14-VII-1972.
The gang from Pančevo made a special show today. All five of them, thin as they all were, just sat on the grass in front of their tent, in lotus pose, for a full hour, maybe two. Not twitching a muscle. To endless amazement of the passers-by, of which there were many, because these guys were by the main path to the beach, perhaps 20m before the restaurant. Some pronounced them as junkies, some tried to sell them hashish, or acid or what they had. Someone even mentioned calling the cops, or actually did.
(Veca and Senn in the tent; Grex going behind Rene; Rudolf using Nora as tripod; Sneca and Wolfi from behind)
Tea party at the tents of Rudolf and Grex. They, of course, had two small tents, and would, at times, vanish into one of them, not necessarily alone. All the furniture was a smallish table, a couple of cinder blocks (from the other side of the fence, leftovers from when the last hotel was built, two years ago). Full company - Senn and Ita, Veca and Sneca, Ines and Rene. The "Doesn't matter band" had just drums now, which means we used hairbrush against a canister, stick against a wine bottle, anything. Everyone already called me Grakula (Thaeus was drunk once at Milan's and couldn't remember my name), this was the time I accepted it and went along.
(from left: Rada, Anica, Veca on Okac, Sneca on Grex, Senn on Rudolf, Wolfi sitting, Tejka crouching)
That dutch guy from last night and I were after another new girl, Nora (who allegedly takes hash, but I haven't noticed her being any crazier than the rest), but eventually Grex got her (into the dark tent - Rudolf's was bright yellow, his was army style). In the evening went to ferial home. We were asked to skip Milan's this evening, to not disturb the Frenchies, Bastille day. So we sat at the ferial, Nora coping with Grex, one of the Pančevo gang and me around some girl from Varaždin, all three embraced and she holding each of us by hand... who knows how this would end, but they anounced closing the gate at the ferial, so she had to go.
Then some german guy said that "these guys" (other Germans, probably) complain that the Pančevo gang drinks a lot and pays none. Told that to one of them, and he said "their mother's cunt, that we bought eight liters last two days counts for nothing, eh?" and they just left. Five minutes later he just came with two more liters, left them and exit stage left. By that time nobody had the will to drink more, so we invited passers by, even a horse which was grazing nearby. The horse was a sworn antialchocolic so we gave up. We lost the most of the rest of the gang somewhere; by the time we found them, the wine was gone.
Upon parting we all kissed Nora, then Grex took her to her tent, where she puked. Then he also failed to reach the fence when it was his turn, puked on this side.
(Sneca, I, Veca, Grex)
Next day lots of horseplay in the water. Guy ducks behind a girl, gets his head between her legs, makes sure she won't sit on his hair - wiggle the head left right - then raises with her on his shoulders, holding her by the knees or above. Then two couples wrestle, the last girl standing wins. During the day I was mostly with Ines and Rudolf with Senn (in the evening things changed).
In the evening I kept trying with Rene. She's a bit wide, bit wild, and bit dumb - all the girls around the gang, both dutch and german, speak sufficient english (typically one or three semester course, never two or four), while it was near impossible to find a common tongue with her. Then a guy from Sisak came who spoke sufficient german, and off they went. I was okay with him - he did what I'd have done - not with myself. Just sat like that and Tejka noticed that I'm somewhat broken.
- are you scared of girls?
- not too much.
- then I don't know what it is. you only need to be a bit more naughty.
- don't think that I'm not trying
- well, continue then.
Well, a little lesson, a little encouragement.
In the evening we appeared at Niko's (aka "Zubatac", after a fish), full table, this time spending money, not collecting it. Had a few cokes and a bottle of wine, stole an empty bottle, knifa and a coke glass. Ouch, make that glass with coke, I was squeezing my shirt all the way. The dutch guy lifted the red hat off his head and there was the bread basket on it. As it was his last evening, we unhooked the stop sign from the chain closing the camp gate overnight, and gave it to him as a present.
