Through a Child’s Eyes: The Hungarian Revolutions and Before

By Evie Klein

Follow a young girl's life in pre-Revolution Hungary in the early 1950s. It ends with her encounters during the revolution and subsequenlyt leaving Hungary. The book follows her thoughts and feelings in reaction to the times.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 14, 2020
• ISBN: 9781796098129

Book preview

Copyright © 2020 by Evie Klein. 752733

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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Rev. date: 04/13/2020

Contents

Hungarian Words, English meanings and pronunciation

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Epilogue

Hungarian Words,

English meanings and pronunciation

Hungarian spelling: English pronunciation: English equivalent

Bacsi: Bachee: UNCLE

Neni: Nanee (a as in ace): AUNT

Kifli: Keeflee: CRESCENT SHAPED BREAD ROLL

Margitsziget: Margitseeget: MARGARET ISLAND; an island in the middle of the Danube River in Budapest, which houses geo-thermal pools and recreational sites.

Ovida: Ovidah: PRE-SCHOOL OR DAYCARE

Palacsinta: Paulachinta: HUNGARIAN FORM OF A CREPE: usually filled with sweet cream cheese, a ground sweet nut mixture or a sweet poppy seed filling

Poytas: Poytash: Name for a dog

Utca: Ootzah: STREET

People’s names

Andras: Ondrash: Andrew

Emre: Imreh: Don’t know of an English equivalent

Eva: Aivah: Eva

Evie: Aivee: nickname for Eve

Ferenc: Fairants: Frank

Gabi: Gahbee: Gabi short for Gabor, English: Gabriel

Judit: Udeet: Judith

Kati: Kawtee: Kathy

Laci: Lawtzee: Les, short for Leslie which is Laszlo in Hungarian, a male name

Mihi: Meehi: Mike

Miklosh: Meecloash: Nicholas

Oszi: Oasee: Nick name for Oscar

Pishta: Peashta: Nickname for Istvan, the English equivalent of Stephen (Steven

Terkaneni: Tairkah (neni as in aunt above): Terry

Tomas/Tomi: Toemahsh/Toemee: Thomas, nickname Tommy

Through a

Child’s Eyes

The Hungarian Revolutions and Before

Chapter 1

Evie Klein’s honey blonde head bobbed back and forth while she rested it against herher’s gray jacket on the trolley. His jacket smelled of cigarette smoke. Her jaw felt the muscles in his arm move as he took out his cigarette making kit and carefully roll a cigarette, in anticipation of the walk home. His round face had a tired look and his thick black eyebrows farrowed in concentrationon the task at hand. He laid the paper in the pocket of the cigarette case and carefully distributed tobacco evenly to make it into a roll. Then he gingerly closed the case of the cigarette making kit which rolled the paper around the tobacco to make a cigarette. He reopened the kit and licked the top paper edge of the cigarette and pushed it onto the rolled cigarette stick. He took the finished cigarette out of the kit and placed it into his pocket.

He sat tall and straight and gave his wavy, thinning, jet black hair a stroke. Evie took comfort in that familiar cigarette smell coming from his wool jacket. His eyes stared out onto the Danube. The trolley squeaked as its tracks went over the Danube River in Budapest. It was twilight, Evie’s eyes squinted as she looked at the sparkling reflection of lights on the river. Her four year old imagination pretended that all the twinkling lights were fairies and that each fairy would grant her important wishes. Any wish! Evie didn’t really have any important wishes, but she knew that if she did have a wish, those twinkling fairy lights would grant them.

Evie looked across to her mother, who kept talking to her, trying to keep her awake. Her mother’s eternal smile and cheerful voice kept Evie from succumbing to sleep. If Evie did fall asleep, her Father would have to carry her on the long walk back to their duplex.

