Life in a Small Town- Petros
Asatryan
The person that I interviewed was my grandfather. My grandfather, Petros
Asatryan was born on November 20, 1932 in a small town called Boloran which was
located in Iran. He is 75 years old and has 6 children, 13 grandchildren and 1
great-grand child. Even though he is old, he still remembers a lot of things
that have happened in the past. When I interviewed my grandfather, I knew the
lifestyle of that small town. In that particular town there were 150 families
which meant that each family had about 10 members. His job was to work hard and
support his family with the amount of money he earned. He had a lot of respect
toward everyone and they all enjoyed the memories of his life while he was grown
up in Boloran. He moved to California when he was 72 years old. Everyday, my
grandfather would wake up early in the morning and take his grandchildren to
school and support his family at that old age. My grandfather always says, “If
you study hard, you will achieve your goals and have the kind of life you
deserve.”
I was born in Iran, in a small town called Boloran, on November 20,
1932. I lived with my mother, father, two sisters and seven brothers. So, all
together was elev
en.
I started working when I was 11 years old. Me and my brother would wake
up early in the morning and go to work. We would go to “Gom.” It’s a place
like a ranch. We had many animals: 10 cows, 10 sheep and 10 donkeys. We would
take the animals to the field to eat the outside grass, until the night came.
Everyday we would do this job. After that we didn’t do anything, only my mom
would get the milk from the cows to make yogurt for us. In summer we bought a
grass and kept for the winter, so the animals could have their food.
There were about 150 families in the village. Most of the people knew each
other. Each mother had more than nine children. The minimum number of kids each
mother had was about four children. And all village families lived happy
together and helped one another. There was a difference between rich and poor
people in our village. The riches lived in better condition and they had lots of
animals. But the poor had one ox and they couldn’t work with one ox. The poor
borrowed from the rich people ox, to use for plow the soil. And in return the
poor would give some wheat and rice.
My mother crafted work and designed traditional rugs that would hang on
the walls. The rugs that they made were really pretty and they wouldn’t put on
the ground. My mother also sewed dresses. She sewed traditional clothes for
festivals and they would have coins all around the clothes. And the clothes that
she made were really cute and it was mixed up colors with headgear. The elder
women baked fresh bread with the wheat and yogurt with fresh milk from the cows.
There were so many special foods but for me the best food was “Harisa.” We
made it with the wheat and we put it in the stove to cook for one hour and the
chicken was in the pan separated and then we took the bones of the chicken out
and we put the chicken in the wheat and put the stoves temperature medium and we
had to be next to the pan for four hours to mix the food. The food took a long
time to be ready but, it was really yummy.
When I had free time I would go outside with my friends and play fun games. We
played a game which was made of wood. We got divided and began to start the
game. The instructions was one small wooden and one big wooden and we had to hit
the small wooden to go as far as much as its possible and one of them had to run
fast and get the small wooden and throw back where they started the game, which
was in the hole. If the hitter threw the small wooden in the hole then the group
was called the winner. We played other games which were: football, tag, hiding
goosey, and one game was that you had to bend down and one person had to go over
you.
There were schools available during the 1930s. The teachers taught us two types
of languages: Persian and Armenian but, we learned Persian
easily because the letters were few. I went to school until 5th
grade. We had books but not like hard there were really simple books. We
didn’t have any papers or pen, we used an ink and something like chalkboard to
write with it. I learned very good and understood the lessons. All teachers
liked me a lot because I was smart and I followed the direction of what I had to
do in class. We wore different kinds of clothes. Whoever was rich they wore
nicely clothes but, whoever was poor wore simple clothes.
There were no televisions, because in that time we didn’t have any
electricity.
We got the information from the radios with batteries or sometimes in
the village the people would talk and we would know what’s going on around the
world.
We were all Christians in our village and there was no other kind of
religions.
We had Church which was meaningful to us and it was the biggest church.
The people went to church to burn candle and pray to god of their living
conditions. For example, one of the
belief was when a baby was born the parents of the baby wouldn’t kiss the baby
until he/she was being baptized. That’s why after 40 days they had to baptize
the baby so he/she could be safe and be healthy.
We had lots of traditions for example Vartavar, Hambarzum (it’s like
Flowers day), Easter, but my favorite was “Vartavar.” And Vartavar took
place in the middle of hot summer. Our village people would go outside and throw
water at each other, it was like having a water fight. That was an exciting
moment for the whole town. After having a water fight the boys would show their
power in wrestling to see who’s the most strongest in front of the whole
people. And the girls would dance and show their fancy clothes that they were
wearing. One thing that I remember really good was a very hot summer day when we
were coming back from the farm our group was sitting outside and telling each
other fun jokes and stories until 10 o’clock. Before the midnight we were
laughing and didn’t want to go to sleep, until our parents came and told us
you have to go to sleep because you have to work tomorrow. We weren’t scared
to sit outside because it was very quite village and no one bothered each other.
When I was 18 years old my parents kept telling me that you have to get married.
My parents chose the girl for me. I didn’t meet the girl until the wedding. At
that time we didn’t have choice because we were marrying by what our parents
were telling us. When I saw her in the wedding I was really shocked and
embarrassed. In the wedding there
was a music which was instrumental and mainly flutes. And we were enjoying our
day with romantic songs. We didn’t have any transportation so we can take the
bride to church so she came with a horse.
I lived in the village for four years. We had one child and together we moved to
Theran to live there. After moving to Theran, we had five boys, so all together
were six. I worked as a taxi driver and it wasn’t a
hard job for me. The good thing was that I brought money at home to feed
my kids and bought clothes for them to wear at school.
In the country the life was easier than in the village. In the village
you had to work really hard to support your family but in the country it
wasn’t that hard working.
I came to U.S.A. on October 11, 2004. I
still take care of my family and even though I’m 76 years old I still do the
one job that I had been doing for many years ago. That one job was supporting my
family and living happy together. In my old age right now, I’m taking care of
my grandchildren and taking them to park to enjoy the end of the day.
My grandfather has a really amazing song about his life that he would like to
share at the end. It’s a very long song but I just want to tell you the
meaning of the song.
It tells us about the things that have happened to him and how he was far away
from his relatives and he contacted his relatives with letters. And how life was
difficult for him.
As centuries I go away
As relative I’m forgetting
Father centuries got older
Mother from crying is going blind
Fly envelope and receive to country
This may not make sense to you but with our language it tells us what happens
throughout his life.
Interviewed by Anna Asatryan