The Tenenbaum Memoir - Our Home/Wool Factory

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The Tenenbaum Memoir

Our Home/Wool Factory
During the same year, 1902, our wool-processing and dyeing business in the village was becoming profitable. Our parents were able to splurge on a new made-to-order suit and a pair of shoes for me... and for others in the family as well. We had plenty to eat, and although the choice was limited, it was nonetheless satisfactory. Our desires were modest and not difficult to fulfill. For us everything was going well.

The wool-processing machine that dominated the Tenenbaum's living room.
South Wall of Living Room
Can you imagine this machine in our Living Room?
[original page 21]

[original page 20] The peasants would bring us raw wool as sheared from the sheep and feed it into the wooden processing machine that rattled like wagon wheels running over the cobblestone-paved main street. That machine was more than half the height of the room and at least twice as long. Yes, all in our living room! The manpower was furnished by the peasants. Two men turned the main wooden drum that turned all [the] other wooden drums. Usually a peasant woman fed the machine the raw wool, and another woman at the other end would roll up the matted wool into easy-to-handle rolls. The rolls were taken back to their homes to spin into yarn. The yarn would later be returned to us to dye. The dyed yarn would then be hand-woven into cloth by the peasant women for their new dresses and sometimes a baggy fitting suit for the husband --all so they could attend church in style on Sundays.

Interior of our last rented house in Visoko, Litovsk
[original page 31]

The opening to the left of the cooking and baking oven was the opening to the Kutche, a hollow space underneath the large oven which was heated once a week for baking. It was used to keep chickens in wintertime and as a cooler for food in summertime; also storage for wood which was used in the oven.

Editor's Notes: The memoir mentions that Morris and his family occupied two houses in Wysokie, but does not clearly distinguish them. The two interior views shown above may be of the same house or of different ones. For the sake of brevity, information about the two family homes has been combined.

Page Last Updated: 26-Nov-2011