I started work on the carts after the occupation, as soon as the Germans left. I was a very young kid, and I was a carter. And in 1961 we were told that anyone who wanted to give up their cart could apply to get a public service licence and get a tricycle. And so I got a tricycle.
At that time everything was done by cart. We would carry sand, earth, stones... we would load them by hand. We had five horses, and we would take on ten more labourers to work. And we'd send a cart out at eighty drachmas for a day's work then.
There were three ranks for carts. One was at the port, one at the Chania Gate and one at the Cep-hane, at Theotocopoulos Park. We belonged to both ranks.
Long carts were at the port, long and deep ones at the Chania Gate, and deep ones at the Cep-hane.
In those days all the carts had work. They also went ploughing. There were no machines then, and we would go ploughing, transport things and do removals...
I used to go down to the port and pick up the tourists and their things and take them to the hotel opposite the Prefecture Building.
