I spent few days with the Haji, my wife's 88 years old grand mother. I did my best to get from her the memories of the days past. Here is the juice of 4 days discussions and chats.
Her dad bought a house in Saqiet El Janzeer. In her youth, their was a stream that run through her neighborhood. There were a potter who used the stream to make his pottery. Her house was on the wall of the French brigade in Beirut. She was born in 1926, so I am assuming her stories go back to early 40's.
She mentioned that there were French officers and soldiers served by Sinigali helpers. Her sister used to like the French soldiers in the day, but scared of them at night. I presumed this girl was Hdieh, the mysterious sister that I have yet to meet. One story she told me that her sister used to stand under the window of one officer and sings something like: give me checks, give me gum. She sang it in English. I am wondering why English was used by the French? And the "check" she referred to was the " checlets" gum that used to be popular in my young days. I am wondering if it exited back in the 30's and 40's as well, or she was mixing between different eras.
Based on her description of her dad's house, I have strong beliefs she used to live next to my grandpa's house in Saquiet. She talked abut the huge jemaizeh tree awhile was next to her house. My grandpa was next to a jemaizeh tree. She talked about the French brigades... My grandpa was behind the UN brigades in the area... Which was known to be French head quarters before. Did she live next to him and did not know? She does not know.
She said that her dad was forced to move to Fadieh... A suburb of Beirut. It was not clear why they moved. There, she showed she had her encounters with the beauty of nature. Her mom kept a fruitful03288676 dr. Wadi al no3man..
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