march 1986.
I remember that it was springtime and that I already had some ties to the sanitary inspection, which I did not publish. Turned out that, as it were, it was better that way, for my sleeve would be pulled to use them to urge for some action... of which there'd be none, not from that party. So, this spring is the most probable time, perhaps beginning in winter.
So the syndicate (am. union) in mašinska organized a procurement of some sausages for the workers. As the syndical acquisitions were far less controlled than the regular retail, a lot of it was possible to do, including the purchase of the sausages from someone who is not even a butcher, doesn't have a shop, but can at least guarantee the food safety, as these were made by the veterinary in some village himself. Except half the staff room got some rash on their skin, itching, the surface layer peeling off... Because who knows what was there in the meat. Most likely nothing happened to those who cooked them, in, say, beans or paprikaš, or who at least fried them, but this is Banat, the way to eat it is as is, cold, for breakfast or dinner.
The legal fuckup is that the state has nothing to do with it, because that veterinary, apart from coming up a fool whom the whole village will make fun of for weeks, has no registered shop, he's simply state's service to the peasants and on top of it an authorized person overseeing the safety of foodstuffs of animal origin. When they slaughter to sell, even when selling straight from the yard away from any kind of regular payment system, both peasants and the buyers know that the vet's stamp must be on the meat. The peasants call him themselves, the buyers look for the stamp.
I remember there was some extensive discussion at some meeting in the staff room. Probably not a staff meeting, must have been a zbrlj*. Some ten people rose to speak, everyone complaining and bitching about it and looking for culprits, state should do something, but Fića (the staunch antismoker, mentioned later, v. 22-VIII-2019.) said he's been to the sanitary inspection (of which I already heard in detail, but stuck to the separation of house and job, and she also didn't let on that she was my wife but rather sent him to veterinary inspection, next door right, where they either fucked him off or made some vague promise, of which the most likely fulfilled part is that they told every veterinary in the municipality the whole story, so they all knew who and how shat the matter), and turns out they can only file for a private lawsuit, and see what they can get.
A couple voices of sound reasoning were heard as well, that the blame is on the guy from the sindikat, no clue who that was, who had the bright idea to procure like that, and the guy said „who else to rely on but on a veterinary, if they don't know what they're doing then I don't know who does“... And so the wolf ate the donkey (i.e. nothing happened), they didn't eat it raw anymore.
On the placić (the house building lot's nickname) we did nothing, so it was a garden again, like last year. Dad, mom and us four went, hoed it, planted stuff, and even had some crops later. There was green peas, onions, poppy, tomatoes, a bit of everything.
The dug part is generally the extent of our lot, maybe we left a path around it, and on the other side another path where the street will be. The neighbors were far ahead of us with construction, but then none above the top plates, no roofs yet. Pera tamburaš (tambour player), the lot behind ours, has nothing, only that flat and straight foundation (not simultaneously - it's flat where it isn't straight and vice versa). The guys to our left, likewise, the guy's a brother to one teaching PE at mašinska, he put up the foundation and left it for better times.
(now I see I wrote half of this for march 1985., because I found the same photo twice, once as a reshot negative, once as a scanned print... it just goes somewhere to show how eighties and nineties are an uncharted territory for me. Let it stay.)
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* zbor radnih ljudi, working people's congregation, the self-management's equivalent of the owners' meeting.
Mentions: march 1985., april 1992., 22-VIII-2019., and the next two days, MPSŠC (mašinska), in serbian
23-VIII-2024 - 17-XI-2025