ODESSA TALES
Odessites are the best known among others as people who are fond
of their hometown - Odessa.
"Why? - you can argue. - The others also love their hometowns!"
Yes, you are right, everybody does, but only Odessites' tender
affection for Odessa has become a legend. A myth. A tale.
Our ancestors were proud enough to compare Odessa with Paris:
Duke de Richelieu as the first governor and the Pale-Royal at
the front of the gorgeous Opera House, the "Moulin Rough" cinema
on Tiraspolskaya Square and the "Lyons Credit" bank on
Rishelievskaya Street, rich maecenases and plenty of artists...
Yes, our ancestors could be proud enough to compare Odessa with
Paris. Today that comparison is just a legend. A myth. A
tale.
"There was happened what was happened" as they say in Odessa.
And now only the historians' "Odessa Memories" about that miraculous "small Paris"
freely walks around the world and tells to others about specific
cultural and social features that have left Odessa streets for
the history just as Odes
sa Jews have left Moldavanka for America and Israel.
The old Moldavanka. That was more than just the "Jewish ghetto
of Odessa", more than a city-district, even more than the famous
Odessa gangsters' home. It was a phenomenon of life style. They
lived there like an entire family. Housewives scaled fish,
cooked jams and bathed babies outside. In stuffy summer nights
they slept under the old acacia in the yard. In the yard they
gathered to share their joy and pain, to celebrate their
weddings and to mourn for their dead... Today that life style is
just a legend. A myth. A tale.
Only these old yards with their numerous ramshackle galleries
and weak stairs remind us the poetry of that vulgar but so
charming living. But these yards will disappear soon also. And
then only Babel's "Odessa tales" will freely walk around the
world and tell to others "how it was done in Odessa"...
The original of the article with photos you will find here