By Lea Shavit (Polak)
From: Bella Nachman, 2000, Stories of Ein Vered – Seventy Years of the Moshav, 1930–2000, Ein Vered Publishing
In its early years, Ein Vered was a village of wooden sheds, nestled among endless fields of halfa grass and lacking even the shade of a single tree. At first, there was a small camp with several sheds, where the first arriving members lived communally. Once the land had been parceled out and assigned by lottery, each family began building their own shed on their designated plot. Slowly, more families arrived, each with their own shed, and week by week the village grew.
There are many stories about these sheds:
The Traveling Shed:
For us children, it was a celebration and great excitement whenever a shed was moved from one location to another. This always happened in the late afternoon, when everyone returned from work and joined in to help. The moving process went like this: one corner of the shed was slowly lifted and a large iron pipe was shoved underneath. Once the shed was resting on a base of pipes, it was pushed forward. Hands supported it on all sides, and the pipes acted as makeshift wheels. Some workers had the job of retrieving the pipes that had rolled out from under the back of the shed and placing them again in front. In this way, step by step, the shed was rolled forward amid shouting, instructions, and, of course, our joyful cheers as we ran around the moving structure.
The Public Shed:
For many years, a long, worn shed stood next to the grocery store. Had that shed been able to speak, it would have shared a wondrous testimony about a group of young people and a handful of girls who had left their homes and loving parents and ventured to a remote, desolate place with a great dream and a strong desire to build a new home in their homeland. This shed served as the dining hall and gathering place, where a vibrant community life took shape. After dinner, tables were pushed aside, hands joined together, and rousing hora circles danced late into the night. Fatigue was forgotten. The “polka” and “krakowiak” dances brought young couples closer together, and new families began to form in the village.
Later, when the communal kitchen was shut down as families established homes of their own, the shed lost its former glory. It became a warehouse for the grocery store, and at one end was a corner where barber Pozaillov came once a week to cut our hair. Winds and rain battered the old structure, tearing pieces from it, and eventually it was dismantled and replaced by a shelter, around which a grove was planted.
The Kindergarten Burned Down:
Where the community center stands today, there once was a shed that served as a kindergarten, built to accommodate the rapidly growing number of children. One room served as an office, but for the time being the kindergarten teacher Bronka lived there. We children gathered in the empty room of the kindergarten. Each child brought a small woven chair from home and a toy, while waiting for the furniture and toys that had been ordered from Tel Aviv to arrive.
One afternoon, a strong wind began to blow just as the mothers came to pick up their children. Suddenly, a fire broke out, and within minutes the entire shed was engulfed in flames and burned down. Luckily, all the children had already been outside, and the teacher managed to jump out the window in time. The new furniture and toys were already delivered to another shed in a different location.
From Sheds to Houses:
Over time, the members began building stone houses in place of the sheds. Construction was done by hired building crews or through self-build efforts, with much mutual assistance among members. In those days, almost every yard had a corner set up to produce concrete blocks for future home construction. First, an Arab man with camels would deliver piles of gravel and sand from the sea, which we loved to dig through and play in, always searching for seashells.
Block making was done in pairs - two members helping each other after work hours. Concrete was mixed in a wooden or metal box, poured into molds, and carefully removed onto a flat surface to dry. Then the process repeated, until rows of blocks accumulated. Once enough blocks were made, home construction could begin.
Pouring concrete, especially for flat roofs, required many helping hands. Dozens of members gathered: one person would fill a bucket of concrete, pass it to the next in line, and so on, forming a human chain along the ladder to the builder pouring the concrete in place. Every pouring session ended with refreshments and much celebration.
These were the stories of the sheds.