SOMETHING FROM NOTHING

Note: Tillie Verigin, daughter-in-law, of Annie Verigin, took these notes from a verbal dictation provided by Annie Verigin and dated May 1992.

“……When I sit alone in the evenings, I often think about how times have changed between the 1920s and the 1990s. Something urged me on that I should write this true story for my family to remember. Perhaps I should have written when I was younger and my memory was better but I will try now.

In the 1920s, very few people had money so they had to stretch every dollar the best way they could.

I remember one interesting happening at our place. I was around eleven or twelve years old.

There were two families living fairly close to each other. The first family consisted of my grandparents, Sam and Marhonnia Morozoff, their blind son George and an orphaned grand-daughter Nora. The second family was my father Sam and Step-mother Ann Morozoff and us six children Annie (me), Polly, Lillian, Alex, Sam and Nick (Elmer note: I am assuming that the 7th child Florence was not born at this time). Actually these two houses were very close together. Each family slept in their own house but meals were served together at grandparent’s house. The arrangements were alright for awhile but father’s family was growing and it became crowded.

Eventually, father pulled a bigger house over from another farm and set it a little further away from those two houses. We were then able to eat and sleep in the same house.

There was only one stove that bread could be baked in and the grandparents took it (the stove). We had another stove that didn’t have an oven. We were poor and there was no money for a new stove until harvest. So our poor stepmother would start the bread dough at home and take it to granny’s oven to bake. It was hard for both grandma and stepmother in those days, nobody bought bread.

The difficulty created a lot of commotion and father had to do something. So father went out to the bush and brought back some green willows. They were about 36 inches long and 2 inches thick.

Right on the garden, not far from our house, he started to make us a “petch” (a homemade oven for baking). He stuck on end of the stick into the ground and the other about 18 inches opposite to it. Then he took another willow and put it beside the first, the same way. He continued until the “petch” was enough for 8 loaves. Then he brought some clay and put into an old tub. He added some chaff (short straw) and water, mixing it well. Then he plastered it over the willows and started a small fire inside. He kept on mixing the clay and applying it over the willows. He then made a bigger fire so that the clay could dry properly.

I wish I could remember more now. I can’t tell how much clay mixture he put over the willows. The fire was burning inside and we, the children, were so excited and kept running around.

I cannot remember how he closed the end of the “petch” and I cannot remember seeing any bricks lying around. He might have stood up sticks and put on clay mixture too. (Elmer thinks she is talking about the ends). I do remember there were some old steel doors on the other end. When the bread was put into the “petch” it was closed with the steel door.

Now when I think of that day, I feel so proud of my father. He was a great man. He made “something out of nothing” that day. My stepmother had to make bread that day and father started to make the “petch”. By the time stepmother’s bread was ready to bake, the “petch” was ready too.

So that day the bread was baked in the new “petch” and it was especially good bread. Stepmother baked bread in that “petch” all summer long until harvest. Then in the fall, father had enough money to buy a new stove that baked bread.

I was talking to sister Polly about this day and she remembers it too. The rest of the children were too young to remember.

This is a true story and I call it “Something from Nothing”.

Thanks Tillie for helping me write this story down. I didn’t know who I should ask for help.

Transcribed from original notes by Elmer Verigin September 22, 2012

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