20-VIII-2014.
I keep complaining of being invited to funerals so often and not nearly so often to weddings... and I keep forgetting this one. Veca's daughter is getting married.
We walked to dad's. Somehow it turned out to be the day of the year when the small snails come out in numbers. The freshly painted (gray, light) wall of the warehousing yard next to the customs office, where I think there were tanks for state reserves of oil, was full of them, and the light shone almost parallel to the surface. [wrong, not painted yet, this was 15-VII-2017.... got the picture but not today... actually, it was light cloudy during the walk]
His neighbor across, who bought off the house from Đuđa and the other owner (the bus driver) is finally doing something to renew it. Hammered off the mortar from the lower end, to let it air out and lose the moisture, and rebuilt the yard wall - no more gate, there won't be any cars driving in, just a door set in a proper wall, two bricks thick with pillars every 2m and a concrete cap on top. Rock solid.
Dad was ready, so we took a cab to the city hall and got there a bit ahead of time, which is good, there's time to chat up anyone we might know. Saw Veca, of course, sticking to her current short hairdo. Too bad, she always had nice hair, not quite blonde but somewhat light, one of those which get bright strands in the summer. Met a few more I knew from somewhere - one Višnja who was her friend since forever, whom I actually remember from elementary as she was always reciting something on school shows. Her husband was a deejay, held an independent radio here - which I even listened to ten years ago, online - while he was alive.
The bride was stunning, all round and healthy looking, took to her father in many facial features. The groom was a nice enough guy, though Veca said that her husband „didn't have much love for the montagnari, and then particularly disliked Hercegovinians, specially from Klek“... and now his daughter is marrying one. Well, life.
At the wedding itself (no church) there was a cute scene when the clerk said „you will answer all questions with yes or no“, and when asking the groom, he said „yes“ with somewhat muted sound, so some friend from behind asked „did you have breakfast?“, he turned back and said „yes!“, louder this time.
The party main was to be in Klek, but we were invited to the bride's party at their home. We already knew the place from before, so took another cab and got there. First hour there were the bride and few of her friends, but then they went to join the wedding proper, and there remained perhaps dozen of us, mostly friends and neighbors (actually I don't think they kept to any kin, the aunts would be long dead and I haven't heard of any cousins around), of mixed composition.
S.S., painter 1, dad, painter 2, Borče
One painter told about his time in Maroko, and how they bargain and generally decide the price of anything. Then another painter. Borče amused a neighbor's kid with his teacher's tricks, using fingers a lot. We brought a bottle of apple 2013.2, which was the first success from our destilery - dad took to it a lot, and told me „don't advertise this one, it's for us“. There was also S.S., Veca's brother-in-law, whom I didn't recognize, being all white and thirtysome years older than the last time I saw him, when he was teaching in 13., not exactly oto but its successor, OTP. He kept harping on that the school should hire his daughter, by all rights... She had a feeling that a guy with such a grudge will die soon after his problem gets solved, the problem keeps such guys alive. And turned out she was right, he didn't last more than a couple of years after this.
I took some twenty minutes to sit and talk with L, who was a system operator on the Vaha, one of three, back in the erc of stour. Her father was once the general director of LebarProm and my dear had some interesting stories of how her father would get up on the worker's assembly and retort to his rhetorics, in a really witty way... Anyway, we reminisced of the old times, and briefly rehashed what happened later, of which I blissfully remember nothing.
Dad got quite in the mood, and took a few more swigs of that apple, and Borče offered to take him home - he had the car, and didn't mind driving after a couple of drinks. Said there was no problem.
Mentions: 13. april, 15-VII-2017., Đurđa Rođanović (Đuđa), erc, LebarProm, Mališa Borkovski (Borče), OTO, stour, VAX (Vaha), Vera Stojanović (Veca), in serbian
26-V-2023 - 25-III-2026