When we finished kindergarten and started first grade, the world suddenly seemed big and wide. The school was located in Tel Mond and was shared by Herut, Kfar Hess, and Ein Vered. Of course, there was no transportation, and we walked both mornings and afternoons. On nice days it wasn’t a problem - running quickly in the morning so as not to be late - but the way back home was a different story.
The road was full of adventures and games in the groves and orchards that filled the area. In the pine grove, we gathered mushrooms on beautiful winter days. We fought “wars” with the kids from the neighboring moshav, Kfar Hess. The orchards were full of oranges, which served both as food and as “ammunition” to bomb our “enemies.” Sometimes we got lucky and caught a ride on the bread wagon or the kerosene wagon.
Bread was delivered daily in a closed wagon pulled by a horse. The deliveryman would blow a kind of hand horn, and the housewives would come out to buy. Kerosene was used for cooking and heating, and the kerosene man would also go around with his wagon, ringing a large handbell - this is how we knew what was being delivered that day. Catching a ride on one of these wagons wasn’t easy, and of course we did it secretly. More than once, we “earned” a lash from the whip when the wagon driver noticed his horse was struggling to pull the load.
On hot days, we would cool off by bathing in the irrigation pits around the trees in the orchards. The older kids even went into the Tel Mond drinking water pool. Since bathing there was forbidden, the guard once confiscated their clothes, and they were left as bare as the day they were born (swimsuits didn’t exist back then). They had to march in a naked procession to the council building, to the great amusement of the town’s residents.
Written by Asa Bartov, Moshav Herut, 2004