-Patricia
Hampl (b. 1946)
Hampl’s mother bought the teacup in 1939. Even on
sale, it was very expensive. Her mother bought many China dishes and teacups
from Czechoslovakia that year. She married an American Czech the same year. The
cups are safe and now belong to Hampl.
The cup is thin and pale. It is shiny, and there are
thin bands of gold around the edges, midway down the bowl of the cup and at its
base. There is also a band of gold on the inner circle of the saucer, but it
has been worn away. The outside of the cup has no decoration, but there are the
pictures of flowers inside the cup. The flowers are like scattered blossoms
from a bouquet and appear to be caught in motion.
Nothing bad happened to Hampl’s mother, but she is
sad. When she says that work is the most important thing, her mother’s face
shows fear. She thinks family is the important thing. By saying this, she shows
a sign that she wants to say goodbye to her daughter.
Her mother is an ideal housewife. She is always busy
at home doing different household works. She has been always responsible toward
her husband and children. So, she has never showed her personal feelings and
passion. She could never come out of the boundary of her house.
Once, the writer and her brother saw their father and
mother kissing in the kitchen. As the children laughed, her mother felt ashamed
and rejoined her work.
Hampl’s mother married in 1939. It was the year when
the war broke out. Her mother bought the things that she needed the same year.
Now, she has been giving them to the writer.
When the writer tries to get her mother to talk about
her life, she is not ready. But the writer keeps on asking many questions about
her past life. Sometimes her mother recollects that the girls of her time did
not have all the facilities that the girls of the writer’s time do. They could
not afford for safety pads, so they used cotton stripes. Her mother’s first
pair of nylon stockings lasted two years.
The teacup was made in the country far away. An
English politician shook the nation away, so it lost its absorption in peaceful
work. If he had considered the future of the teacups and had left
Czechoslovakia free, the things would have been different. The country itself
does not exist, but the souvenirs are unbroken. So the cup is a detail, a small
un-charred finger from the mid-century bonfire.
Hampl’s mother believes in accepting whatever comes in
one’s life. She has no courage to challenge the course of events in her life.
She hopefully believes in looking ahead. Hampl, on the other hand, cannot
follow her footsteps. She is always inquisitive about history and sexuality.
She wants to know the history and keep things right.
Many things fell in the year 1939. The newly married
women’s bodies fell on the beds together with their husbands’ for the first
time. When the mother first fell, the writer thinks, her virginity fell. The
writer does not want to marry. She thinks that marriage is not compulsory for
sexual intercourse. Not only the writer but also her whole generation thinks in
this way. Her generation thinks that marriage is a painful experience. The
bodies of war victims also fell that year. In Spain, bombs fell on women from
the air. Hampl’s mother is embarrassed with her attitude to link events with
each other. This is the difference between her mother and herself.
Mothers often want their daughters get married and
have settled life. They try to prepare their daughters for their future.
Hampl’s mother is also no different. She never had pre-marital sex, but the
writer has had. She never talked in the way the writer talks.
Hampl and her friends spend time trying to describe
the things. They talk about the past and feel that history has to be written.
There are many things in their houses so that they can write history. They have
to save them and hand over to the latter generation. Otherwise, they will also
sink like her mother and the flowers, the symbols of tradition.