26-III-1974.: Baptism by booze
Today I took "Passion play" from Sneca to listen to. In the evening there was some work session at DC-99, got a pass for some Fest movie ("Adalaine riot" which is today unknown on wikipedia... or I can't guess the spelling from "Adalejn"). There was still a lot of time between the meeting and the movie, so I dropped by Proleter. Hazim has a birthday. He already got a dick from the gang: a carrot with two boiled eggs, packaged in a box with "do not tumble" on it. They shoved him on me to deliver congratulations, and some mineral water with which I didn't know what to do. Didn't know about myself either. On one hand I'd like to see the movie, on the other I haven't had an evening with this gang in quite a while, maybe since fall, Čarga's birthday perhaps. So I lay the pass on somebody interested and go with them. First they charge me entry, that is I had to take a swig of vinjak. I keep looking around where to insert myself, but it doesn't fit anymore. So I switched to work on Beštara a little, if I could possibly get the crate once more, then peed into the river with Gavra (we were in the little park at the court[house]).
Then some rum came by, and I decided to not count the vinjaks, I'm at zero now. It turns that another guy in the company has a crate, and only when I got really drunk I understood it's in Pančevo, not here. As for dinner I had one bar of chocolate with hazelnuts, which I ate from Jozda's hand, sang with them a little (Jozda sings worse than I), talked english with Beštara and translated right away so nobody would think we're plotting something
and that's where I have a memory hole
I know Pasa came by and I said if I keep on drinking anything can happen and here just three more swallows of rum and I'm done not a drop more. Those three did me. I have no recollection of going to disco, maybe an image or two but none of how we got in or out. Then Gavra took me to the bank between the court and the little bridge to puke, then made me run to come to my senses, and I wanted to throw him into the water. Then they took me to the ship to have a coffee without sugar but watch out so the waiter doesn't notice how drunk you are or else we all get tossed out. The stairs go under the deck at a ladder-like angle, which I concentrated on and negotiated flawlessly, which brought me closer to normal. And the coffee helped. As Radoje said, "haven't seen anyone so drunk yet talking so intelligently, and I can't stutter any russian and he talks english and translates and talks with us at the same time". The coffee, of course, made me puke again, so by help of seventh sense I found, in order, the balance, the stairs, the drawbridge, the wall by the bridge, on which I leant and then expunged it all out of myself. "Good, he puked out the coffee too", said Gavra. Then Beštara made me run six rounds from the ship to the bridge and back (about 30m) while Jozda guarded the water's edge. I wanted Beštara to give me a ride on his bike, all the better that he didn't. In the little park behind Dom I puked a bit more, fine tuned my legs and was finally able to walk regularly. I was thirsty, luckily there's the well on this side of the park. I was escorted home by J.B., Beštara and one guy from IV3*.
At home I somehow found the pen, after five tries, then paper after two, and managed to write "wakeup at 6" from the first. The feat I achieved much easier and with precision was to roll up two spools of negative for tomorrow, there'll be shots to be made the next day. It's quite a touchy job, done in the dark, by feel, requires quite a concentration and patience. But I've got routine already, could do it with my eyes closed.
In the morning mom asked whether I drank last night, "ouch don't ask, got hosed just like that". How did she notice? One detail: I thought I closed and locked the door well, which I didn't. Should have pushed it a bit more.
The next day we had a radna akcija, flattening the lawns across [the street] from the cemetery**. The great facewash of the city for the highschool olympics. Baki didn't come because his šinobus was shot at (some guy thought he had thieves around the house, fired a few shots at random and accidentally hit the train; the driver "first stopped looked around whats going on then realized it's a shooting then stepped on it to get away")(Later comment by the geometry guy "I thought they were already used to the iron horse").
LML was playing a general again. Marko Bozon appeared with shades and a hat, said he's got some bump operated on, so has to keep it warm for a while. He wore hat in the classroom to for a week or so.
There were many of us, made a lot of shots. The four guys with shovels are Siške, then some girl, then Baki, Mjedac, Žara.
(... 92 words...)
On thursday, 28th, Radoje told me step by step what happened on tuesday. Full reconstruction of events. And everyone knows me again.
On saturday the second radna akcija, same old - LML the general and thinks that we all combined can't be smarter than he. Bajlo, Siške and I went to my place during the break, for an urgent pee. Luckily, not too far.
Her place in the evening, she's tailoring her new dress. Had some fun, then went to disco, then she remembered to get mad about the card play last sunday. I didn't cede any ground, just explained my stand.
The Nato's exercise „dark image 74“ began in northeast Italy and north Adriatic, as the response to the borderstone crisis, and sixth fleet dropped by a week later. In the gimnazija the director gathered us all after class to hold a flaming speech, which ended with „Druže Tito samo reci, zborno mesto na Rijeci“ (comrade Tito, just say, gathering is on Rijeka). Don't know which day exactly, didn't find it important enough to write down. I do remember we didn't comment this at all, it didn't touch us in any way, that's some of their state matter, and he as a notorious apparatchik got orders to do this, and did it, okay, where were we.
On sunday, 30th, we listened to those tapes where I gathered recordings of Korni grupa, they kept coming. Guess it's because they're going to Eurovision. Just when we got comfortable, Pop and Skule come by and we put on "Passion play". Says the former, "how dangerous*** your granny is, watch the orange into the bag, pampering the bride, just so we know...". Drove her to her bus then, and them to the club.
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* his mom was a lecturer (see school levels) in Zmaj; he was among the first to die, perhaps before 2001.
** there were four cemeteries at the time, but of course one never specifies the main one
*** dangerously good, in short
Mentions: 28-V-2018., Branislav Rade (Baki), DC-99, Dom omladine, Dušan Zlajin (Skule), Gavrilo Taroški (Gavra), gimnazija, Gradivoj Raža (Žara), Hazim Jabučin, IV3, Jovan Zdanić (Jozda), Korni grupa, LML, Marko Damjanov (Marko Bozon), Marko Popović (Pop), Milovan Sebešćen (Beštara), Nenad Bajlo (Bajlo), radna akcija, Radoje Stević, school levels, Siniša Savin (Siške), Snežana Stojanović (Sneca), Spasenija Višnjić (Pasa), šinobus, Velemir Prokin (Čarga), vinjak, Zmaj, Živko Mjedenica (Mjedac), in serbian
7-III-2021 - 10-VII-2026