(as per the brief holiday diary)
First of july. "My bicycle is repaired and I now ride a little more. Days flow as usual."
Well at least I wasn't bored.
Fifth. "In the morning rain was falling. In the afternoon I rode the bicycle, slipped and fell. Because of that I must not ride it for a week".
If this is not the time my wheel slid into an older rut, there behind the house next to the well, and then veered, and the bell's handle scraped my neck as I fell. The matter was close to serious. I had a (my) palm sized bandaid on my neck for several days. If this was then. Or was this the time when I hit the curb with my left knee, somewhere closer to the park (but I wouldn't have slipped there). Still unclear on how I managed that, perhaps I flew and my right knee hit the grass and was not wounded. The scab was a five banker (i.e. sized like 50 din coin), and it left a scar, something 5x25mm on top of the knee. I still have it but it's much smaller and below the knee - as I grew, skin was widening above the spot.
Tenth. "Accordeon lecturer comes three times a week and I am now more frequently practicing new songs. I am trying to command also some little songs which he didn't tell me to. I read, practice calculus, and expect to start riding the bicycle."
The calculus is the straight translation of "račun", which means calculation, invoice, bar tab, bill and also the calculation as an art.
Sixteenth. "Reading as always, and then play with friends. Today I got into a quarrel with a friend.
The teacher brought me a notebook with songs from the war, among which is the "International" too. Almost every day I practice for half an hour to command it before going to the sea."
The guy I quarreled with must have been Kale, I did have periods with him. He'd blackmail me when it suited him, and then pretend that nothing happened. It's also possible there was someone else with whom I could break off, for other reasons. Don't know who was it for each year.
The "command" is perhaps an unhappy choice of words, but the original "savladati" literally means "overpower" or "defeat in a fight".
Twentyninth. "Dad and I went to my grandfather in the village Zajač, which is in the surrounding of Belgrade. We stayed for two days. I went into field, rode on a team carriage, and so on."
"Team carriage" is the official term, as it covers both horse and ox pulled carriages. We did learn our traffic stuff then, using terms from the traffic law. The only unclear thing was why do they call the ramp (railroad crossing rod) a fender. Fender is a part of a car.
In the evenings we'd gather and play around our corner by the well, or would sometimes go to šećerana and the nearby park. There were a few older boys, so we practiced splicing torn movie tickets to make them look like new, two butts would make one. I think I once passed on that trick, but didn't feel quite easy about it. Guess I looked like a good kid so the usher wasn't really looking. And it didn't matter too much to him anyway.
These older guys weren't older by much, two years tops, but for that much they thought they need to act as don't know how rough and tough ***_FRAJER:M*** in front of us, trying hard to be like that Belmondo guy. One of the acts was to see how much of a čvrga can one give or take. Some of them had developed the technique, and did exercise something - wrestling was popular, Kale was training, and later also the older Bakračevi brother. The wrestling club was in the same house where I'll work, twenty plus change years later, in stour's erc. The guys had the force and strong palms. Among them was one Radač, who appeared maybe two-three times and then vanished. He practiced tough language, bragged how he had said to some guy who was edging for a fight, „when I spit you you gonna rust right there“ or „shut your fanfulja* or you get an applause over the violin“. This guy knew to deal such a macola** (the kind where a palm is laid flat over one's skull and its middle finger is pulled up with the other hand as far as it can, then let go) that your head would be abuzz and sight blurry for a dozen seconds. For special cases, when really needed, he had a special ring, made of aluminium. The aluminium can't be soldered or welded, and the ring was handmade, so it had an overlap, which made it twice as thick there. I didn't dare try. One guy did, and we had to help him stay upright for a minute-[or-]two.
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* actually one of the more pictoresque expressions for a cunt, but means mouth in this context
** macola (from italian mazola, mazzola or mazolla, one never knows) is actually a sledgehammer, which I learned many years later
13-III-2021 - 6-II-2026