Grandma’s sewing machine from Asia Minor

Sofia was the granddaughter of refugees from Asia Minor. When her interview was conducted she was 63 years old. She was born and raised in Aretsou, in Kalamaria, where her ancestors first settled when they arrived from Asia Minor and where she lived her whole life. In the photograph, we can see her grandma’s sewing machine from Asia Minor. Sofia says, ‘When she came from Asia Minor, my grandma had just been married. Her dowry was a sewing machine and the clothes on her back. That’s all she brought to Greece. Even though she didn’t yet know how to sew, the sewing machine was the only possession she carried with her, because it was considered a substantial dowry at the time. She then learned how to sew, but never sewed for others, only for the family. No one else in the family learned to sew after grandma; I was the only one who wanted to. I dropped out of school at 15 and took up sewing. I was an apprentice for a few years. The sewing machine is in my living room now, you can see it if you want. It’s fordecoration, I don’t use it anymore.’

According to Hirschon, in some Asia Minor cities, it was common to pay dowries in the form of gold coins, money, or other movable assets. After the mass arrival of refugees in Thessaloniki, and especially after 1922, the sewing machine bestowed as dowry on Sofia’s grandmother seems to carry, not only material, but also symbolic meaning, as an object with the potential to facilitate the household’s everyday survival in the refugee settlement of Aretsou. [On the circumstances under which the refugees arrived in Thessaloniki and the everyday living conditions in the city’s refugee settlements, see also GKT012Α_12Β].