published in The Faris Newsletter, Issue #74 July 2021, p. 10   
by Theofanis G. Kalkanis

The market of our village [Xirokampi, Lakonia] is, for me, the most familiar and beloved part of the village after my paternal home. In the summers, in fact, it is the “center of the world.” Everything happens in the market (or the square, as we also call it). The meetings with acquaintances and friends, the new acquaintances, the company, the discussions, the walks, the celebrations and the feasts… There, under the three plane trees and the bitter orange trees, next to the sweet acacia tree in the center, around the welcoming tables of the cafes… from morning until late in the evening… or even at night.

The market does not seem to change in character in terms of the people who frequent it. However, it has changed form since it was created until today, with cement pavements, stone pavements, tree planting, lighting… Mainly, however, its character has changed in terms of the composition of the shops and the commercial activities of the residents and visitors in the wider area.

According to a note published continually, in the first issues of our newspaper [the Faris](from the first to the fifth issues of the years 1966-70), in the wider area of the market, there were operating then: many cafes and restaurants or taverns, wine shops that were also wineries (in basements), a kiosk (always), a market for agricultural products and animals (once a week), a pharmacy (always), doctor’s offices, law offices, post office and telephone office, a bank (formerly), a closed cinema venue, a dance school, a bookstore, a photo studio, barbershops, hair salons, grocery stores, cheese shops, coffee shops, agricultural drug stores, a dried fig station, fabric and clothing stores, tailors, shoemaking and shoe stores, a bicycle repair shop and a traffic light shop, blacksmiths, carpenters and cabinet makers, a tannery, …

Commercial activities in retail stores selling goods and services, as well as the shops themselves, have drastically decreased today, while production activities and manufacturing workshops have disappeared.

A typical example is the shoe stores that were once also cobbler shops, the well-known “tsagkarika” that mainly repaired or even custom-made shoes “on order” and “to the measure” of the customer. The usually large families of the area, most of them agricultural or working-class, provided and maintained a clientele for many cobblers, with their low prices. The requirement for durability was the main concern, while design options were limited compared to today.

A second typical example is the wineries in addition to the wine shops. In many basements, there were barrels (or vats) for the “boiling” of the grape must, which was done with the guidance of a winemaker of Sparta or empirical recipes. Wine was usually sold on the ground floor or bought by enthusiastic neighbors or even compatriots in Athens if it arrived there in good condition.

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I (Carol Kostakos Petranek) am honored to receive permission from the Katsoulakos family to translate and share articles from The Faris. Translation verification and corrections have been made by GreekAncestry.net. This is the eighteenth article of the ongoing series. Previous articles can be viewed here.