Читать книгу Greek Girl's Secrets - Efrossini AKA Fran Kisser - Страница 18

The aunt and uncle did raise a daughter they had named Alexandra. They had adopted her as a baby many years ago, when they visited Greece. They had not been blessed with biological children, so they went to an orphanage in Volos, Greece before World War II and adopted a baby. As an adult Alexandra had a beautiful smile with white straight teeth, olive smooth skin, gorgeous dark hair, and dark eyes. She must have been a very beautiful baby, too, a Greek living baby doll!

Now in 1962 Alexandra was already married to John and they had three small boys. They lived in a two-bedroom apartment on top of a restaurant in Brooklyn, New York.

She was a stay at home mom and John went to night school after his full-time job to advance his career as a chemist. The relationship between the young couple and Alexandra’s parents was on the cool side. When Efrossini was about 15 years old the young couple would invite her to their apartment to baby sit their three young boys and spend the night too. There Efrossini was able to take a shower and eat her fill. She remembers big bunches of bananas in that kitchen. Efrossini also used their typewriter to do her so important book reports which she still has. They have grades of A and even some A+++s.

It seemed Alexandra sensed Efrossini’s hardship and knew she did not ever complain.

Efrossini was also paid for her babysitting which came very handy for her growing body’s expenses. At that apartment she watched television and the western show Gunsmoke late at night. What a treat that was!

She would also take the subway from Corona to Brooklyn to another aunt’s home. This was Fotini and she was a few years younger than Efrossini the older aunt. Aunt Fotini was married to a wonderful man Stratos, who was a diabetic. They owned the rides at Steeplechase and the concession stands on the pier at Coney Island. These were very profitable businesses.

Efrossini remembers going there one Saturday. Her aunt Fotini gave her a whole roll of ride tickets for Steeplechase. She also gave her from one of their souvenir shops, a beautiful, tall, red lacquered Chinese pagoda jewelry/ music box with a ballerina that danced to its music. It was such an expensive gift and Efrossini treasured it.

Then her aunt Fotini took her to Macy’s famous department store. Aunt Fotini fully outfitted her from socks and shoes to a red wool plaid jumper with a low waistline and a black patent leather belt. The outfit also included a white blouse with ruffles at the neckline and at the wrists on the sleeves. It was very up to date and so stylish. She also bought her a new lacy slip and new underwear. Efrossini was so thankful that once again she had some new clothes. Her body was growing and she really needed new clothes every year.

The next day her aunt Fotini took her to the Greek Church to show her off to her friends.

Sunday afternoon Efrossini headed back to the subway and walked the long downhill walk to Jackson Heights.

She was carrying a bag filled with her old clothes and the heavy jewelry box, skipping as she walked. She was so happy for a little while. During her walk, Efrossini day dreamed about how much better her life would have been if the other aunt Fotini had brought her to America. Before she knew it, there she was on 72^ndstreet.

When she entered the home of her aunt and uncle, they obviously noticed the beautiful new clothes. The clothes were just the right size and they fit Efrossini’s slender body so beautifully. They were very upset Efrossini was given the new outfit and her aunt called her sister Fotini to complain about her purchases. There was a fight over the telephone. She did not want her sister to meddle in Efrossini’s upbringing.

Efrossini went to her bedroom and took off the new clothes. She had learned to live with the punches. Efrossini knew by now, never to trust this aunt. She never confided in her about anything. And she did not bad mouth them to anyone. She kept to herself.

Efrossini’s report cards were always A’s and B’s. A couple of times she had gotten D’s at Physical Education, of all classes. This class was responsible for their students’ health and welfare. The school insisted on having their students monitored by a yearly physical at the family doctor and a dental checkup. Efrossini told her aunt and uncle about the school’s requirement and they ignored it.

One day the school teacher called them up and truly embarrassed them.

When finally Efrossini was taken to the dentist the ex-rays showed thirteen cavities.

When Efrossini was leaving Greece, she had a physical and lung ex-rays. She also had a dental checkup with ex-rays. There were no cavities, none.

Two years later she had thirteen cavities. Efrossini does not remember fresh fruits, fresh green salads with all the trimmings, nuts, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, dairy products at the table like milk, cheese, yogurt or puddings. She was lacking calcium. She was a growing girl without calcium.

At her mother’s house she had a great nourishing diet. Her parents insisted all their children consumed lots of dairy products because they needed that nutrition to grow strong bones and good teeth.

The visits to her cousin and her other aunt’s house were infrequent, not enough to get some much-needed nourishment, on a daily basis. The uncle was supposed to give Efrossini lunch money for school too, but most of the time he forgot to do that also. She was too afraid of him to ask for lunch money. Instead she went HUNGRY. The times she had bought the school lunch, she was elated, and she would clean up her plate with appreciation. She loved the school lunches and could not understand what some children complained about. Or maybe they never experienced HUNGER!

Efrossini basically just stayed hungry. She could not believe when she thought about it that she came to America with all her opportunities to be hungry. She was hungering for bread and love! Yet she had to do adult jobs around the house and stayed up late past midnight to finish her schoolwork. Other than cleaning the kitchen, the floor and washing the dishes, her aunt never let Efrossini in the kitchen.

