The
Past Life in Saratak
As Takush Petrosyan looked back on her
life she remembers many things. Takush Petrosyan is a 66-year old woman who
lives with her son’ family in Glendale, California.
She is capable of doing house work and taking care of her three grandchildren
and nothing more. She lives in her second youngest son’s house. She is a very
religious Christian who reads the bible almost everyday and loves the lord. She
remembers her past in a small town in Armenia,
called Saratak. She remember her life as being during the Soviet
Union, and talks about how hard life was and the struggles people went
through. She says that people were starving from hunger but tried their best to
survive. She lived with her family in some of the toughest times for the Armenia
people in the Soviet Union. Takush remembers her
childhood and how she did the house work when no one was home so life for her
family would be easier. Her life in Saratak was depressing and she always
worried for the next day’s feast and work.
She was born on 1941,
September 10 in Saratak, Armenia. The people in
the village were said to be very nice people who got along with everyone very
well. Amazingly they were the type of people to always help each other and never
be jealous of another. Everyone was poor and no one really was rich inside
that village. Since the village was small everyone in it was very connected and
almost knew everyone who was in it.
People in the village all
gathered up on May 9 to celebrate the victory on the war Armenia
was in from 1941-1945. On special holidays like the new years, large amount of
people in groups went to other people’s houses and congratulated them on a new
year and celebrated with one another. Everyone in the village knew each other so
whenever something happen to someone everyone would know about it.
Takush’s life was not a normal child’s life
because of what happened to her during her childhood years. Her mother died when
she was at the age of six and she doesn’t even remember her mom at all. All
she had left was her dad, her three sisters and her three brothers. Since she
was the youngest she would always be home alone, since everyone else was working
or learning. She stayed at home and did house work by cleaning, and looking
after the donkey they had. She went to school to. The school in her village went
up to 7th grade and the village only had one school. After finishing
the 7th grade they had to go to the neighboring village and graduate
the 13th grade because the neighboring village was much bigger. The
teachers in the schools were very strict. If you didn’t do your homework for
the day they assigned it, then the teacher would keep you from morning until
evening, you wouldn’t be able to leave home until you finished your homework.
The teachers weren’t the ones like today’s teacher who didn’t care who
pasted and who didn’t, the teachers in her village pushed every student to
learn and do well in school.
Television didn’t come out until the 1960’s in her village, so instead they
had radios in which they used to listen to for news and everything else.
Technology wasn’t so good during that time because of the war. Armenia
was in a big war, with everyone participating in the war, and many not coming
back home. The war caused bad living conditions with people starving. People’s
lives started getting better during 1958-1960. Armenia
was being ruled under the Soviet Union, which was made of sixteen republics. Armenia
and Russia had very good alliances and were very
close. Russia helped people in Armenia
during wars and Armenia did the same back to Russia.
All the republics during the Soviet Union were united as brothers.
In
Saratak, everyone’s favorite sport played was soccer. Takush had said that
there was a big field in which everyone played soccer on and perhaps other
sports too. She said that students in schools had to exercise before they
went to class and the way things went were very interesting. In her school they
had almost every sport from basketball, volleyball, light athletics and soccer.
Takush was fair well in basketball.
Takush went to Lenakan after she finished her homework one day and gave an exam
to get into the school that was in Lenakan. Sadly she didn’t get accepted
because she failed it. She wanted to major in nursing but that dream was not
accomplished since she didn’t pass for the next one year. After another year
she got married and started working on the farms since she didn’t get
accepted. It was said to be that the farm work was very interesting and fun.
There were about fifty people working on each farm. The farms contained fruits
and vegetables; Takush worked on the fruit farms. She says there was every
fruit, apples, grapes, cherries and more. She said that no fruit can compare to
the ones from Armenia.
As
the Soviet Union broke apart, Armenia
got very poor, a war started, an earthquake happened in 1988, and people’s
life’s got real bad because from 1991-1995 there were no electricity or gas
and a lot of people lost their lives. Many people moved after the war and the
fall of the Soviet Union to other countries for a better life. People in Armenia
were very smart and followed all of the laws that was held during that time.
Even thought Takush is very religious with her Christian belief, back in way Armenia
was under the Soviet Union all religions were banned, but after the breaking of
the Soviet Union there were Christian churches opening and there were other
beliefs and religions. Takush is very appreciating to where she is now and what
life has given her and says that it’s all thank to god.
Interview By: Koryun Petrosyan