Anastasie Vondra

“Uhlans ride o’er the water, oh, their pretty horses go, horses go! Uhlans ride o’er the water, oh, their pretty horses go! My love she does follow them, her sweet blue eyes a-wiping, a-wiping. My love she does follow them, her sweet blue eyes a-wiping. Sweet blue eyes, go to sleep, to wake up in the morning, the morning! Sweet blue eyes, go to sleep, to wake up in the morning! Early morning, morning, morn, right before the sun comes up, sun comes up. Early morning, morning, morn, right before the sun comes up. When the sun has risen up, my loved one is a-walking, a-walking. When the sun has risen up, my loved one is a-walking. Walking up and down the square, all the boys some news to bear. Such a piece of news it is, that the army is drafting, is drafting. Such a piece of news it is, that the army is drafting. If they’re drafting, they will go, such a pity of the beaus, of the beaus. If they’re drafting, they will go, such a pity of the beaus. Pretty boys... (end of singing) There we, when... well, when we drink a tad of rum... (singing) Pretty boys to the wenches, ugly ones to the farmers. Oh, what wife for a cobbler, perhaps a humpbacked hobbler, a hobbler, oh, what wife for a cobbler, perhaps a humpbacked hobbler. (end of singing) I like this song because my father-in-law was a shoemaker. Well, and he was kind of... hunched, and the older of my sons was also hunched... And then, well, back then cobblers weren’t held in respect, and even as a daughter-in-law I said: Oh, what wife for a cobbler, perhaps a humpbacked hobbler. Well, as you can see, now, one must respect a person who’s a cripple, and before - it was reckoned that only a cobbler had to marry a humpback, a cripple perhaps. So, what wife for a cobbler, any wife, perhaps a humpbacked hobbler.”

“Czech food - that’s halushky, dumplings, kyselachka [sour] soup is cooked... Kyselachka is cooked... Well, it’s cooked. Do you know how kyselachka is cooked? Well, I’ll explain it in Czech, so write it down. You beat the butter, there’s this kind of churn, now they do everything electrically, but in the past we beat the butter in a churn like this. You beat the butter, pour it out, you scoop the butter out, and you pour buttermilk from the churn. You cook potatoes, boil them a bit in water, and the buttermilk is done a bit... sour. You cook the potatoes, buttermilk, and then you make dough with bits like this, and you cut it up into leaf-shapes - like this, throw the dumplings in, and the cream, when it’s skimmed, we even had manual separators... you skim the cream, mix it up, an egg and the potato broth, you pour it in, pour it in, and it’s kind of - a soup, when it’s cold, it’s... what is now called okroshka, and the Czechs here called it kyselachka [sour soup]. Kyselachka, soup.”