Evie’s mother had long brown hair braided and pinned up on top of her head. She had a beautiful face with clear green eyes. She was an American so Evie spoke both Hungarian and English. In the family setting, Evie spoke English but in social settings, Evie communicated in Hungarian. But now, to keep the sandman away, Evie’s Mother carefully tore pieces of paper off the trolley ticket, licked them and stuck them on her index fingernails, then recited in English; two little blackbirds sitting on a hill, one named Jack and the other named Jill, fly away Jack, fly away Jill, no little blackbirds sitting on the hill, come back Jack, come back Jill, two little blackbirds sitting on the hill. Magically, the pieces of paper disappeared on her fingers when her hand flew up over her head. Then, just as magically they reappeared on the second verse, come back Jack, come back Jill, two little black birds sitting on the hill. Evie demanded that the trick be done again and again so she could figure out how the pieces of paper disappeared. She watched her mother’s fingers carefully but never really saw how cleverly her mother switched fingers in mid-air to an unpapered finger to make the black birds disappear. It was a magic that fascinated Evie. The passengers watched with interest, this family that spoke a different language to amuse their little girl.

The pieces of paper would sometimes fall off of Evie’s mother’s fingers so that she tore more pieces of paper from the trolley ticket, licked them and stuck them to her nails. The trolley ticket got smaller and smaller. Evie enjoyed watching the response of the trolley riders as much as she enjoyed the magic show and she smiled as she watched the toothless old man laughing while watching the birds disappear. Later, the conductor came to collect the tickets, but the only thing Evie’s mother had left was a small piece of paper, not big enough to convince the conductor that she had indeed bought a ticket. No one on the trolley vouched for her either, so her mother had to purchase another ticket. Evie felt bad that her insistence on the continued magic show caused her Mother to purchase another ticket. But after they hopped off the trolley, the incident was forgotten.

Evie clutched her parents’ hands as they made their way on the dirt path through the dark field. Evie could hear the lonely cow chewing the grass, and though the cow moved slowly and seldom, Evie still feared being trampled. After all, the cow was so much bigger than her, maybe twenty times bigger, and, it had horns besides.

The night was clear and only the stars were out. Evie breathed a sigh of relief when they finally reached the road at the end of the cow’s field that lead to their home. The field had no lights but her street had lights making it easy to see the road and be sure that no monsters would jump out and catch her.

Evie loved being between her mother and father. They always sang songs on their walks home. Evie would hear her father’s deep low voice singing the melody of a song and her mother’s high voice chime in with clear harmony. They sang in many languages, English, Hungarian, French, and Spanish. Whatever her parents sang, Evie tried to copy. She especially liked the harmonies. She could hardly wait until she could sing harmonies too, when she got older.

The dirt road may have had street lights but behind every fence there was a barking dog. They seemed to jump out at Evie from all directions and the noise of their barking annoyed the whole family, but particularly frightened Evie. We’ll be home very soon, were the soothing words of her parents.

They arrived at the squeaky iron-gate that opened with a key. Beyond the gate on the left side was an apricot tree. Evie’s father had to duck to miss being brushed by the lower branches. To the right, immediately after the gate of their duplex, were lilac bushes. Evie was always enticed by the sweet perfume of the purple blossoms. After locking the gate, only the gentle thud of their feet on the dirt path to their veranda could be heard. Everybody in Budapest locked their gates.

At the top of seven cement steps, a door opened onto a three sided windowed room. This was where they spent most of their time during the good weather. Evie’s dad went ahead in search of the light switch. Ah, home again, everyone sighed. Now let’s get ready for bed, Evie’s mother encouraged. The flat was spacious for those times. It had two rooms. One was Evie’s room where most of the living took place in the cold weather. It had a potbellied stove, Evie’s bed, a table, some chairs and a bed couch. Through the double doors was Evie’s parents’ room which also was the formal living room where guests were entertained. It had a yellow tiled stove built between the two rooms for warmth for both rooms, but the potbellied stove was cozier. The toilet was down the hall and the bathing room with the tub and a kitchen were off of Evie’s room. It was too late that night