard work - we began to build our future.
Eventually the pieces started coming into place. But we had no
mementos of the life we had enjoyed before the war. How we
wished for some physical objects that could represent our heritage.
One day on a trip out into the countryside, we came upon a town that
was settled primarily by people from Europe who had come to this
place to make their start in the New World. Walking down the street,
we found a second-hand store loaded with beautiful old things from
bygone days. Helgard and I went in to see if we could find something
we liked. Did we ever! The shopkeeper was a lady who was easy
to deal with. And why not, as we loaded ourselves down with the
treasures in that store! We found napkin rings, plates with glass
inserts -- all kinds of table items dating from the late 1800's up
to the 1920's. Many items were silver plated, fitting exactly the
style of things we were looking for. We also found hand-embroidered
linens such as napkins and table cloths, crocheted spreads and more.
We asked the shop keeper why people would want to dispose of all of
these treasures. She replied that people don't have time these
days to bother with such things, and don't always know how to care
for them. It didn't take us long to select an entire
collection of heirlooms! We keep our fancy things in a glass cabinet
and continue to use them today much the same as our folks used their
special things back in the Old Country. Come festive holidays and
special occasions, our dinner table takes center stage as it is set
with items fit for royalty. To keep our treasures in good shape, we
use modern products and equipment -- such conveniences were not
available to our ancestors back in Teplitz, Bessarabia.
My grandmother Pauline (Mueller) Zacher was a master at
hosting a dinner party, and so is Helgard my soulmate. Oma
Zacher used to say, "Eat with your eyes to fully enjoy your meal."
In Teplitz, Bessarabia, my grandparents had more of the finer things
of life than many people. My grandmother had fine furniture, dishes,
cutlery and linens to work with to host an impressive dinner party.
A special piece of equipment that was kept busy on these occasions
was the
Samovar for making tea. My grandmother also had a
Topfkuchen which was a special baking unit that looked
like a brass stove-pipe about 12" x 6" that sat atop an
ethyl-alcohol burner. I wish I knew the recipe my grandmother used
for making the pastry she baked in that
Topfkuchen. The
Topfkuchen was a quick way to bake Kuchen pastry
to be served with tea. After baking the dough in the
Topfkuchen, it would be sliced and then dusted with
icing sugar.
My grandmother considered the making and serving of tea as adding an
elegant touch to her dinners.
Oma Zacher had special glasses that were reserved just
for serving tea. A cube of raw sugar that looked much like an ice
cube was placed into each glass of tea. Guests carefully sipped the
tea as it flowed over the sugar cube into the mouth. This had to be
done elegantly, Russian-style, which meant there could be no mouth
noise as the tea was sipped.
To prepare the various dishes that were so special to us in
Bessarabia, the women had no modern appliances of any kind, no
electrical power in the house, and no indoor plumbing. The
preparation of every-day food items was a challenge. To go
beyond and prepare fancy party foods took know-how and a willingness
to work.
All laundry was washed using a washboard and home-made soap. For
fine white things,
Oma would add a bit of blue dye. To stiffen shirt
collars and table linens such as napkins and table-cloths,
she mixed home made potato starch into the water. The wet laundry
was hung outside to dry in the sun, which also helped to bleach the
white items. The sun was the only "bleach" we had. When dry, the
laundry was taken back inside and the larger items were set aside to
be stretched prior to ironing. I often helped
Oma stretch these pieces to remove some of the wrinkles
and shrinking. She would pull on one end of the item and I would
pull on the other end while standing behind a table for balance.
Ironing was a fine art that took skill, time and patience. The iron
was heated with charcoal -- swinging it from side to side increased
the temperature. Learning to iron properly required much practice.
Especially difficult to iron were pleated items and the corners of
embroidered pieces. The last step was to fold the ironed laundry
before storing it away. All of the table linens were made of
cotton or linen. If an item was not used for a time, the edges would
begin to yellow, and the item had to be re-washed and re-ironed
before use. If silver items were not used frequently, they would
tarnish and then had to be polished and washed before they could be
used.
One day when I was about 8 or 9 years old, I was helping
Grossmama with her chores. It was laundry day and
she had laundry to hang outside on the clothesline. Grossmama
carried the wet laundry out to the clothesline and I
carried the clothesline clips in a cloth bag. After we were done,
she had a few pieces of laundry left that she wanted to take inside
and hang on the rainy-day clothesline up in the attic. These were
home-made oval shaped cloth pads - my aunt's private laundry that
Grossmama did not want to hang out in public. Being
curious I asked, What are these?
Grossmama said, These are women's underwear warmers. I
asked, Why don't I have any? She said,
Boys don't need them - they wear pants. My curiosity was satisfied
with that explanation.
Those were the good old days: a time that required hand skills, a
time without our modern "time-savers," a time to which we give so
little thought! And we say we have "no time!"
Alfred Opp
Edited by Connie Dahlke
___________________
Alfred Opp is the author of "Pawns on the World Stage" - the memoirs
of his childhood in Teplitz, Bessarabia and the experiences of his
family in war-torn Europe (Poland during 1941-1945 before they fled
to East Germany in 1945, then the reconstruction of West Germany
1945-1955).