Grigor Khachikyan’s Life in a Box

Grigor Khachikyan lives with his wife and mother-in-law in an apartment in Glendale. He spends most of his time out of home playing cards with other old men at the park. At seventy, he thinks there is nothing more for him to do other then go to the park and watch Spanish soap operas translated into Armenian. His body is too old to do any work but his memory hasn’t given up on him. He still remembers his life in the 1950s in the small town of Mrgashat, Armenia which now has a population of 5,000 people. He remembers playing with his friends on the safe streets where no one had ever experienced danger or trouble. The news spread around quickly and there was no way for children to get in trouble after misbehaving for before they even got home their parents already knew what happened through other neighbors. Those were the times, he says, when neighbors were like family and people weren’t judged by their appearance.

I Grigor Khachikyan lived in the town of Mrgashat at the age of twelve in the year of 1950. In this town there were no bad things and there were only good people. There were some people who lived badly, like the children were naked or were dressed in old clothes but we still viewed them the same way because everyone knew each other and they didn’t think anything bad like, “Oh, that person is poor or dirty.”

In this town the only religion was Christianity. The people all believed in Christ. Although there was no church in town, people went to the church in Echmiatsin, a city in Armenia. Besides Armenians, there were other people as well. There were a couple families of Kurds. They kept sheep and lived well. They were the same people like us and there were no differences.

We knew each other well and they spoke Armenian too. In fact, I had a Kurd friend whose name was Suto, and we grew up together and knew each other well. We hung out together and the only difference was that he was a Kurd and I was an Armenian. We were both townspeople and we were just like everyone else.

In Mrgashat, there were some people who lived well and there were some who lived poorly, but it didn’t matter, the poor interacted with the rich people and the rich interacted with the poor as well.

My family was a middle class family. At the young ages, all of my brothers and sisters went to school. We went by foot but it wasn’t too far, it was close to our house. It was like a ten minute walk to school. In my town there was only one school which went up to tenth grade. All the students from first to tenth grade went to the same school but like the older students from fifth to sixth grade went to school in the morning until 2:00 and the younger ones went from 2:00 to 5:00.

It was mandatory that each student went to school. If you didn’t, they would find out. There actually was a future for the students. Smart students studied to become doctors, lawyers, journalists, etc… But, in that town when they graduated tenth grade, they would go to the city to get further education.

Unfortunately, I didn’t graduate from school, because my family didn’t have anyone to work. I went up to seventh grade and then I left and worked for two years. I didn’t go to school because my family couldn’t keep up and only Dad worked at the time but he couldn’t bring enough money so I started working and then I went to the army. I, worked as a car driver, you know. Once every fifteen days I would get paid.

In my family, uhh, there were seven children, and Mom and Dad. Only my father and I worked that time. The money was barely enough but we kept up more or less. My mom was barely keeping the children, doing housework, cooking food, so she wasn’t working.

Later at the age of nineteen, I went to the army and that time my sixteen year old brother had started working for the family. I stayed in the army for three years and then I was let out and I came back and worked in the town again. In the army, when the soldiers were poisoned from poison gas, I cleaned their clothes and prepared places for them to come take a shower, get cleaned, and leave.

When I returned back home from the army there were some changes. My father had passed away, but my family was heading towards the better. Now, only my brother and little sister were working.

So after I came back I started working with cars again, but then after working for one year, they gave me a car and I was chauffeuring and also delivering products with a truck. The working hours were from morning to evening, but if the time was enough, we worked extra and got paid more.

My town wasn’t a dangerous area. Although, if in any case there was a fight or something, they would call the police and they would come. Every town had its own police man, like one or two, and they just called them to handle problems. There were no hospitals in this town but we had a doctor. He came and checked and if there was a need for the hospital, your family would take you to the city. There were no fire stations as well but in any case if something was on fire, they would call a firefighter and it would come in about half and hour. If incidents where someone’s house caught on fire happened, the neighbors would extinguish it with water.

In Mrgashat, everyone knew each other and they would be outside at night up to 10:00 on vacation days in the summer and would hang out. Again, danger was rare in this town but, while playing everything was possible. Like by accident, one day, someone got his dad’s gun and he was twelve years old and he didn’t know there was a bullet inside so he pulled the trigger and accidentally killed himself.

Although people worked a lot, they still had spare time. During their spare times, old people sat and had conversations with each other and young children played sports. Also, there was a large place called the “club” and people would gather there. In this club at night, people would watch movies and during the daytime, they would entertain themselves by playing cards or chess.

This town had all the seasons. In the summer people worked. There were no pools, but there were canals and children and men would just go in and cool off. In the winter, there wasn’t much work in the town.

In town there were a total of two stores. One was a clothing store and the other was a food store. These stores were open from morning to night so if something was needed at night you would go get it.

The houses in town were made of rocks. Big or small, it depended on the person’s family. If their family wasn’t large it wasn’t a big house but if it was a big family it would sometimes be two houses next to or stuck together. They were one story houses so they wouldn’t collapse during earthquakes. Flooring was made with boards like hardwood but also they may have been dirt floors.

Communication wasn’t a problem. If people lived far from each other they called each other but if not, they went with cars to visit them. In the town there was only one phone which was in a post office and they were able to send mail from there as well. There were newspapers too and you subscribed and they delivered the newspaper home, but it was with money. The news was heard on television and the radio too.

Although we were behind on electronics, there still were lights on the streets and in the houses. Also, there were cars and people who were rich had them. If people didn’t have cars the federal cars took them to work and brought them back at noon. There were no built streets that cars drove on, there were dirt roads.

Overall, this town was clean. The daily trash was gotten rid of because it wasn’t picked up. Like if at night the trash piled up, you would just take it to a whole and then you would just lay it in there and it would just decay later on. Also, we had clean drinking water. It was artesian water and it would come out of the ground. It was close to our house.

At our time this town wasn’t so great but now it’s good and everything is normal. I regret that I left my town and came to America because of the fact that it is my native country, but that’s it because I came here and started a new and better life with my family.

Interviewed by Grigor Khachikyan