02-VI-1968.
Placed first on the municipal maths competition. The diploma is on the KMT (clubs of young technicians, i.e. Narodna Tehnika) preprinted form, with airplane, parachute and rocket printed in gold on the left. The stamp features a star (would be red if there was such stamp ink in the office) with a cog wheel and some unrecognizable symbols within.
I think this was when the Subotica youth music festival was just going on, and someone had the transistor... nope, that was the year before, as Dušan Prelević was already in Korni grupa at this time, and his "Kažu" was his solo thing the year before. So then I was already an old competitor on this one. I came out first, but I think I didn't get far afterwards.
These days we made a trip to Temišvar, don't know the exact date, the then passports weren't preserved (or you then had to give your old one before you got the next one), and even if they were, the romanian orange stamp ink would limn through paper and blur. I have no idea what we did and what we bought, looks more like a tourist trip, but at least I have the photos.
It was Janči who got dad into this kind of smuggling. They'd do it on saturdays, because it was still a full workday in Romania, and even here the weekends were still being invented. While the factories had three free saturdays a month, we still went to school on each, until the end of high school. So they'd take off early in the morning. He rode a škodilak with an engine of whooping 1000 ccm, a real de luxe car when compared to fića. Still, the 200km over Vršac took five hours, can't drive faster than the road allows.
The driveway wasn't done. When they put blacktop seven years ago, they asked everyone whether they want the curb lowered, and dad, of course, said no need. So now he had a 15cm tall curb, and couldn't get the car up without risking the exhaust pipe, at least on the way in. So he'd use the fact that the house was on the corner, and drive slowly on the sidewalk and into the driveway. He put a concrete slope to ease the climb, but still had to take care not to approach it head on, risking the pipe. So when we heard the buzz of the transmision in first gear and the engine under the window, we'd know it was him coming.
I can't separate my impressions of Romania than and years later. It didn't look as anything changed there much, only that they got more restrictive later. Driving at night was very perilous, because the villages were dark, there'd be only one lamp at each end, and in between one would better memorize every obstacle, and pay close attention to anything on the road. The horsecarts had not even had catadiopters or lanterns, and it would happen that some peasant was returning late from the fields. Or some drunk would ramble along the road. In daylight, the electric poles left the most lasting impression - never seen such zigzagging wood used in that role anywhere else.
The shops could be closed at any time, even during their regular hours. They'd just put a „preluam marfa“ (receiving goods) slip in the door and that was it. The chief went to get more goods, and the fact that he didn't trust to leave the staff alone in the shop only enforced the legend among us that Romanians are thieves. The risk of theft was probably just as low as anywhere, but the fines or punishment for loss of goods were probably severe, so nobody in their right mind wanted to take the risk.
Back then I didn't have much of an idea on what pictures to take as souvenir, so these girls returning from a training (note that they don't wear sneakers, unless they carry them in the totes (the one on the right has a net tote, which were popular at home too, they were strong, could be hung on the handlebars, and would fit in a pocket when empty).
In the evening a skirmish between brigadists (i.e. participants in the radna akcija) and students near the Students' town in Belgrade, militia intervened. On fourth, the students arrive in groups to their faculties all over Belgrade, strike begins, the seat is on Philosophy faculty. Among general demands are: dissatisfaction with inequality, unemployment, obstacles to democracy and self-management, requesting democratization and liberties. University renamed into „Red university Karl Marx“. Stevo Žigon speaks the monologoue from the „Death of Danton“ drama.
The presidency of the conference of Yugoslav league of students supports most of the students' demands and condemns militia's brutality and the writing of the press. Students also supported by IK CK SK (executive committee of the central commitee of Communists union), but demands „only by democratic means“.
Mentions: fića, Janči Gnajs, Korni grupa, radna akcija, škodilak, in serbian
21-III-2017 - 12-VII-2026