22-XII-1972.
Rush. On 12th I was running around the school gathering the committee (of youth org, I'd say), 13th shot the editorial staff (preparing the first issue of "The Gram" newspaper), thursday the director and few others (including Furcula), made prints quickly on friday and took them to political school. Bet with Dragana about what rubbish Oli Boj was coming up with (she's becoming incredible - stupid but original), great fun.
Came home, continued doing prints. During this week also took more photos to Dom and the deejay (he paid right away, others within a few days), last cash laid down on saturday (16th) when I came with Branka. The gang collected cash for wine, we dripped some too, but drank none, because we got ourselves into some corner, I was somewhat in the dick. It all ganged up on me, the ace in physics, the fatigue and the tempo. She got really worried about me, said she couldn't sleep all night. Next morning there was some conference in the community center, all okay and neat until M.P., law student, started asking good questions of the "where is the money" kind. The presiding guy tried to calm down the matters, but this guy wouldn't budge, "what are you trying to do, to woolgather these kids, as if nobody knows what your real meetings look like, with throwing bundles of keys at each other and motherfucking" (this last thing was about the vocabulary in use). There, a boring meeting can turn out to be fun.
In the afternoon Dženk came. Interesting guy, exactly one year younger than me, speaks english better than I do (lived over there for a year or two), brought some LPs, took some. Likes the idea of coming to Borik.
In the evening I was in a manic good mood, cracked jokes left and right, as if to counter yesterday's madness. Branka said she wished I was always like this. Well, I'm not the wind-up kind.
On monday, 18th, rush around the newspaper. On tuesday a phenomenal letter from Inge. First about her guys, who's courting her, who's failed her, and how to avoid the advances from a current Casanova in a cultured way. I did promise to write her if/when I fuck, and kept the promise. "When I came to the place where you say 'I've done it... the letter fell out of my hands. You're a real man now." Then she goes asking how was it, does it hurt, was she a virgin (no clue, babe).
On wednesday Linka comes to buy textbook on geometry, 2nd grade. Now you need it? It's almost end of semester.
Afternoon I replied to the letter, maybe next day too. Dženk came by again, then soon after Veca and Sneca too, brought the double "Jesus Christ superstar" and "Teaser and the firecat" by Cat Stevens.
On thursday (21st), Zova's birthday, bought a liter of Carica Milica (emperess, black* wine) for the girls, earned a plus from Dragana. She bet with herself she'd make him into a Casanova by prom night. On every break we'd sing something, whole day was fun, Vanji was so annoyed that his class (IV6.73, our first neighbors) were so dead.
Friday was army day, and of course we did nothing all day. At Radoja's we did two exercises and then sang the rest of the time. ŽGLJ announced a FAC (free activity class), i.e. do what you want, on history we tweak the little witch (she got a nickname, finally) to do nothing... well, no questioning, but she still managed to do a lecture. Oli Boj had her show as usual, prob'ly imitating the Nela Eržišnik's imitation of a peasant woman from Lika. When Sonja entered the class we sang "Oj, Moravo" (close to her village of origin), and for Marko Bozon a bećarac (limerick-like song typical of Banat and most of the flatlands all the way to Zagreb), he got into a good mood so we also sang all of his class, danced kozaračko kolo around the classroom. Madhouse school.
Then went to Dom again, then to printery, submitted last texts. Managed to swing by komitet, where there was some show for the soldiers, including a singer (female) of new folk and this guy from the rock side. He was later the next singer in Omege. The band itself was soldiers. Generally the local garrison was called VOZ (Vojno odmaralište Zrenjanin - miliary resort), because it was close enough to Belgrade, and lots of show business guys, specially pop singers and all kinds of musicians, found some way to serve here and not anywhere in the mountains and on the border. So the garrison always had a strong band - these guys on the stage had six different instruments among themselves (including electric guitar and bass and accordion, so they could play both kinds), and I bet they were their own. They were in civilian clothes, but the fake didn't work, it was obvious in dozen ways that they were not civilians.
Spent saturday morning with the printers. The whole staff - Vanji, Bosa, me, V.K. (who?), D. (who?) were proofreading, setting the pages. Arrived at school only for the last class, at Sonja's, to see the results of the last written task. To differ from the last time, when I cut Bodler down to size (okay, Baudelaire, the snotty Frenches and their crazy spells) and got a two, this time I got a five minus on the subject of "Without fight there is no victory either", even though the first sentence was "Mankind's progress can not be imagined without the man who first took a bite of kranj sausage".
In the afternoon Z. and I shot the wedding of R. (of DC-99; already returned LPs to his brother). His brother and some guy called Spile were all chaos, the kum was dancing on his chair and fell through it, the food was great, the film turned out even greater (its title was "yes"). And then going to disco was something to survive (of course we didn't stay till the end, we shot our part, ciao). By coincidence, missed Branka by whole two minutes. I was getting bored so I went to her place. Her dad had something against my hair, which was expected. What I didn't expect was to have grown it this long before graduating. Graduation is being revoked, anyway. Drank a vinjak with him, had a quick grab outside when I was leaving.
On sunday (24th) fun in the club, nobody does nothing. In the evening drew the header for "The Gram", took it to Furcula but couldn't find him, so took Branka by the sleeve and dragged her to the printery to hand it to the night porter. Later saw that they didn't use my design at all - allegedly the drawing was insufficiently correct (whatever that meant). Now I don't know whether the comrade udbaš intervened, or they just wouldn't give a damn to do another last minute photo for an oddball high school paper. What they put instead was just bad.
After visiting the night porter it made no sense to go to disco, the wardrobe would be overwhelmed. To club then, today she may. It really is exciting and wild and I'd do it every day, it's just that there's always something bothering me, wrong smells, the lousy lab, don't knock something down, start on any suspicious sound, I think of any other except her, no matter how good she is. I keep thinking how to unhook her nicely so that it doesn't turn out that I have "used" her (and she did not me, yeah).
It's not that I'm not pleased that she's so eager to get on it, but I somehow have the feeling that I got her addicted, taught her to have a sweet tooth to it. Even wardrobe adjustments for easy access - front lock bra, or panties already down - never understood when and how she did that. And what we talk about, that's just ordinary talk, what I'd talk with anyone else, no lovers' talk. Sometimes I find her just boring, I keep thinking of breaking up. We'll see yet.
On wednesday I dropped into Linka's mailbox the photo I shot of her at Proleter the other day. It wouldn't be bad if she was the next.
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* would be called red wine in english, but I'm sticking to our terminology such as it was then
Mentions: Borik, Borko Bošković (Furcula), Bosiljka Šain (Bosa), Branka, DC-99, Dom omladine, Dragana Vitas (Dragana), Gradivoj Jankulov (Dženk), Inge Hertmann (Inge), IV6.73, komitet, kum, Marko Damjanov (Marko Bozon), Mira Dengin (Linka), Olivera Stojanović (Oli Boj), Omege, Radoje Maletin (Radoja), Snežana Stojanović (Sneca), Sonja Savković, The Gram, udbaš, Vera Stojanović (Veca), Vilmoš Baranji (Vanji), vinjak, Zdravko Smetovački (Zova), Živorad G Ljubišić (ŽGLJ), in serbian
18-X-2021 - 25-VI-2026