31-XII-1977.
The doček at Živa. His folks will be in the back, or at some neighbors', so we'll have the front part of the house. The important part of the plan is that this will be a masked ball, with masks to be donned at home, and walked to the spot. There will be stories.
I went to her and we got masked there, into Sandokan and Marijana. From her to Živa the walk is at least two kilometers, because we didn't want to take the shortcut, the snow was knee deep and we didn't want to stumble over some piece of railway. And these shortcuts are unreliable, sometimes they go over someone's land and the guy just has enough some day and puts up a fence, and that would make it even farther. So we walked the Železnička (railway street), and there come two cops in a renault 12. It felt strange that they didn't have their regular fića or at least a tristać, maybe they wanted to patrol from unnoticedness*. Anyway, they spotted us (and we saw their uniforms, lots of light on the snow and no leaves on trees), slowed down to pedestrian speed, then talked amongst themselves, and suddenly stepped on the gas and drove away. They got it that we're masked for the doček: I with a turban, she with curly hair, lots of makeup, loads of beads.
The company was solid, and mostly spruced up this way or another. Eči was the hardest to recognize: he wore a suit and a necktie. Živa wore his grandfather's suit - the double buttoned vest, pocket watch on a chain. The others so-so, nobody else went overboard with masking - Vanji and E. in their regular edition, Dženk too. The rest I knew from sight**, some guy S.K. whose mom used to work with mine; the little Gabi from that gang, all sweet and somehow rounded, to spread on bread, and some 3-4 others whom I knew mostly from photos, when I developed Dženk's negatives.
(this is Gabi and S.K., who deejayed at the moment... Of course, whoever was on good terms with Eči would sooner or later get some decent sound system. I don't remember anyone playing their records on anything bad. Here, even Živa, who is a driver-mechanic, allegedly having nothing to do with music.)
The host put up quite an entertaining programme, made one of his mocking speeches, then changed into a grampa Frost (which meant an undershirt and long underpants with a sizable greasy looking spot) and gave out presents, of course all of it just for fun. She got some pipe and even some tobacco, who knows how old, and even tried to smoke it, but it was so strong and stinging that she immediately shed some tears and ruined her makeup. Looking at the shots, we were smoking F57 then. Vanji got a line and a hook, wound on a piece of cork, same model that was sold last 20 years. This was possibly the only gift that found any use.
The drink was beer, of Zrenjanin, of course. Which wasn't as it once was. Ever since they started, in the summer of 1975, to experiment with expanding their offer, and split the brand into the lighter, 11% extract and blue logo on the label, and 12,5 (or was it 13%) with green, they screwed up both and weren't able to reproduce the previous quality. It wasn't it anymore. And just three years before it happened that Eči drank, for a bet, a whole bottle in one long swig, burped it off, and said „fuck the pasteurized“. Now there just wouldn't be any takers for such a bet.
Don't know whether I went straight home - there are some photos at her place that look like morning, but then can't be sure they were actually of that morning. Perhaps I did take a nap on the couch.
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* the phras is from LML's imitation of the Lendvaj guy from the 2nd gimnazija, the famous line (heavy hungarian accent, always on the first syllable with random lengths after) „where does a sniperist shoot from? From unnoticeeedness!“.
** „iz viđenja“ but the joke is to say „iz doviđenja“, from see you later.
Mentions: doček, Endre Felbab (Eči), fića, gimnazija, Gradivoj Jankulov (Dženk), LML, tristać, Vilmoš Baranji (Vanji), Živa Ravajlović, in serbian
22-V-2023 - 10-VII-2026