The Horse Adjutant The Jarmark
My boyhood world was simple. I played with my friends, roamed the hills as much as I could, and avoided schoolwork like the plague. My favorite day each week was Mon- day, the day of the weekly Jarmark (Market). Each Monday the people converged to the center of our town, bringing all sorts of things to sell. The center of town was an open courtyard. It was framed at either end with two circular pools of water. My old friend, Max, reminded me how those two small pools were filled with the promise of the region, crystal clear water. He was 92 at the time we discussed this, proving how memorable and mesmerizing those pools of water were. Evidently, I wasn’t the only person who appreciated their refreshing wonders. It was a perfect location for local commercial activity. On market days you could see the strangest things. The sellers would set up boxes and tables of goods with all kinds of items for sale while horses and wagons idled nearby. The wagons filled up a large portion of the square. There were so many of them it created a traffic jam full of work animals, manure, carriages, and their keepers. My father could have easily been among them. I remember one odd fellow who sold dried mushrooms that were tied in a string around his neck. With this costume, he would dance around trying to draw attention to his strange produce. There were also Gypsies in colorful clothing selling gleaming copperware; metal they carefully banged into use- ful shapes that the townspeople favored. Our clothing was mostly handmade. There was no such thing as a department store, but, at the Jarmark you could find some finished pieces for sale. For instance, I saw leather goods in all shapes and sizes -- whips, saddles, belts, shoes, and boots. As a child, I wandered around this fair with many other poor kids. All of us were looking for jobs to earn a little change. My favorite job was having a chance to turn the grinding machine on the ice cream maker, a rare treat. I also had a chance to hear and practice many languages, and become familiar with the cultures associated with them. It was common to hear Polish, Yiddish, German or Russian. I excelled in understanding all of these languages. Maybe it was for the practi- cal purpose of just earning a few coins? I’m not sure. Or maybe my language skills were advanced because I spoke two languages from a young age. Grybow thrived on a combination of tourism and market days. There were other
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