Category Archives: Xirokambi

Our Market, the Center of the World – Commercial and Production Activities

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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 Plateia of Xirokampi; Photos by Carol Kostakos Petranek

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.

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.

Three Old Stories of Barter Economy

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Author: Theofanis G. Kalkanis
published in The Faris Newsletter, Issue 78, July 2023, page 32

Barter economy (or labor) was a common practice in the past in our region and elsewhere. More common was the exchange of labor in olive picking and other agricultural and livestock tasks among families. Usually, barter labor occurred between families, but also between professionals, involving building houses or other activities or even household production of cheese, soap, pasta, etc. However, there were also notable and characteristic cases and stories of barter economy between communities or even between ecclesiastical authorities and the residents or professionals of the villages.

A first case/story is the one that has come down to us and concerns the painting of some of the icons of the altarpiece (iconostasis) of the Holy Trinity of Xirokambi. These are the 14 small icons in a row at the top of the iconostasis. As the old resident of the village, Dim. Men. Xanthakos, narrated before his death, an iconographer, Pan. Lazaris, lived in our area during the time of the Italian-German occupation. He painted icons for churches in exchange for olive oil. Each icon of the iconostasis that he painted (in one day, as remembered by D. M. X.) was “exchanged” for a can of oil!

Holy Trinity Church, Xirokampi showing the 14 icons across the iconostasis
Photo by Carol Kostakos Petranek, June 2023

Another story that is characteristic of barter labor (and on a large scale) is the following: In Xirokambi until the early 1960s, long queues of residents lined up in front of the communal faucets at a few points in the village. Everyone waited to fill containers or pitchers, wooden barrels, or metal jugs with drinking water for all uses. At that time, the community council with presidents Georgios and Nikolaos Koumoustiotis successively, commissioned contractors for a large project for the village and its residents. Water was to be supplied to all houses with underground metal pipes from the tank that had been built in Anakolo. The “contract” with all the residents entailed their mandatory personal labor, “exchanging it” for the provision of water to each house. Instead of personal labor, some residents exchanged with the community a worker or an animal for transportation or a skilled craftsman with money or oil. The project was completed in the early 1970s and changed life in our village and elsewhere.

Woman at communal water faucet in the plateia (village square), Xirokampi, July 2018
Photo by Carol Kostakos Petranek

The third case concerns the operation (in the mid-1960s) in Xirokambi of a Branch of the Gymnasium [high school] of Sparta for the students of our area until an independent Gymnasium was established. At that time, many students used to stop their studies after Primary School or continue their studies in Sparta by renting rooms and receiving baskets of food every day… With the initiative of some residents, pharmacist Theof. G. Kalkanis and merchants Elias Chr. Kapetanakos and Ilias N. Liakakos, the establishment and operation of the branch became possible (after persistent efforts). The original and remarkable thing is that the teachers who were transferred from the Gymnasium of Sparta were “bartered” with the oil collected by the parents from the committee (…)

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 fourteenth article of the ongoing series. Previous articles can be viewed here.

Faris at the Library of Congress

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I am so pleased to share exciting news that the Faris (Φαρις) newsletter of Xirokampi, Lakonia, is now in the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Archivist Nevila Pahumi, who oversees the “Greece and Cyprus” collection in the European Reading Room, enthusiastically received the printed copies for the years 1979 to present. Earlier copies (1966-1977) which were published under the title Xirokampi, will be reprinted and donated at a later date.

Nevila Pahumi welcomes the donation of Faris, July 18, 2023

Last month in Athens, Dimitris Katsoulakos brought me forty-four years of printed editions of Faris. It was a thrilling experience to bring these back to the U.S. and donate them to the Library.  Ms. Pahumi explained that it is quite difficult for the Library to obtain printed copies of publications that are created at the local level, especially from rural villages. “We are very happy to have it in our collections, so that generations of future users can access it in both physical and digital form. The ability to service it to users in both formats increases the likelihood that they can work with the historical and more current issues. This kind of primary resource is invaluable, and I thank you for personally bringing it in all the way from Xirokampi.”

Faris is unique because its contents are not only empirical research, but also — and more importantly — it has captured oral histories and first-person accounts of village life and historic events. People who are conducting research about life in Greece will use Faris as a prototype of village life. It is exciting to think of our village of Xirokampi as being a primary source for academicians worldwide!

To access digital copies of Faris, click here. I am honored to have permission to translate and republish selected articles from Faris on an ongoing basis. These posts can be found here.

European Reading Room at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., July 18, 2023

If you know of other publications from Greece which could possibly be donated to the Library of Congress, please email me. Ms. Pahumi is seeking to expand the Greece collection.

While at the Library, I also brought copies of the family history books that I have written about my maternal and paternal grandparents. These were donated to the Local History and Genealogy Reading Room. Please note: the Library gratefully accepts ALL books which are biographical, family history or local history. They can be mailed to:

Library of Congress
U.S. Special Acquisitions Section – RG
101 Independence Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20540-4275

The archivist suggests sending books via UPS or FedEx, not U.S. Mail, because the U.S. Post Office irradiates all incoming mail which could permanently damage or destroy books. If possible, also provide the carrier’s name and tracking number.

