Tag #123044 - Interview #99947 (Samuel Birger)

There was joiner’s shop in the frontal part of the building. That premise was rented by a Jewish family, where two brothers dealt with furniture production. There was an orchard in front of the house. There were fruit trees, chestnuts, black currant and gooseberry bushes. The stables of my father and grandfather Alter were in the heart of the orchard. There were five big dray horses in the stables. Grandfather owned three of them. Both grandfather and dad dealt with goods transportation. Father harnessed troika (three horses harnessed abreast) in a large cargo cart with the platform and carried goods. He often went to Kaunas, Kadeinai and other Lithuanian towns. Father made good money. I remember that in the 1930s, when president Smetona was in power [4] my father daily earned 15 litas. It was a lot of money. It was enough for food and family of the family of five, forage for the horse their grooming and for the rent of the house. Father usually gave money to mother and left a small amount for himself for cigarettes as he was a hard-boiled smoker. In summer father procured forage for the horses. When I grew up, I went with father to mow hay. We brought full carts if forage. It was hard to take care of five horses. Sometimes father hired people who groomed horses.