Dacha

[zvuv]

My mom’s father was a turner, or a machinist, who spent most of his life working at the Luch Footwear Factory in Minsk. According to family lore, he started working at ten, to help support his family, and had to stand on top of a box to reach the machinery. I have no idea if this is actually true; this would have been sometime around 1929.

Comments

[onelargecat]

This was completely fascinating. I can almost picture it from your description.

[zvuv]

I wish we had pictures...

Here's something that sort of captures the mood of a place like that: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/11388922

[sartoris]

Oh, wow, that was such a pleasant read, and I really know what you're talking about

[zvuv]

"illegal immigrates from Italy to plant their strawberry patch!" HA.

funny you mention the strawberry patch. that was my family's albatross. they worked SO HARD to grow the strawberries, but every year the harvest was dismal. you think they'd give up, but they kept trying new varietals, new fertilizers. toward the last few years, about a quarter of total land was all strawberries. not sure what it was. maybe it's worth asking my aunts, while they're still around.

I think even in the 1980s not all the people at our dacha development were the original owners, so people have been selling them even before the collapse. still, there was still a sense of solidarity that comes from people sharing the same place of employment (and it was a large organization that produced all those horrible Soviet shoes).

[sartoris]

http://sartoris.livejournal.com/577431.html

Here you got: i think this illustrates your post in a certain sense.

[zvuv]

thank you!!! I will unlock this entry, if you want to link to it.

[themooselet]

Very interesting --you've lived and seen so much! I'm impressed that your grandfather could build a house from scratch.
Off topic and perhaps silly, but did the system back then discourage big families? Was it the norm for your parents' generation to have no more than two kids?

[zvuv]

my grandfather did it with some friends, and he hired some people to help with certain aspects, but yes, he was very clever at making things, despite an abbreviated education

[themooselet]

Wow! I never knew the problems with housing. Loving this series :).

[aepfelx]

This post smells of dacha, and schi, and bonfires, and childhood. Bravo!

[zvuv]

:)