Tag #125311 - Interview #97653 (Rebeka Evgin)

The hamams of Adana were very beautiful.  Going to the hamam was an event in itself.  We had special hamam combs, towels and clogs.  We would pick our embroidered bundles, and would go as if we were going to a picnic.  The people of Adana are dark skinned.  I, on the other hand, was as white as could be.  In the hamam, everyone would gather around me and joke to my mom “did you adopt this girl, she doesn’t look like anyone”. [In the old times, adoption is the process when children with no parents were taken in, not as servants but to be raised as the child of the house.  These children also helped with housework].  Taking a bath was another problem when we did not go to the hamam.  Water would be boiled in pots on top of coal stoves, there was a toilet in the garden.  My mother would place the pot, mix up the hot water with the cold, and bathe all her children one by one.  Later on we started bathing ourselves.