Esther Vellya yelling at the chickens

Submitted by Alison Blackman Dunham

I remember one very quick story that my grandmother Tillie (Taube) Stempler Bader used to tell me about her life in the shtetl. She said that there was a mentally challenged woman named Esther Vellya (not sure if the last name is spelled correctly, but that is how it sounded). The community supported their own. She used to tell us that everyone worked. Esther had a "job" too (not a joke...everyone had to do something). Esther's job was to sit on top of the chicken coop roof and yell at the chickens if they strayed. She did it constantly and well. When we would get hysterical and cry or yell, she'd tell us we sounded like Esther Vellya. The implication was clear...!

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