Articles by Initial Letters

Arany Piroska writes short stories. She was born in 1931 in the eastern Hungarian town of Derecske, where she grew up and later worked as a school teacher. Since the 1960s she has been writing down the stories heard in her home town from her grandparents and extended family. folkMAGazin has been publishing selected stories from her book “Kendőmesék” (Magyar Kultúra Kiadó. Győr, 2008.) “Kendő” is the Hungarian word for the headscarf worn by rural married women in this part of the world. The story in this issue isn’t about a particular woman’s headscarf – but there is a woman’s touch. This is the story of two village people, both past their prime. One is Samu a bachelor who sang in the local men’schorus, was the barber in town and whose mother had ruined every chance he had had for a wife. The other person is Anna – are spectable woman whose husband had died – she didn’t have children. When Anna decided to adopt a child… a chain of change was set in motion for 3 people. A lucky orphan found a good home. After Anna took the boy she’d adopted for a haircut, she began doing laundry for Samu’s barbershop. Quite naturally one thing led to another. Soon Anna and Samu were getting married and a new family was formed.