02-VII-1981.
So we moved in. The wallpaper we put only on the streetside wall, which is somewhat dank. Outside of it there's that street pump, with its concrete slab, and then they poured a sidewalk by the house, about a hand's breadth lower than the slab, and the majstors didn't bother with the slope, so the water stays there. When snow thaws, it takes a week for it to dry. And the wall is pressed clay, it soaks.
The furniture we had to partly disassemble - first that bridge had to be removed, then we carried the parts one by one, then reassembled it on the new location. We toiled for real, it's rather heavy, but we got it right and it held just as well as when the majstor from Slovenijales assembled it two years ago.
We had money for a fridge too, a small Obodin, which then served perfectly for as long as we needed it. So the kitchen was complete - the Marles cabinets and the sink, Toshiba's mirko by Ei Niš, my rešo from study days. No real stove, but it worked. Two or three years later we'll put a little neon light above the sink, because this is the dark corner. The kvin meri was first in the room, but we moved it on top of mirko, because we quickly concluded that it's better suited there. It's better that it's in the kitchen, so the one has to walk the eight meters and has the time to open his eyes. Previously it did occur that the clock would be shut up without waking up, we learned to know ourselves.
As for the other preparations... It's far better to go to army already haircutted (or whatever would be the passive) than to appear like this and be marked as an element and acted upon. So I went to Draga the barber. On bicycle, of course. He wasn't in the little joint next to Šanta, he moved to 25. maj, even closer. From the door I announced myself with "here's me again", which is the old local joke, when Lala wore out his hat after 15 years, said so when he entered the shop to get a new one. In my case it's only ten years since I do my own haircuts, because Draga, just like any other majstor of his ilk, does what he knows how to, so he knows how to make that one haircut and no other, and whatever raw material you give him, the result is always the same. Explaining your wishes is pointless. However, this is the one time when exactly that result is wanted.
Riding back, even though it's july, it's cold around the ears, it blows.
At home it passed okay, they didn't mock me too much, nor give me strange looks, got used to it in a couple of hours.
The larger problem came a couple of days later, when I shaved (left the moustache, give what you may). Go got scared of me, who is this guy now, speaks like dad but isn't him. She hid behind the couch for a whole hour.
The farewell party was probably that same evening, the fourth - it's a holiday, everyone's available. The guests were, as much as I can remember, Dženk, Vanji, Eči, maybe Kid and Živa, then it gets fuzzy, don't even remember if there were any girls. My folks vanished somewhere, granma watched TV in the living room, Go was at Oma's. I put at least one of the speakers in the window.
So we barbecued, on that puny box dad bought in Sarajevo in 1969. Drank mostly beer. Did myself solidly. The next I remember was that, when they all left, I put the speakers to the corners of the carpet, played "Hair", lied naked along the other diagonal, and basked a few minutes in some kind of trance. Once, much later, perhaps on 09-VI-1984., I related this episode to Bosa, which impressed her immensely, so she asked right away "well did you two then?". Well, fuckit, I was drunk as a slat.
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You guessed right, queen Mary.
Mentions: 09-VI-1984., Ten years reunion, 25. maj, Bosiljka Šain (Bosa), Endre Felbab (Eči), Gorana Sredljević (Go), Gradivoj Jankulov (Dženk), kvin meri, majstor, mirko, Oma, rešo, Šanta, Vilmoš Baranji (Vanji), Zoltan Čonti (Kid), Živa Ravajlović, in serbian
2-V-2021 - 11-V-2026