My Armenian Dadeek (Summer 08)

Jennie Barkinskaya
Prairie031@yahoo.com

As I prepare to become a "real" adult living on my own, making my own decisions regarding finances, meals, home décor, cleaning and the general upkeep processes involved in the maintenance of a household, I find myself calling on the knowledge bestowed upon me by my Armenian grandmother who had a large part in raising me and with whom I up to this day share a bedroom with.

This living situation will not last for much longer as I ready myself to move away from home for school this upcoming fall.

Having lived through many a hardship and challenging political and economic situations throughout Europe, my grandmother’s love and advice does not come openly and freely in the form of hugs, kisses and outright support; rather it comes in the form of strict, realistic, and to be quite honest, at times even annoying and nagging critiques and criticisms.

Even though most times as a child and as a teenager I tried to swat away and ignore my grandmother’s guidance, which I mistook as critical chiding, today I value and agree with most of her advice and even hear myself doling it out to people I know including those of you who are reading this.

The first lesson is about food, more specifically, onions, bread and tea. These foods, according to my grandmother are super miracle foods that will allow you live a strong, healthful and long life. Onions are not only flavorful and cholk-full of beneficial vitamins; they can also be used as the main ingredient in an anti-inflammatory compress. I learned this when I became the stinkiest fifth-grader with a sprained ankle west of Los Feliz Boulevard.

Bread eaten with every meal will keep you full for a much longer time than a meal without bread. My grandmother learned this while on her way to Armenia from Greece by way of ship on the Black Sea. As the ship came closer to shore my grandmother began to throw pieces of bread into the sea for the birds to eat.

Little did she or the birds know that the birds had competition from hungry people on shore who began to dive into the water and swim towards the bread. Needless to say, my grandmother is not a fan of the trendy low or no carbohydrate diet. In fact, I am thinking of getting her an "I love carbs" t-shirt during the next holiday season.

Hot tea with lemon and honey is the ultimate flu, cold and menstrual cramp healer. It is a formula for instant soothing action. This has been ingrained in me so much that whenever somebody I know tells me that they are not feeling well, my immediate reaction is to frantically let them know that they should be drinking copious amounts of tea, specifically mint tea for those of you out there taking notes.

The next lesson is that of always wearing damashniyi tapachki. It is a sign of cleanliness, both for your feet and the floor, it elongates the life of your socks by reducing wear and tear and of course, it keeps you from catching cold when walking on cold marble or tile flooring, even when you are living in warm and sunny southern California.

The last and what has been to me the most significant lesson from my grandmother is that of thrift. Having gone through financial hardships throughout her entire life, from her modest childhood in Greece where her family settled after fleeing Armenia during the Genocide to spending her early 20’s working in a hotel in the German countryside of all places during WWII in order to send money back home to Greece and then settling down to raise her children in the Soviet satellite nation of Ukraine in the 1950’s, she has learned much about the value of frugality, budgeting and efficient use of resources and consumer products.

These skills according to her include not buying new clothing, handbags and shoes when you already have a closet full of bokluk as well as not buying a whole slew of bath products for your shower when all you need is one bar of ojar from the 99 Cents Store.

Even though I know that re-using plastic baggies and obsessively remembering to turn off lights in rooms when I leave them will not make me a millionaire, I feel like I’m saving money and besides, being economical and resourceful and sometimes even downright Spartan helps the environment as well as my wallet.

These next couple of months before I move about 400 miles away from my family, home and friends will be bittersweet: I am extremely excited about starting school again and having a place of my own but I am also incredibly frightened of being far away from the people, places and things that I have known my entire life.

At times when I find myself anxious about the whole thing, I hold on tightly to what is comforting and dear to me; the voice of my mother, the smell of my house and of course the incredibly wise and somewhat wacky advice imparted to me by my Armenian grandmother. When I get really scared, I do research to see if there are Armenian food stores in Sacramento where I’ll be moving to so that I won’t have to go without basturma, sujuk, tahn and lehmeju.
Also, like every good Armenian, I will have an achk and a picture of Echmiadzin hung up somewhere in my apartment because you can’t help from where your blood flows; mine starts at the top of Mt. Ararat, flows into Lake Van, makes a detour into southern Ukraine and then flows straight into my veins.