Oktobarska street, near the city stadium, with the first inklings of the future good standard. It had perhaps thirty to fifty houses, with ground floor, upstairs and a garage in the basement. Despite the name being of revolutionary origins, these houses were on the expensive side, financing was largely unclear (namely, who'd pay for that) and it ended being populated by directors and politicians.
I remember, when I was perhaps aged 6-8, that the plans for such a house were on the table one evening. While I admired, and quickly learned how to read, the style of the drawings, I also quickly learned that we won't be moving there - there was no way we could pay for that, no matter how much dad would get from housing fund in... well, wherever he worked at the time. I guess that was before he went to tobacco factory and after the Bureau for agricultural basics was shut.
Much later, in the days when I was a novelty around town with my zx spectrum, I went to visit Savela (who later had a private pharmacy in the netherworld, 2nd door from DBA offices) to make a short animated logo for some advertising video he was putting together for Elmont (the factory, there was no restaurant yet). By that time - probably around 1985 - these houses didn't look spacious at all. The floorplan was narrow and stunted, the staircase almost like that on a ship, and no matter how sparse the furniture was, it felt cramped.
The name, „budžin bulevar“... well, a budža is a thick stick, a bludgeon, and by extension a dick, so in slang a budža is anyone important enough - a director, politician...
9-VII-2022 - 16-V-2026