Domestic details of life in Wysokie:
MAX: Max, interviewed by Lisa or talking with other family members In the summertime it used to be that all the individuals, tailors, shoemakers, carpenters, in addition to their... trade, everybody had a cow. The cow used to give us milk, and cheese and butter, and there used to be pastakh (Yiddish: פּאַסטעך shepherd/cowherd), I don't know what to say. Pastakh is the one who feeds the cow. But when the spring came, and the grass started to come up, so we had a combination group of cows... And [they would] bring them back at dusk, the sun used to set down, and you hear from here, there, everywhere, moooooo!!! Everybody knew that their cows are coming home. Every night! Sleep over in the house!
And the cows were so trained, that they used to come in from the street, and stop off at the window, and why the window? You know why the window?
My father used to prepare some old bread, rolls, other things... The cows they were so trained, that when they came to the house, they didn't go any further, this was their house. And the cows used to come to the house, and my father, he should rest in peace, opened the door, and he used to handle over a piece of bread, a piece of food to the cow. The cow used to stay, she wouldn't move away until she got something, a sandwich! After that, the cow went her way, in the barn, and my mother used to milk the cow, and get out the milk, put it in cans, and use it! We used to make cream cheese, and cheese, and all this, and butter and everything.
The role of cattle and importance of dairy products in the daily diet is confirmed by another eyewitness account.
Max gives us a brief broader look at Wysokie life:
MAX: Sure! Life was organized, to a certain extent... with nothing around, with their own hands to sew, make men's suits and lady's suits and all this…
NARRATOR: Lisa, backgrounding/commenting. Each little shtetl in the Pale was a world unto itself. Occupations ranged from standard services to the Gentiles – tailors, shoemakers, blacksmiths– to the particularly Jewish professions – matchmakers, Sabbath candle-lighters, synagogue beadles (attendents/caretakers). The Jews tried to be as self-sufficient as possible, and while few were farmers, most had a cow and some chickens, and a small barn in which to house them. Expanding outward from the center of the town were unpaved streets. The houses, one after the other, were situated on small plots of land but were close enough so that one always knew his neighbor's business.
Without a doubt, Jews were most commonly merchants and service-providers.
NARRATOR: Although owning farm animals was a natural part of Jewish existence, the Jews were basically estranged from the earth. They could not tie themselves to a land from which they almost surely would be forced to leave. It was not until the declaration of the state of Israel that Jews began to reestablish their affinity for the earth. It is true that the cow provided Max's family with sustenance and was, indeed, a part of the family – yet his comic treatment of the cow's role underscores a basic unfamiliarity with nature.
Urban Jews --say, residents of Brest or Warsaw-- could fairly be described as estranged from the land. Wysokie Jews lived in a gritty environment, never very far from rural sights, smells, lack-of-modern-sanitation; mud, animal excrement. Max's description of cattle in Wysokie could alternatively be viewed as good-natured affection for these essential animals.
Not at all surprisingly, townspeople kept chickens:
LISA: Lisa, interviewing her grandfather, Max Did you have any other animals, any chickens?
MAX: Yeah, chickens. Always chickens. Chickens used to be in the back, squawk... Everybody had chickens.
LISA: Did you slaughter the chickens?
MAX: Yeah, we used to from time to time.
LISA: Who had that job?
MAX: MAX: There was a shochet, you know what a shochet is?
LISA: A butcher?
MAX: No, a shochet is a slaughterer.
LISA: Did he come around and do it for you?
MAX: No, we used to go to him.
LISA: You would bring a live chicken... who plucked the feathers?
MAX: Mama did it! Mama did it, [my] grandma did it.
LISA: Wow. In the house?
MAX: In the house, there was a little... pantry.
It is suggested that shochets performed a vital public health function. Were shochets well-trained? Licensed? How often did they reject an animal?