She did not want her to learn to cook. Before she left Greece, her mother was the official cook and she did not learn to cook there also.

Many years later as an adult, Efrossini understood the reason she was the shortest of all four sisters. Her three sisters were 5’ 8” tall and she was only 5’ 5”. The older sisters had even lived in some harsh years and maybe their nutrition was not perfect especially during the war. Still, they grew tall.

Anna, the youngest sister, was pretty much on a gravy train because those were the best of financial times and she was given everything. She was the baby of the family, the menopausal child, and all the brothers and sisters were now long gone from the paternal home. She grew properly, nice and tall too.

Efrossini was not just hungry the four years she lived with her aunt and uncle, but she was also not given the right foods a growing young girl needed to grow properly. The foods her aunt cooked were well done meats with a starch like a potato or noodles and one canned vegetable. This type of cuisine was more like hospital food.

Her aunt did not cook as if she were Greek. Efrossini does not remember seafood or anything resembling the nutritious fresh Greek cuisine.

Another thing Efrossini did to earn some much-needed cash is to walk a 6-mile round trip to Astoria under some bridges. This did not take place often enough. It was a very lonely, short cut, imagine that! When Efrossini finally reached her destination she was out of breath and truly famished. She would hear her stomach growling!

The poor young girl would climb the stairs to the second floor, with hunger pains in her stomach. This apartment was on top of a restaurant and the scents from the foods would permeate the air. Efrossini’s grocer neighbor Pericles in Greece had this older sister Angeliki, in English it would be Angel.

She was the oldest sibling in that family and the only one that had immigrated to America bravely by herself when she was just a youngster. In the 1960’s this lady must have been in her seventies. Efrossini understood this lady’s pain. She knew she had some sad stories to write about.

Angel was legally blind but, in her apartment, she was able to get along and even sew such magnificent custom beaded wedding gowns. Efrossini remembers Angeliki having to hold the fabric so close to her eyes, sewing the beads, pearls and sequences in great patterns. She was even very famous for her craft, locally. This lady could not write to her brother and family in Greece. Maybe she did not know how to write. So, when Efrossini found this out she was so eager to go there and write Angel’s letters to Greece.

Her tiny kitchen had two indoor laundry clothes lines strung above the doors towards the ceiling where she would hang her wash. When the clotheslines were free, Angel would turn her dozen parakeets loose in that kitchen and it was a sight! Efrossini hurried up and ate what Angel would fix her before the birds started to fly.

Angel had promised Efrossini to create a one of a kind, the most magnificent beaded wedding gown for her, whenever she was married. Efrossini was fed well, she wrote lots of letters for Angel to all the Greek relatives and she was giving $10 dollars for her efforts. This was a lot of money for Efrossini. If she did not need it, she would not have taken it. But she needed it desperately.

She also took the letters with her to mail them at the post office the next day. Angel loved Efrossini so much for helping her in such a way. She told her so, while hugging her and kissing her.

Efrossini always made sure she left early enough not to be walking in the dark, under the bridges saying her prayers again and again to find the strength. Her prayers kept her going and they gave her much needed strength. She also thought how she would budget and spend her ten dollars. She needed so much: shoes, stockings, shampoo, toothpaste and some fig Newton cookies. They reminded her of her mother’s fig preserves which they ate on toasted bread in the winter.

When she had the money, she bought something to eat slowly and relish its flavor. Her childhood was long gone, and she had to act and think like an adult now

At the house one time after she returned from Astoria, she had six heavy, old-fashioned metal venetian blinds waiting to be taken down and carried to the bathtub. The living room ones were as wide as the bathtub. They were so heavy! In the tub she used hot water, bleach and detergent to wash them in, without rubber gloves. Her little hands suffered from the hot water and bleach.

At night she had to sneak a little of her aunt’s hidden Jergens almond scented hand lotion. This venetian blind ritual was done seasonally. The windows were open in the spring and summer and the blinds got dusty. This was a difficult job for her especially after she had just walked for six miles.

It was ironic she had walked to Angel’s house to help her but to also earn a little money, to be able to buy her necessities and a little food.

Angel fed her, but the few hours she spent there, and that long walk back consumed any nutrition she had in her belly and now she was famished again.

The short cut she always took under the bridges by the highways had no retail food stores. She had $10 in her pocket and she was still hungry!

With her head held up high, she walked without fear. She had God on her side. She was dreaming of tomorrow when she could buy at the five and ten cent stores after school, her much needed toiletries and a little food. This is what kept her going, giving her strength to do those venetian blinds. She looked forward to eating fig newtons.

She always had to find something that gave her pleasure to make it through hard times. Efrossini day dreamed that is how she comforted herself. The girl was lucky she had so much love in her first thirteen years of life. She hung on that to keep her faith that someday things would be different. She would say: this too will pass…

Efrossini was compelled to do well by her responsibilities and duties, to keep her sadness inside her but to always wear a smile. At school they called her SMILEY. If her school mates only knew, what she was going thru. But they did not really know. A couple of times someone hinted but Efrossini never revealed anything to school mates.

1948, (from left) Achillea, Taki, Malama, Panos, Stelios baby girl, Efrossini