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We, the children would go to each others’ houses sometimes through the door, sometimes through the gardens. We played the exact same games among girls and boys that you played when you were children. The games we preferred most were games like soccer, marbles, hide-and-seek, and leapfrog. I loved the sea from a very young age and I learned to swim as well as teaching it to all of my older brothers, sisters, and brothers and sisters-in-law. My mother and father were not used to going into the sea, they did not know how to swim, therefore did not come to the water with us much.
A boatsman who we paid 100 pennies would take me and my friends from the shores of Ortakoy to a place a liitle norther than Ortakoy mosque called “Turkish Nature” where we could not reach by land because it was a tobacco warehouse, and return us around 5 in the evenings. We would swim throughout the day, jump in the sea, joke around, laugh, sing songs and have a picnic. Sometimes we would lower a watermelon that we bought from the greengrocer into the sea in a mesh bag, lift it up, cut and eat it when we were hungry; the watermelon would be so icy cold that I cannot tell you, we could not eat enough of it. Sometimes we would eat the 20 cms-wide flatbreads that we bought for a penny, sometimes liver sandwiches that we bought again for a penny. (This place was a foreign enterprise until the declaration of the republic, after the declaration was turned over to the government like all foreign businesses). Because we went to this place for a whole day, our girl friends would not come, their families would not allow them to stay away from home for so long a time. When we wanted to swim with girls, we would go into the sea from the open beach that was right in front of the tea house that was to the right of Ortakoy boat dock. One time we went to this beach on a boat with two of my girl friends. While they were pulling the oars, I dove into the sea, as I was swimming against a current that I did not think could be so strong, I yelled out so much with the pain of a cramp in my leg that bless them the girls saved me, truthfully if not for them I don’t know what I would do. (Unfortunately even though I remember the last names of some of my friends that were with me then, a lot of them immigrated and settled in Israel years ago, I don’t know how they are doing now) I was 17 or 18 years old then, one of the days when we were swimming at Turkish Nature, when I dove into the water and returned home with a bucketful of mussels, my mom is stunned and says “Lazariko what are you doing? What are these mussels?” When I said “My dear mother, I know it is forbidden in our religion but we will clean them in the garden with my friends and cook them in a tin that we will place on top of the brazier, drink a little beer and enjoy ourselves. What do you think?”, of course she did not say anything, I don’t know if you would believe me but I can still taste those mussels. We did not have a refrigerator in our house then but we had a well in our garden, the beers that we placed in a bucket and lowered into the well were ice-cold after a while. We were eating and sipping our ice-cold beers while I played the harmonica and we were dancing with our girl friends.
A boatsman who we paid 100 pennies would take me and my friends from the shores of Ortakoy to a place a liitle norther than Ortakoy mosque called “Turkish Nature” where we could not reach by land because it was a tobacco warehouse, and return us around 5 in the evenings. We would swim throughout the day, jump in the sea, joke around, laugh, sing songs and have a picnic. Sometimes we would lower a watermelon that we bought from the greengrocer into the sea in a mesh bag, lift it up, cut and eat it when we were hungry; the watermelon would be so icy cold that I cannot tell you, we could not eat enough of it. Sometimes we would eat the 20 cms-wide flatbreads that we bought for a penny, sometimes liver sandwiches that we bought again for a penny. (This place was a foreign enterprise until the declaration of the republic, after the declaration was turned over to the government like all foreign businesses). Because we went to this place for a whole day, our girl friends would not come, their families would not allow them to stay away from home for so long a time. When we wanted to swim with girls, we would go into the sea from the open beach that was right in front of the tea house that was to the right of Ortakoy boat dock. One time we went to this beach on a boat with two of my girl friends. While they were pulling the oars, I dove into the sea, as I was swimming against a current that I did not think could be so strong, I yelled out so much with the pain of a cramp in my leg that bless them the girls saved me, truthfully if not for them I don’t know what I would do. (Unfortunately even though I remember the last names of some of my friends that were with me then, a lot of them immigrated and settled in Israel years ago, I don’t know how they are doing now) I was 17 or 18 years old then, one of the days when we were swimming at Turkish Nature, when I dove into the water and returned home with a bucketful of mussels, my mom is stunned and says “Lazariko what are you doing? What are these mussels?” When I said “My dear mother, I know it is forbidden in our religion but we will clean them in the garden with my friends and cook them in a tin that we will place on top of the brazier, drink a little beer and enjoy ourselves. What do you think?”, of course she did not say anything, I don’t know if you would believe me but I can still taste those mussels. We did not have a refrigerator in our house then but we had a well in our garden, the beers that we placed in a bucket and lowered into the well were ice-cold after a while. We were eating and sipping our ice-cold beers while I played the harmonica and we were dancing with our girl friends.
Period
Location
Beyoğlu/İstanbul
Türkiye
Interview
Lazar Abuaf