Ludvipol: A Modern Shtetl
A Happy Childhood
handle of the canister, which gave her leverage. With this improve- ment, instead of standing and turning the entire container, which was tiring and slow, she could sit down and turn a little handle, holding her other hand on top to keep it steady. This was less tiring and much faster. To us, this innovation was a major breakthrough, on a par with the invention of the atom bomb. During the summer, I used to visit my uncle Usher and aunt Chava, (my father’s sister), and my first cousins, Shalom (Alex), Boris, Riva, Rosa, and Chaya. They lived in the Ukrainian village of Bistricht, about ten miles from Ludvipol. My uncle would drive me there and back in his horse-drawn wagon, which took about an hour each way. Boris was a few years older than me, and remembers walking or bicycling between their home and ours. Bistricht was a big village with three or four hundred families. My uncle and aunt’s house was beautiful. Every morning, my aunt, who was young and as quick as a gazelle, would run out to her garden and come back ten minutes later with her apron full of vegetables, scallions, and radishes for a spring salad. They had some land of their own on which they grew their own potatoes and vegetables. They kept chickens and four or five cows, so they had their own cream, butter, and cheese. Their dog was a large German shepherd who was tough; I could never get near him. At night, he was chained to a wire that crossed from one edge of the property to the other, and he could run back and forth across it on his chain. Nobody could cross the property without encountering him. My uncle was well known and quite well-to-do by all standards. Like my father, he had a big flour mill with many employees. Farmers who lived closer to his village went to my uncle’s mill. I remember some of my father’s friends and associates. Mr. and Mrs. Goldman, for instance, were of the upper class of our town. Mr. Goldman, a prosperous lumber dealer, was respected through- out the community. He was a tall, handsome man, always well dressed, polite, and articulate. His wife had come from a large city
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