Muddy roads

Stuck in the Mud

“Are there any swamps where you live?" was one of the first questions Pesya asked her sister, who had settled in New York in 1936. This question was highly relevant to her. Pesya lived in Dotnuva, where the impassable mud in the streets was an unavoidable part of daily life.

“Here the swamps are so big that it is difficult to describe them, you already know them. When we cross the street our legs get stuck in the swamp and it is difficult to pull them out, and when we wear big galoshes, there is no other choice than to leave them in the swamp and bless and thank God that the body remained intact”, she humorously wrote.

Residents of other shtetls also complained about the unbearable mud. In Kražiai, people placed stones and bricks in the overly muddy streets. Like goats, they would hop from one stone to another to safely reach the other side without losing their galoshes. However, this only worked during the day. At night, the stones became invisible in the mud.