A Glimpse in the Life of Ora Zietz Babec

“Alex, can you get the red cooking book from the spare room?” My grandma called.

“Sure, Baba,” I called back. I left for that room and got the red book. I almost left the room and then I noticed that the closet seemed ajar. A dusty, old box occupied the right corner. I never saw it before so I gave the book to Baba and came back.

“Alex, what took you so long?” My grandmother asked me.

“Too many red books in there.” I said. She laughed and continued baking.

I snuck back into the room when I knew that she didn’t need my help. I went to the box. It carried the words “Ora’s Possessions” on the side. I opened it and a cloud of dust tickled my nose. I tried not to sneeze very loudly so I wouldn’t get the attention of Baba. I rummaged through the box until I came across a book named something that I couldn’t read. I think it looked like Ukrainian. Thankfully, English seemed to occupy most of the book. I opened to one of the English pages.

“Papa wants us to write our diaries in English now. Oh well. I guess because we know it, might as well practice it.” It kept on going about normal stuff, until an interesting statement caught my eye. “Oh diary! The last two days were so exciting! We went to Edmonton so I could get eyeglasses! I know the reason why we went isn’t great, but it still was so exciting. Papa told me one night that I needed eyeglasses. I asked him where we would get them. We live on a farm, so we only go to a close country store with only food and necessities.

 “Where are we going to get eyeglasses, papa?” I asked him. When I questioned this, Nancy and Mary both stopped what they were doing to listen. He started to smile and said,

“Edmonton.” Edmonton was at least a day’s trip from our farm.

“How will we get there?” Nancy asked. We all looked at Papa.

“They drive by car there,” He replied. “We are leaving first thing in the morning. Now, to bed.” We headed off to bed. I hardly slept.

We left around 6 in the morning. We all piled into the car. I can’t remember most of the trip because we fell asleep. All I remember is my brother waking us up saying,

“Look at the buildings!” We peered out the window and looking at humongous buildings. We went down Main Street. It was a totally different kind of main street than the one near home. We drove around for about 15 minutes and parked by what papa called a ‘parking meter’. We got out and papa put change in the thing. We walked for about a block until we stopped at the biggest store I ever saw.

“Come on, Ora!” Mary called. I followed her into the store. I never imagined seeing so many items at once. We walked around clothes, jewelry, and perfume. We went passed appliances and bedding. We stopped when we got to the glasses counter.

“1.25 round glasses, please.” Papa told to the lady at the counter. I tried on different glasses until I found one I liked. Then, we caught up with my mother and siblings.

We went back through the store and outside back to the thing. We got back in the car and drove off. I kept looking out the window at the tall, urban buildings until I couldn’t see them anymore. I do not think that I can forget the first time I saw the city Edmonton.”

“Alex!” Baba called form the kitchen. “Dinner.” I came out of my day dream and went to dinner.

“Baba,” I asked. “When did you first go to the city?”

 

 

 

 

 

ORA’S TRIP

Alex B.