by Maria Tsiadou
I interviewed my grandfather who was for forty years the Mayor of Portaria. He told me about his childhood.
“When I was young, we had war. I have lived the war with Italy, with Germany and the worst, tηe Civil War. I saw dead people and people starving. Luckily for us, my father had a tavern. He stole from the Germans and he gave to the whole village.
After the war and graduating from the primary school in Portaria, I went to the Male Junior High School of Volos. Every morning, I used to walk from Portaria to Volos and after the lessons I would go to the suburbs of Volos by bus and then on foot to Portaria. Back then, we had economic problems due to the war that had just finished. When I graduated from Senior High School, I immediately began working as staff in a constructing office and at the same time, I was studying to become an engineer.
Life then was completely different. We didn’t have TV sets or mobile phones. We bought the first black and white TV in 1971. Another example is that in 1964, as the Mayor of Portaria, I asked the Minister of Communications for each and every citizen to have their on phone because until then, there was one telephone centre at the post office and only that way they could phone their friends and family outside the village. Now there are many scientific discoveries and as a result, life is so much better easier!”
