Tag #123807 - Interview #97983 (Janet Arguete)

In our street, the yoghurt-seller, the poultry man, the egg-seller would pass.  The yoghurt-seller would carry his pans full of yoghurt on strings that were attached to a pole.  We would buy this yoghurt sold by kilogram into our pans.  We would joke saying “Los guevos del dede son grandes” [Judeo-Spanish for: The grandfather has big eggs, meaning balls].  The poultry man would bring the chickens, my mother and her neighbors would bring the chickens to the rabbi to check if they are kosher or not and would cut them according to the rules of kashrut.  They would put aside some chickens as nonkosher.  The chickens that were cut were taken to Jewish women to have their feathers removed this time.  Those women would almost memorize which chicken belonged to whom but once in a while, the chicken of Madam Rebeka would get mixed up with the chicken of Madam Zelda.  But the smell of the cooking chicken would spread to the neighborhood.  On Saturdays the firesetter would pass through the neighborhood.  The Jews who did not consider it appropriate to light a fire on the Sabbath were able to light the lamps or stove thanks to the firesetters who were Muslim.  Even though this tradition was applied by my mother, my father would turn on the lights before he left for the factory.

We have to add the cotton fluffer who was a tradesman of those days who passed through the neighborhood.  The fluffer was the one who renewed our mattresses at certain times, who beat the cotton inside with a mallet to air it. The same person sewed the comforters.  The work of the cotton fluffer would be very intensive especially in summer and fall cleanings.

Even if shopping was done from retailers in Bursa, the heart of commerce was in the Closed Bazaar.  Towel sellers, fabric merchants were inside this bazaar.  At the end of the Closed Bazaar you could find Salt Bazaar.  Silk cocoons would be displayed as if in an auction during the season.