Greek Girl's Secrets. Efrossini AKA Fran Kisser
up on Ellis Island around 1920. So, my grandmother Zafiro was left with just my mother Malama, and one younger brother Demetrios. The rest of her hidden precious golden jewelry bought the three tickets for her older children’s voyage to the new world. She had no more gold, no more savings for the rest of the family to go to America.
By the time my mother was fifteen my Austrian born father Achillea met this tormented family and he became the man of the house. My parents were married in 1924.
My mother was taught by her mother and her grandmother was taught by her mother the value of gold, not money. They owned handmade golden jewelry, as high gold content as 22 karats. They bought it like it was their savings account.
They gifted the precious golden handmade jewelry on special occasions to newlyweds, at baptisms and at engagements.
Many times, the currency would change because of wars and different occupations by enemy countries. Whatever paper money one had hoarded, it would become worthless. So the people got smart and invested in the only incorruptible money GOLD!
One little gold coin for instance, one English 22 karat gold sovereign which was worth a lot of money was also easily hidden instead of an armful of cash. When I was a little girl I remember one American dollar was worth 300 drachmas. That bought a lot of products. But one golden lira was a small fortune.
Malama, my mother would economize from her household money that my father would give her. Every few months she would buy a golden English lira, as she called them. The proper name of these gold coins I later found out is an English golden SOVEREIGN.
Now how does one economize, when there are so many children to feed and support in all kinds of ways, I do not know. My mother was just amazing.
These gold coins came in handy when she needed new bed comforters for the family or for a daughter’s trousseau (linens, household items that the bride would bring into the marriage.) The gypsies with their dancing bear would come around and ask us for work. They placed a large canvas type cover on the ground under a shady tree and they hand made the comforters with a pink satin fabric on one side and the backing was a white cotton fabric.
After the cloths were sewn by hand in neat symmetrical stitches then they stuffed them with real, natural, white, fluffy cotton.
They stitched these beautiful comforters with such precision, all by hand, while they entertained us with their dancing brown bear. We fed them, my mother paid them with gold coins and we got our beautiful comforters. Then, these artisans /entertainers went about their way to the next customers.
Malama also bought an occasional wool Persian rug for our living room when the wagon would pass with the woolen delights, all hand made by the Persian artisans. Again, she paid by a golden lira. Malama knew quality because her family had the best of furnishings in Constantinople before their disasters.
When there was a rainy day, when my father’s work was slow, or we had bad weather in the winter continuously, she would produce a golden lira and she would go shopping to the agora (variety of specialty stores) downtown for necessities. The first stop was at the carob stand. She would buy one huge bag of chocolaty carobs these wonderful long, dry, brown bean pods.
At that time, I do not believe my mother knew just how nutritiously sound those sweet chocolate tasting, brown bean pods were. They knew about nutrition all right but not like we know today. Recently I made carob bites for a nutritional dog biscuit. Along with my organic free-range chicken bone broth (the homegrown, free range chicken has to be over four years old) I found out the nutritional content of carob is an absolute power house of vitamins, minerals, like calcium and magnesium, protein and so on.
She handed them to the children to eat them and keep them busy. They were a delicious snack that resembled a complete meal in total nutrition.
At least two children would go with her, so we could all carry the double bags loaded full of foods that were not found in our garden. Meats, especially lamb, seafood, pastourma (a special, cured lunchmeat made from camel meat like corned beef,) I remember it was delicious with mustard, fresh fruit in the winter especially citrus, chestnuts and apples we would carry on the bus.
None of the foods we ate were processed in any way and nothing we ate was prepared by anyone else. Our mother was in charge of what went into our mouths. This wonderful mother cooked many thousands of meals without complaining, without a day off for over sixty years.
My mother was the home economist. We always looked forward to our afternoon wholesome real flavors ice creams from the vendor in the summer we went to summer movies, beach trips on buses and by motor boats from downtown.
We had pretty bows for our hair, we were loved, and we were very well fed. Yet, my mother still managed to buy and hide her gold coins. In the tough times, she came through, and brightened our days with much needed foods and other necessities. Like magic we kids watched her bring out a golden lira and all was well. That golden lira bought many weeks’ worth of foods and paid for household bills too.
It was a different world back in the old country. One generation would leave a house or land for the next generation to inherit.
The new married couple had a house to live in without struggling with a never-ending mortgage or rent that took half of their monthly paycheck.
The young people took care of their elders gladly and respected them. There was no such thing as a “home” for the elderly.
Today I see advertisements on television shamelessly promoting a final home like it is normal to put the elderly in some “home”. What about their children’s homes? A parent can support and raise ten children. Ten children cannot nurture and support one old parent now days.
Those people enjoyed life more. They were not strapped with all the monthly bills we have today. Most of the middle class ended up owning the inherited home and they created a second home by the sea for their days off and vacations, (thiakopes.) So now this family would have two homes to deed to their children. They wanted their children to be better off in their lives. They wanted them to have an easier life.
My parents had eleven live births and nine living healthy children. From these nine children only three of us had three children. Everyone else had two or just one child.
Greece had a population of eight million people in 1962 when I left, and today 2019 Greece still has eight million people. The people that have the most children will dominate a country. Greeks only have one child, maybe. The writing is on the wall.
My yiayia left my parents, her home in Serres.
After the move to Thessaloniki and the much more modern home where I was born, life was easier for my parents. After I left for America my father sold the family home and the land, where I was born and the builder gave them two apartments on the third floor along with a commercial store front on the ground level.
If they had no home at the beginning it would have been nearly impossible to have and raise all those children. With that size family I think the biggest expense was probably food.
When I went back to Greece the second time my mother gave me one of those perfect, shiny golden liras and I saved it for many years. I kept it in cotton in a velvet box where I used to keep my diamond ring set that I had lost. I used to take it out and admire it from time to time. Eventually, I gifted it to my youngest son for a birthday gift. I had a jeweler make it into a handsome gold, heavy man’s ring. This is a real, worth a lot, heirloom. It also has a meaning. I have touched it and my mother has touched it also.
I remember one year my mother baked the traditional Christmas sweet bread just like the Greek Easter bread but without the red dyed eggs. She inserted a golden lira in the bread and baked it. As the slices were handed out on Christmas day, my lucky brother Carolos bit into the gold coin. He was very happy, because he was engaged and needed the extra money. My mother was a giving person. She gave unselfishly. Her world was her kitchen, she lived for her family. Her family came first, always. We children had her unconditional love forever. Knowing this as a child, made you feel strong and confident.
My mother did not believe when mankind went to the moon, you may call