Kapelis- The Hatmaker by Andreas Kappa

Author:Andreas Kappa [Kappa, Andreas]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781543401165
Publisher: XlibrisAU
Published: 2017-06-23T04:00:00+00:00

VROSTENA, 1936-1946 (WORLD WAR II)

After discussing his plan, the family packed up their possessions and placed their belongings on to a horse-drawn carriage and left for Vrostena. Once they had arrived, the family lived in the paternal home.

Andreas, with the help of carpenters and workers, began building a cement home on a piece of land given to him by his father, replacing the wooden cabin. The project was funded by money Andreas had saved whilst working in Athens.

The home was completed. It had four bedrooms and a veranda that overlooked the mountains and the Corinthian Sea in the distance. It had an open area under the house for wines, oil, and other goods and farm equipment, like scarifiers for ploughing the land.

Kostas Kapelis was ninety-four years old and confined to the house because of his age. His faculties were intact, but his body had faded away. Kostas and Andreas spent time together, discussing his time in Athens.

Kostas simply said to his son, ‘In Greece, my boy, we never learn. History just continues to repeat itself, to the detriment of its people.’

In early 1937, Kostas Kapelis died at the age of ninety-four. He was buried in the cemetery next to St Nicholas Church.

In mid 1937, Ourania gave birth to a girl, whom they named Vasiliki after her mother. The couple had now established a household and had chickens, goats, sheep, and sowed the land with olive trees, cherry trees, tobacco, currants, raisins, and grapes for eating and for wine.

Andreas also tended to the lands already established by his father. As far as food was concerned, the family was well nourished. They were poor but never hungry.

When they reached school age, the children were placed in the local school, which had survived time. This was the school that had educated Andreas in his early life.

Andreas continued his one luxury of obtaining the papers from Athens to keep up with the activities in the capital. There was a general malaise and apathy among the people of Athens.

Andreas and his family and the village folk were, to a large extent, insulated from the politics of Greece.

Andreas read in the papers that there were several deaths of high-ranking politicians and dignitaries that were described as accidents or sickness. Andreas knew that these deaths were deliberate and cold-hearted assassinations ordered by the king or monarchists sympathetic to the king.

Andreas discussed these matters at the coffee lounge amongst the men or at home with Ourania. She said, ‘If you sit down with a lame man, you will learn to limp.’

Andreas sold his produce at the main town of Kalavryta, where the revolution started. He would load his mule with produce on either side of the saddle and attend the market in the town square.

He would pass the Mega Spileo monastery and light a candle in thanks for the health of his children and his life.

Mega Spileo was a monastery built in AD 326 upon the side of a mountain. It was the oldest monastery in Orthodoxy.

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