On 6th, Miljka had trouble with her mother, who found out she was smoking. Her parents were generally good folks, were house friends with mine back in the day - there's a story when she lost appetite and then regained it when two of us were standing around a stool and I was eating something from a little pot, and she joined me and started eating. Guess that was the time when we both wore our elbows lower than the chair's top. But her mom has a tongue and can be scathing with her rants.
And she wasn't much of a smoker then. Did smoke at times, as a protest, or to spite everything. The grind began before school (it's march, we're the afternoon shift), will continue in the evening. And it came to nothing - her mom was a teacher, had first graders, who were impossible that day (yep, spring coming), she was exhausted, forgot the whole thing.
There was a kind of a dance at school, organized by fourth division, but their classmaster wouldn't accept guests. Then VIII3 organized theirs and we did ours, and then when they finished, half of them came to ours.
School off on 7th. Womens' day? We usually worked on saturdays. Same day, birthday party of Milica, somewehere on ruža. First Zvojko, Ž. and I went downtown to buy records to give as a gift, then wen't to Ž's place to re-record them to his new tape recorder (a Philco, if I remember correctly). Tried all kinds of tricks with sound, made our radio emisija, good fun. And I learned a bunch of things about tape recorders. It's not that I never saw one - they had it in obdanište, the language teachers had theirs (they had tapes for almost each lesson), it's that this was the first time I operated one and got the hang of how it works. How the microphone behaves - that it's sensitive to near sounds, specially any scratches on its body, how it catches echo etc etc.
Ž lived near the railroad, halfway between me and ruža, so I went home to get ready for the party. Tussled up my hair to look longer, tied the scarf around my neck (something of dark green teal, as I remember - while I swore I'd never wear a tie, this was different), polished my new shoes and went back to pick Ž. Along the way we met Zvojko again and we somehow got to Milica ("somehow" means we got distracted and had lots of fun along the way).
There were Miljka with younger sister, Rencika, Vladimira (who will keep cropping up in the future, but never in close orbit), and a kitchen full of children. And the birthday girl and her sister (who later got married to Grne, but that's in distant future).
So we had one girl extra, and we all danced, but I mostly danced with Miljka. The light was minimal (sunset is about 18:20 this time of year, dark perhaps ten minutes later - 2nd floor or so). I was translating the Bee Gees ("Don't forget to remember me" and "Saved by the bell" were the hits of the day, though I also remember "Nights in white satin") into her ear, she leaned on my shoulder... I guess we could both safely imagine we were in love, without actually saying anything about it, not to mention doing. Then we danced silently to "Vjenčanja neće biti" (K. Slabinac). Ž and Zvojko had fun trying to collect all the possible turkish words which are still used in the language, some 130 years after the Turks were gone (later we tried to compose our own dictionary, as if those didn't exist already).
Then there was some minor accident, Ž. seemed to take the blame to himself, Miljka was kind of sad, and while I never understood what occurred, she had tears in her eyes during our next dance. In my diary I still can't figure out the facts, from all the poetic descriptions of her eyes I poured. Resumed writing the facts at the next scene, a few minutes later, when she cried in my arms while dancing. We parted with a "thanks for the beautiful evening".
On 8th and 9th nothing happened, I was writing the above in the diary and went nowhere.
At school, Ivka seems to have got it into her head that I should be the agent who'd influence the others into behaving. Yeah, right. First, I don't see that we're misbehaving about anything serious. Second, they are my friends. Third, if I tried to direct them I'd lose. I'm no shrewd manipulator.
Got a slip from Milica that Miljka's little sister says that we're "looking ourselves" (untranslatable this way, would mean, roughly, "have eyes for each other", i.e. are an item), "which I told Miljka myself too". Of course, I destroyed the slip, don't want such evidence to fall in wrong hands. Now if the kid barks at the wrong time, we can expect more restrictions of movement for Miljka.
Then she arranged for us to meet again - she took the records I brought for the party, and on 12th invited me to come pick them. Went there in the morning; her folks were at work, only the sister was there. We just talked. Heard why she cried - when "Monia" was playing, she remembered how at the last year's ekskurzija she was crazy about Ž. and he about Rencika and so he became an unpleasant memory which just returned - we were all in the same room again. He didn't quite care about her, but wanted Rencika just like we all did, and nobody got her, she was still infatuated with Patak.
And radiomileva was all active. There was gossip about her going for Č. then Džok and then me. At the party, Milica asked her "can't you dance normally with him?" - "do I have to? I don't want to dance normally". That alone started more rumors. She returned "Monia" to me, after having played it enough times for the effect to wear off. She kept the BGs, said she'll bring them to school.
On 13th, Ivka announced that VIII2 is barred from the dances until we start behaving. Which means no dances at all, we're the organizers. In the evening, Ž. came by to get that record (she obviously returned it the same day) so we can wire it (our slang term for re-recording to tape) so we went to his place, and I said I'd be back in 15 minutes. Technicalities took us two hours - rewinding to find a blank spot on the tape, then some wiring troubles, then stop-start-rewind while I translated the text... took two hours. Dad was mad, probably still annoyed since the last spate of bad news from school, so while I wasn't grounded, I had to report every time I left the house, except for school. And I had to be home when I said I'd be. The official line was that they were shit scared that I may get into trouble, traffic accident or whatever, it being dark and the street not too well lit. But then mom blurted "well he should also be afraid of at least something". Ah, so it's disciplining me that's on the agenda. No go.
My folks were generally good to me. I didn't get beaten, perhaps once every couple of years, and not much at that. Now they don't trust me (probably influenced by the sharp propaganda from school, where anyting we did was blown out of proportion). Even after that birthday was some cause for anger (it seems it was extended because of Miljka and me), he "didn't know how long to wait for me".
Well, for time control it's simple: I won't go anywhere that I don't know how long it will take, which means I won't go anywhere. The zero under control remains zero. Mom, on the other hand, offered to call company here. Mmm, there's an idea.
Perhaps related to all this - had yet another haircut around the middle of the month. Short bangs. Didn't tell anyone, not even dad, that I'll do it. I guess I did it partly out of spite, partly to show some sacrifice so to gain some leeway for the summer.
My guess that without VIII2 there won't be a dance proved right. I should become a prophet.
Borrowed another single from Miljka and when I returned it, I asked "what would happen if I didn't return it" - "well I'd go with you to get it" - "I shouldn't have brought it" - "Ah I didn't mean to stay long". She knew what I meant.
During the classes we kept staring at each other, then asking each other about it, then laugh about the lack of answer. Then we planned to gather some company at my place to do some math, and she'd almost come, but I said "but B. and Ž. would also be there" - "so what?". But she got my drift. Then the rehearsal for accordeon orchestra was announced, so we canceled. I tried to make her still come, but the schedule would leave us with just one hour. Or she said that because Milica was listening in. I guess she was also eager for some action, so she paid close attention.
The rehearsal finished fast, there was still time for her to come, but didn't.