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My grandparents didn’t really have a circle of friends. They had acquaintances, but aside from the theater or concerts, they didn’t go out to cafes. They worked a lot in the business. They closed every evening at seven. On Saturday and Sunday, they opened at eight and closed at twelve. My grandmother even helped out, next to doing the housework, she sat at the cash register. They worked very, very much.
My grandparents didn’t talk about their childhood. We didn’t live together, since all their daughters lived in different places – and well, raising kids was a different thing then. Today my grandchild says ‘ciao’ to me. At that time, all of us grandchildren had to go in to Grandma and say ‘I kiss your hand,’ and we had to kiss her hand.
That was enough, and we could leave. We had to do this every blessed day, and we did it. The Bratislava grandma was very strict, even with herself. If I think back on all those years, I realize that’s why we didn’t like her so much. It’s true, she really looked out for us, and directed her daughters on how to raise children, how strictly. Of course, today I see that it wasn’t such a bad method of upbringing.
It wasn’t characteristic of the time for my parents to talk about their parents. The respect regarding parents was absolute. At that time, a different opinion didn’t exist. If my father said, or my mother said, that it’s this way, then it was natural for me that it was this way. I didn’t even have to think about it, not because I didn’t have the occasion to, but rather, because it just wasn’t the habit.
My grandparents didn’t talk about their childhood. We didn’t live together, since all their daughters lived in different places – and well, raising kids was a different thing then. Today my grandchild says ‘ciao’ to me. At that time, all of us grandchildren had to go in to Grandma and say ‘I kiss your hand,’ and we had to kiss her hand.
That was enough, and we could leave. We had to do this every blessed day, and we did it. The Bratislava grandma was very strict, even with herself. If I think back on all those years, I realize that’s why we didn’t like her so much. It’s true, she really looked out for us, and directed her daughters on how to raise children, how strictly. Of course, today I see that it wasn’t such a bad method of upbringing.
It wasn’t characteristic of the time for my parents to talk about their parents. The respect regarding parents was absolute. At that time, a different opinion didn’t exist. If my father said, or my mother said, that it’s this way, then it was natural for me that it was this way. I didn’t even have to think about it, not because I didn’t have the occasion to, but rather, because it just wasn’t the habit.
Location
Slovakia
Interview
Katarina Löfflerova