Sixteenth. Okac is the guy from last year (my side of Belgrade); Wolfey also (though can't see him on the pics from 1971, didn't shoot that often while I had the color; now with the slides I'm a bit more generous, and will be even more when I switch to black/white). In the evening we took someone's renault 4 to the disco (most of us walked), but it's a one-way and the road to disco is return only - to go to town you go the coast way, this is upland, the reason being that we could take Ines and Rene back, guiding them on foot is too hard if they get drunk. We expressed our musical wish to the deejay, to play the "Madman" by Deep Purple again. Rudolf announced his wish to be married to Tejka, why? Why not - that became the universal answer to any why. And just then some guy asks her to dance... points to me and asks "is this your boyfriend?" "no" "then come on, dance with me" "no" "why not?" to which Rudolf jumped in with "she is married".
This got later abbreviated to "why?" - "why not, she is married".
When we were ready to leave, half the gang already in the car, the deejay had our wish. Grex and I stayed, danced it out and in the end stood up against his stand and thanked him with our hats off, muscheteer style. We all crammed into the renault 4, with at least four of us in the trunk, fifthe door up, legs dangling. Since the road is one way and that's the wrong way, Rudolf remembered that you still can drive in reverse... so he got behind the wheel and drove those few hundred meters like that, with us in the trunk (Grex in my lap) navigating and shouting if he'd aim into a ditch. There were eleven of us, I counted when we entered the camp.
Then we sat in the camp restaurant, drank more tea from that bottle, discussed the big problems of life, like wearing long hair at school, relationships with parents, matters of money and drinking too much tea.
On seventeenth the day was so-so, nothing much. Evening wasn't quite promising. Okac (the nickname he acquired last year after outstaring some austrian girl) and I went to the ferial, but they had a movie evening, "Five o clock to Yuma", the age old movie, copied to 16mm and sound all fucked up. And we couldn't find the girl we were looking for. And then my slipper broke - the upper band just unsewed on one side. Well I did bet with myself that I'll walk barefoot, so why not. So okay, this failed, we went back to the camp. On the dock, I noticed a girl sitting somewhat alone, on the side, feet dangling above the water. I remembered that Rudolf announced some cousin of his arriving today, so I just sat by her and
- you must be Evelyn
- heard from Rudolf. me they call Grakula.
Then we went a bit silent. Some guy from Zagreb (was that Tetra? that guy could do anything on a guitar, including piano solos), so while pretending to listen to Drago Mlinarec's stuff they were playing (ah, two guys), I just started translating the gist of the lyrics, it's all about loneliness and... half to myself but she heard, "do you have a boyfriend... whould he matter if I kissed you... oh doesn't matter..." and the next moment we were kissing like crazy. Just like in dreams. The feeling was great, so exciting.
Of course, there had to be something. Tejka and Okac noticed what's going on, and started catcalling.
- whas that over there, kissin
- no idea who, it's dark
- where's Grakula vanished?
- Grakula!...
Couldn't wave, we were lying on the boards and still kissing. So I raised a leg.
- who's lifting legs there? could that be him? who'd say. what an immoral thing to do... shame on you... ah look at him...
All the friendly mockery aside, this was very nice while it lasted. But then when I escorted her to her tent she didn't want a parting kiss. One on the brow, and I know where her tent is, but that's all.
More mocking when I returned to the dock, and then we decided to go to Milan's. They somehow got even Evi from her tent and to go with us (Rudolf, Grex, Wolfey, Evi, me). Grex mocked the waitress that it's not her real hair, it's a wig. No, yours is a wig. Here, try it out. So she pulls his hair a bit and nothing happens. Then he returns the motion and she grabs her scalp - she did have a wig. So we called her Wig henceforth. Then the guys from Pančevo came and more wine arrived on the table. Grex, Rudolf and two of these got earthen drunk. Evi's walk was aided, alternating between Rudolf and Grex. One of the Pančevacs sat by a car wheel and fell asleep, while Grex started spraying us with water from a tap. We all got wet except one guy who found shelter behind his back. Just when we moved away from the taps, he found another source - a mechanical fire hose, where you just pump water. It worked, he got us wet again. That simple contraption has some reach, at least 15m. A crazyman came and started showing his watch to Grex, who wasn't interested in time of day, but whether the watch is waterproof. During that dispute he leaned on the crazyman and stole his ballpoint pen. Ten minutes later we all went to sleep.
Mentions: Anica Tešić, Drago Mlinarec, Gregor Kessler (Grex), Radmila Tešić (Rada), Rosanne (Senn), Rudolf Ochsner, Slavica Tejin (Tejka), Snežana Stojanović (Sneca), Vera Stojanović (Veca), in serbian
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