I was born and raised until about the age of sixteen in a small town in northeast Romania, named Saveni ( county of Botosani). 'Stetl' is a yiddish term for a small town in Eastern Europe before the Holocaust.
The name Saveni has its origin, so they say, in the name Savin - family name of an outstanding land owner who lived in the area in ancient times.
Samuel Lerner(1903- 1989) the famous american composer of Popeye, The Sailorman, was also born in Saveni. At the age of seven, though, he emigrated with his parents to America and the family settled in Detroit, Michigan.
Whenever I think of my birth town, I couldn't help smiling at the irony of things. Each of its surrounding villages got something valuable from Nature. Negreni village got a lake and fish ponds, Avrameni got forests, Draguseni got special, rich soil. Saveni got merely a hill (Naftuli Hill) and a segment of a river, the Baseu River.
The Hill, facing the Baseu river , and the river itself, marked the way out of the town to the train station of Ungureni, and to the county capital Botosani , and from there to other parts of the country.
The Baseu, affluent of the long Prut river separating Romania from Moldova and Ukraine, was causing a lot of damage when overflowing. In summer, it looked dry and unpleasant . It was because of this river, that my mother used to say : 'don't you ever go live near a body of water'!
There was nothing special about Saveni of my childhood. I don't recall any outstanding spots or buildings, except perhaps the two quite impressive orthodox churches: Saint Neculai and Saint George.
Yet, there was something in the air, in the atmosphere of the place. in the relative geographical isolation from the other towns, that gave birth to that very distinctive spirit of the local people the Savenians. They were witty, kind, hard-working, open-minded, and to this day, I'm proud of having been one of them.
Having said that, I wouldn't choose to live in a remote place like Saveni was in those days. So remote, that we had as teachers some high quality people that were exiled from other parts of the country as punishment for their political views. A place of exile, how about it?!