The Courtyard Apartments of the 1920's in Budapest

The apartment house that we lived in was a typical European apartment structure, built around a paved courtyard, three or four stories high and on each story, corridors running around.

Children were not allowed to play in the courtyard. This was reserved to the lady concierge, the queen of the manor, a woman with tousled hair and a big mouth, who was in the opinion that children should not be heard and preferably not even be seen. Since we were forbidden to play on the street or in the center court, the only way to catch fresh air was to be on the corridors where even the quietest game turned soon loud enough to arise the wrath of the dragon.

She screamed so loudly to let us know how badly we were disturbing the tenants. I believe that those tenants were undeniably more disturbed by the noise she made. But of course in the end, we were the ones to receive our parents’ punishment.

For me it was better and safer amusement to watch the street through our front windows. It was a very busy street, since across our house was a large post office where packages were constantly delivered. It was in the late twenties, so the delivery was done with horse pulled wagons. The horses’ stable was also there, and I never tired of watching them.