At
age sixty-one, Jack Kumjian, who now lives in Glendale, California since 1967,
still wakes up every morning listening to the noisy garbage truck pulling up his
drive way. He then remembers the calm and natural life he had back in the
village he lived in named Sednaya like it was yesterday. He gets ready for work
early in the morning and leaves before his daughter can even say good-bye.
He misses the delicious foods his mother used to make and the pure
drinking water he used to drink in the town he lived in. Memories of how he
visited neighbors after coming home from school knowing practically everybody in
a village that had approximately 15,000 people in it filled his mind. He recalls
how students moved to the city named Damascus, the capital of Syria, which
Sednaya is located, where they attended colleges. Good memories of him living a
simple and relaxed life in Sednaya during the late 1950s gives him the
impression of wanting to go back. He says it was a more natural life and a
different way of living than we live today in the city.
Sednaya, a village in Syria, was more
or less a very simple village where most people were farmers who were involved
in their daily farming work. Therefore, the mayor probably would have considered
one of the most famous person or hero, who was the one in charge of looking
after the village. There was also one person that was a comedian and almost
everybody knew him. When the people gathered together, the comedian used to tell
jokes and was famous for them, but was not considered as a hero. My father who
was a preacher and a tailor at the same time was a well-known figure as well. He
was a minister but was not paid for being a minister in a small church of
Armenians. We had Sunday morning services and we also had youth services. My
father was the main person administering the entire church and was known for his
preaching’s to the community people.
In my village, there were two
newspapers one being in Armenian and one being in Arabic. We also had radios to
obtain news about what was going on in the world. Our newspapers had sections in
them, but not to the level that we have today. Mainly it covered news and
announcements and if there was a big event outside of Sednaya, such as Syria,
they used to advertise about a specific event. Events like the Italian circus
visiting Syria used to be advertised so the people could drive or travel to
Syria to see the fair. There was no access to television, but only two or three
families owned one.
When the farmers harvested their
products, mainly consisted of grapes, there was a designated day to celebrate
when all the farmers brought whatever they planted and harvested to the
community and all the community people got together including grandparents,
parents, and grand children. There was also food available prepared by the
farmer’s wives who were in charge of households and the men who were in charge
of working and bringing food on the table. People
had to purchase these foods. On the other hand, fruits were free because every
farmer brought their own fruits and as a good gesture, they just had the people
enjoy their product.
People had more time to visit each
other and families were much closer than the current time that we are living in.
The ladies spent more time working together and cooking together. In the evening
when the husbands came home from work they also mingled with the neighbors and
with one another. The farmers also visited neighbors when they came home from
the fields during their spare time. Playing cards and “tavle” which is
backgammon were famous entertainments for the people. Some people also played
the “oud”, which is the predecessor of a guitar, as a talent or a hobby. And
as someone played the “oud” the Armenian people sang along with different
hymns of music.
The Armenian community had their own
schools and students attended junior high school where they were taught Armenian
along with other required courses. Arabic was required because that was the
common and most used language of Syria. Students such as Arabs attended Arabic
schools whether they were Christian or Muslim which went all the way to high
school. Above high school, people had to move into the city named Damascus to
attend colleges. There were schools where some were with tuitions and some were
not. The Armenian schools were private schools so therefore we had to pay, but
there were also public schools, which were supported by the government and were
free.
People had huge amount of respect
towards one another, especially among neighbors and especially towards elderly
people. The younger generation had strong respect towards their grandfathers
because of cultural beliefs. Because people treated elder people as the wiser
person and the experienced person, therefore, the people respected whatever an
elder requested which is somewhat close to how we, as a society, treat older
people.
From my experience and life, my father
and mother were both active in disciplining us and teaching us from what is
right and what is wrong. They both were in charge of making decisions within the
household, but communicated with their children differently. My mother normally
used to advice us by calling my siblings and me in a private area of the room
and spoke to us rather than using other means of discipline. On the other hand,
my father was more conservative and showed no emotions to his children. He
usually bribed his children to behave.
There were no classes associated with
the town, but there were some rich farmers. Majority of the community people
were of middle income and were surviving off their farm products. Being someone
in the middle-class, there was no luxury. Barely few people owned cars and most
people’s transportation was either done in a public bus or by horses, which
were used as transportation in the late 1950s. People who owned cars were
considered wealthy and probably only ten people in the village owned them. If a
female were driving, she would be looked as if she had higher class than other
ladies because most females didn’t drive at that time.
Sednaya’s government worked in a way
where it was more of a parliamentary system where each village selected a
representative and that representative represented the village people in the
parliament. Then the member of those representatives elected the president.
Normally, when the president gets elected, the same president will be a
president for a long term, not for four or eight years. Also, the president
tries his best to have his son, if he has one, to be the next president.
Therefore, that is more or less enforced even though people elect
representatives but the representatives elects his son rather than having other
people run for presidency because, there wouldn’t be many people running for
presidency.
There were also some governmental
reforms during the late 1950s in Sednaya, when the president of Egypt, Abdel
Nasser tried to reform three countries to become as one government. These three
countries were Syria, Egypt, and Jordan and he being the president of these
three countries. He was trying to unite these three Arab countries but the plan
did never materialize and he never did succeed. The purpose of Nasser to take
such actions was because he wanted to make the Arab society more powerful under
his control.
In addition to governmental reforms,
there were always issues of Syria taking sides with Palestinians against Israel
because, during the 1950s Israel was at war with Palestinians and had many
housing, healthcare, and education problems. The Syrian government tried to help
Palestinians much as possible so that they will not migrate to their chaotic
country.
We as a society in Sednaya were very
happy. Even though we did not have much, all my brothers and sisters along with
our neighbors, were full of happiness. Kids played with one another; Muslims
with Christians or Armenians with the Arabs. Normally, the houses were built by
bigger bricks and were very simple with one bedroom and a kitchen. Most houses
didn’t have showers or hot water so they had to go to public bathrooms to take
showers. Some houses were more modern having bathrooms and hot water.
Definitely, some day, I would want to
go back and live in Sednaya again after talking so much about the good life I
had there. I think or I am sure that Sednaya has now been modernized because
Sednaya itself was an attraction for tourists. Sednaya was a big catholic
monastery which was quiet famous in that region and provided visitors from
Lebanon and Elypto or other neighboring countries to come and stay there as a
hotel which, by the way, there were none available. With all those tourists
coming at that time, I think that now it has modernized.
After so many years, I’m almost sure
that now if I go I would probably not recognize the town that I have once lived
in.
Interviewed by Lara Kumjian