Seven kilometres with a basket of butter

The farm kept two or three cows. The milk was spun in a separator, and once a week butter was made from the cream in a churn — a wooden vessel in which the plunger had to be worked for a long time until the fat separated.

Mother carried the butter to the market in Lipno. Seven kilometres each way, on foot, a basket on her arm. With the butter and eggs she bought what could not be made on the farm: sugar, matches, paraffin for the lamp and exercise books for the children.

When today I drive those seven kilometres in a few minutes, I think of that basket. And of how the whole economy of our house once fitted within the distance of a single walk to the market.