The Field Guard

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by Dimitrios G. Prevas, Palaiopanagia, February 7, 2011

Published in The Faris Newsletter, Issue 54, July 2011, page 20

There’s a scientific principle that any gap that is created in nature is inevitably and typically filled by other elements of inferior quality. We all tend to forget this when old values are abandoned or lost.

The field guard is also one of the old values, who protected the land, the countryside, the outdoors that is now unguarded and where countless outlaws roam freely, terrorizing the elderly, taking their wages, stealing everything, whatever they can find: lambs, chickens, kettles, irrigation valves, with a great risk of killing you or, you killing them and going to jail.

Every village used to have a capable field guard, the protector of nature. Every day, alone but also with other field guards, he roamed the land, a vigilant sentinel, observing everything in his grey uniform with boots and a hat, like a constable.

A juvenile Greek shepherd guarding his flock; photo courtesy of the Library of Congress; http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/stereo.1s26252

And although before you saw him passing, in another part of the village you heard him whistling. He was a fickle person, an excellent tracker who could find any trace, even in the mud or dust. He investigated the tracks and acted accordingly. He knew the owner of every field, the flocks, and every estate whether it was sown, fallow or obstructed. He settled the villagers’ disputes and always made a proper assessment of their damages. At night he conducted raids, frequently patrolling and setting up several ambushes, and even staying up all night. So, no one would dare to break the law because the invisible guard would punish fairly. He did his job right and the farmers acknowledged him. Well done, they said to themselves, and they slept peacefully. The field guards guarded the outdoors which is now unguarded and countless outlaws roam freely. They terrorize, burn and loot. This phenomenon is in great need of the government to address it. When you guard yourself from all danger, then you will learn to guard ordinary citizens as well.

Aristotle had said that, when there are law-abiding citizens, there is no need for the state. For this reason, the real power must institute draconian laws to secure order.

Field guards I have known:
Anogeia: Petros Vivliotis, Leonidas Stathakos, Christos Menoutis.
Palaiopanagia: Vasilis Kourniotis, Dimos Giannopoulos, Giannos Smyrnios, Panagiotis Perentesis, Pavlos Mylonas.
Trapezonti: Evaggelos Asimakis; Achilleas Miridis, Dimitrios Roumeliotis.
Xirokampi: Georgios Kalogeras, Athanasios Vergados, Giannis Mpouzas.
Kaminia: Apostolos Kritikos.
Gorani: Evaggelos Katounas.

I 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 eleventh article of the ongoing series. Previous articles can be viewed here.

“Light-Water-Telephone” in Xirokampi (Part 3 – Telephone)

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by George Theoph. Kalkanis

published in The Faris Newsletter, Issue 62, July 2015, pages 3-6

(Note: this post, “Telephone” is the third of three parts describing the earliest modern developments in Xirokampi. Part 1: Light, can be read here; Part 2: Water, can be read here.)

The OTE telephone network entered the houses and shops of the village in the late 1960s and early 1970s. OTE, founded in 1949, succeeding the 3Ts (Post Office [“Tachidromio”] – Telephony – Telegraphy), then began to install telephones connected to automatic dialing systems. The systems for each rural area were operated in the, so-called, Rural Telephone Centers.

In Xirokampi the center was housed for a brief time in the post office that was installed on the ground floor of the house of Dimitris Xanthakos and was to serve the telephones of the inhabitants of the villages of the whole area. The first employee and supervisor was Georgios Evag. Karampelas, who took over all the operations related to telephone and telegraph communications. Then the center was relocated to the ground floor of Ilias Kapetanakos’ house. Panagiotis Il. Komninos and Vassilis Il. Christopoulos also worked at the center temporarily, before Efstratios Ioan. Kritikos was hired as a permanent employee.

In the past, telephones were operated by means of manual systems, whereby the selection of telephone connections was made by means of plugs that operators/answering staff inserted into holes in a panel. They measured with mechanical timers the duration of calls as well, while calls required the turning of a small ‘crank’.

Photo credit: Library of Congress. Kansas City, Missouri. Private branch exchange (PBX) operator at her switchboard in the freight depot, photographer: Jack Delano; created 1943. https://www.loc.gov/item/2017847312/; accessed March 16, 2023

The office of Xirokampi was connected through a telephone line to every neighboring village. Even earlier, communications were made from station to station by telegraph or teletype, which in Xirokampi were originally installed in the house of Sotiris Papadakos (or Kokkinos).

Automation, the expansion of the telephone network and the proliferation of telephones caused (also) in our villages, for some time, an upsurge in pranks among the residents. In Xirokampi, coffee shop waiters would move around with trays throughout the market after telephone orders turned out to be pranks. Also, some people woke up one night after a call from the headquarters – supposedly – of OTE and cut the wires of their phones when they were warned of an imminent explosion of their device (!). However, at the same time they enabled family members who were away – especially abroad – to talk more often and more privately (since the privacy of telephone conversations was not guaranteed by the – very little – soundproofed ‘booths’ in call centers). But they also reduced the frequency of the letters they exchanged, as the postal employees of the time (Dimitris Georgountzos, Georgios Katsaros and Kleomenis Anastasakos) found and claimed.

I 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 tenth article of the ongoing series. Previous articles can be viewed here.