Martin Koby - April 20, 1999
Religious Life (continued)
You said you weren't very religious as a family.
Well, from what I know now and from what it, it was then, we had two sets of dishes, but only one sink.
You so you were semi-kosher.
Semi--yeah. You know they were like an average American family.
But you went, but you went to Shul on--every Shabbat...
On Fridays, yeah, Friday nights. I remember I used to go with my father Saturday morning.
What was a Friday night like in your house?
It was very nice. There was a salad, not the salad that we eat you know, that we eat here.
Uh-huh.
All kinds of greens you know, tomatoes and whatever. Uh, the salad used to be the chopped eggs with onions.
Sure.
Uh, uh, there was uh, a little chopped liver, that was the salad you know, ??? There was chicken. My mother used to make a very nice chicken soup. I still remember those little--the little eggs you know, with the...
Eieles.
Huh?
Eieles, my mother used to...
Not eieles, real eggs.
Eieles, like little eggs, eiles.
No, not--???.
???.
???.
Yeah.
It was--??? used to ???. My mother made those nice lockshen. You know, you go to the brand store the package noodles you know, they're so thin, you know that--she did it with her own--you know, with--there no store, you always made everything your own. You have to roll the dough and you get to cut it with the knife. And they came out just-- long ones too. Because there used to be a joke among the Ukrainian. What sits in a spoon and dangles its feet down? Jewish noodles. Uh, she always baked some cakes you know, whatever she baked you know, sweet rolls you know, like uh, um, Danish stuff like that. Well this was Shabbos, you see. Bread she always baked on--on--uh, she baked--she baked challa. I don't know what happened, we came to America and she lost all those skills.
So would you sing Z...Zemirot is the ???...
Pardon?
Zemirot is ???...
Zemirot. Uh, no, we didn't sing Zemirot. Just me and my brother. My brother must have been--I remember my brother was already asleep. You know, he's five years younger than me or four and a half years younger.
So you'd go to Shul first and then you'd come home and have Shabbos dinner.
Yeah, yeah. And it was late. There were candles. And the you know, the light--lighting was consisted of a gasoline lamp you know, with a glass...
Yeah. Can...
...top you know, a light. And that glass was all clean you know, sparkling clean. And there were candles on the table, a white table cloth. Was very nice. It was very uh, it seemed to me that it was colorful, okay? You know was a different spirit on Friday night. Saturday morning, if the weather permitted--but most of the time even in the bad weather we used to go to Shul. I remember my father had a s...nice suit and he polished his--his polished shoes. He had French cuff links you know, French sleeves with cuff links. Oh and then a nice tie and he was so tall. And the ladies asked me--you know, they used to see him. We used to walk right through the village where--maybe a mile, mile and a half you had to go to Shul. That's a long distance...
Uh-huh.
...for a little kid to walk. And if it didn't rain and we walked right through the center of the--you know, the middle of the road. And the ladies used to stand over there go because you nervous you know, either stood by the gate or by the fence or look out the window or look out the--stand in the door. Then during the week they asked--they used to ask me, "Does your mother love your father?" I said, "Sure, I, I don't know. See, I don't know." "What do you mean, you don't know?" I said, "I don't know." I didn't know what they was talking about. But now I remember that.
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