Tag #139896 - Interview #96750 (Sabat Pilosof)

My grandfather wasn’t religious. He rarely went to the synagogue. He loved eating meat. When I was a child, the food was put on a platter in the middle of the table. Everyone used a ladle to put it on his or her plate. If there was meat, my grandpa hurried to put some on his plate. My grandmother scolded him, as she wanted the kids to take food first. He replied that it wasn’t him but actually the fork, which was in a hurry for food. He also loved to make tea in the morning. The room, which he inhabited, was a large one. It had a cupboard and a stove for burning wood and charcoal. He got up early, lit up the stove and put some tea. We had no sugar at home, but he always kept some in his pocket. At that time sugar wasn’t bought per kilogram or vegetable oil per litre. The sugar was around a 200-300 gram portion and the oil was sold in small bottles.

My paternal grandparents knew Bulgarian but they spoke to each other in Ladino [5]. My grandpa also knew Turkish very well. I don’t remember whether he had some kind of books. I guess he probably had the Haggadah, but I’m not certain of it. On Pesach everything was cited by heart. My grandparents spoke to us both in Ladino and Bulgarian. As our neighbors were predominantly Bulgarians we spoke mostly Bulgarian with them. At home we didn’t speak Ladino but Bulgarian. My father spoke with my grandpa in Ladino, but with us, children, he spoke only in Bulgarian.