Interview with my grandmother
Submitted by Adrian.PJIIT_PO on Wed, 07/01/2009 - 06:39.
I asked my grandmother, how her world looked like, when she was at my age (she was born in the 1920’s). I was shocked, that Poland was such a different country from what is it like today.
TRASH
Mostly there were organic type of garbage, e.g. peelings. People couldn’t afford to throw away anything that could be used again (all kinds of metal or wooden parts). Today it’s much easier to buy a new thing, than repair an old one. The garbage was thrown away to holes which were near living places. There was no troublesome litter, such as plastic bags or bottles.
WATER
Not all houses in the city had running water, in the suburbs mostly it came from wells. The biggest problem was with sewers. They were used only in centre of Warsaw. They didn’t have any filters at all, so most of the pollution came directly into the river.
AIR
Everybody used coal and wood. People warmed themselves up with these and factories used it to make energy. Therefore air was quite polluted and visibility was very low. There were no actions to fight with that problem. People just didn’t care.
TRANSPORT
People used trams and horse carts. There weren’t many cars, only very rich citizens could afford them. An interesting fact is, that streets ware made of cobblestones, not asphalt as they are today.
FOOD
Food wasn’t processed as it is today. People bought simple products, almost without interference from producer (e.g. bags, food preservatives).
SHOPPING
Instead of modern supermarkets, people used to buy things in market places. Very often people from villages came there to sell their agriculture products. In such places you could get almost everything. Besides, there were a lot of small shops with different kinds of goods.
