12-IV-1974.
On friday (12th) dad and I took granma and another granny from neighborhood to church (she's going again, she skipped it for several years). We walk around. There goes she with her roommate, seeing the tablo of IV5pp in a shop window across of pharmacy, and the mate says "so you first meet him here first time you get home... and now also the second", as in mid sentence she sees me approaching. First we went to R. at the bookstore, bought records (BS&T 4. and some late Harrison, both disappointing), then we take her home and return to town and still can't think of what to buy for mom. While we're still there we see her entering a cloth-by-meter ("metražna roba") shop. I sneak behind her and say "not ba but why this color" "ah, you are, ey come look what good denim I found, want to sew me trousers". I stayed with her downtown, dad went home. Had some fun time, then split to our buses.
We met fourth time in the evening, I came to her. She was already sewing the trousers. Showed me the letter from her niece in Germany. The kid looks smart, just to switch from punch to wine.
Off to town.
(... 71 word...) And weren't too late on the way back.
On saturday evening old man and I went together to get her, my folks all spruced up, me medium, she in new milky blue trousers with dark blue thread in the seams. She packed a hairspray from uncle's reserve and picked a bunch of tulips from the garden. Oma, of course, made a point that on the way back we first drop her off then go home. Yeah, right, promised of course, but... how would she know, anyway? And also concluded that it's none of her business.
So we went to "Mulberry shadow" at next village, slightly beyond it actually, place of some fame. The location was a bit unwieldy, the afterthought table next to the band, but then we saw more tables added in worse places, so we're almost okay. The dad passed me the keys and blueberry juice (yup, the pure blueberry was the best juice in the universe then), she hit the wine and it hit her and they drank what they drank. On the way back he claptrapped something about my driving, so I pointed out which mistake he made on the way out so he shut up. I turned left one corner earlier, shortcut to our place, so they don't pass her area twice, straight home. Left them there and we... (... 72 words...)
I feel I can't keep up with the diary, it's now written with three-four weeks of delay.
On sunday, around coffee time, Pop and another guy came with a developer's dose, to wind in a roll of 8mm, they don't know how to do it, it has to be done in the dark, and I do it routinely.
On monday, Rudolf asked how much would be a ticket from Belgrade to Bangkok. Gavra brought me the club keys (?). As dad and I were getting ready to go to Zemun, he joined us. Sort of wanted to buy a prom suit, but we mostly sat at uncle Staja's while dad was on faks. J.B. wants to get the latin guy drunk at the prom.
Of all the trips to Zemun these months, I think this is the time I bought "Media, extensions of man" by Marshall McLuhan. One of them eye-openers, which really changed the way I looked at things and various phenomena.
Photo ot Patty Hearst with a machine gun, during a bank robbery.
On tuesday, 16th, "MASH" in Dom.
On friday, 19th, here she comes. That is I went to her, and to see Oma. In the evening to disco, and then (... 19 words...) a real crazyman shooed us away, waving torchlight, the whole show. I didn't want to argue, I know who I'm dealing with. Our time was running out anyway, so we left.
On saturday I was answering biology. In the afternoon went with granma to Čurda to take the lining and zipper to the tailor. When he saw the zipper, he went "where did you find that!". A good metal one is hard to find nowadays, plastic shit everywhere.
Walk or car? Almost by accident took the car. Found her around half nine. In a somewhat bad mood at first, but then we found some company, then Vanji and Kid, which freshened us. Started scratching for a beer, which was then two beers, and then when we returned the bottles and I found 150 dinars (old) in back pocket, had for a juice for me. Vanji invited us to his place, has rum. I'm driving and she'd like to go somewhere, so no thanks, we just roughly agree we should go somewhere on mayday, some picnic.
Then she was late home, but attack was the best defence: why do you wake Arpi so late and I have to get up at seven?
On sunday, 21st, the trial matricular written [exam], I wrote something insane, too bad it's gone. Then at club only Džambo was there, and while waiting for bus back I had the runs suddenly, luckily the school is open and nearby.
Then it happened to me again when I escorted her to her bus, two blocks out and I just had to run back.
(Bajlo, Tejka, Bosa, Vasilija; on other shots, to the right, Oli Boj, Sredljak, me (with lots of hair already*), Milica)
On tuesday was taking pictures on predvojnička (wrote "shooting" first but then this is exactly the wrong context), then on wednesday at Sonja's class. Developed those from tuesday. There's also a shot of LML in his šuškavac, but nothing much. The funny thing was to see him in one while the girls all wore mini skirts. Even Dragana wore her shortest these days, about which my mom asked „do you spread it on an umbrella to dry it?“. Other girls weren't far behind, even the somewhat conservative club wore them at least 10cm above the knees.
„Beograđanka“ aka Black widow, was opened, with a PKB department store at the lowest floors. The house special (which I saw much later, when they did that here as well) is the rubber band handholder on the escalators. Everywhere else it's black, here it's red. Never saw any but black anywhere. In Portugal, the carnation revolution, the junta is gone.
On thursday the corrections to the written. Bajče managed to push it from an ace unto a three. In the evening a load of pictures, stuck in the lab.
Distributed the pictures on friday, 26th. She didn't write, said she'll be coming on wednesday (30th, exactly last day before mayday). In the afternoon went with dad to Romania, and the romanian border officers stuck us with some granny, a Zuska*, because of some problem, to take her to yugoslav consulate, which we barely found. Took us some time to get rid of her, then rushed through shops and market to get rid of the cash. Even the customs officers have something to say about my hair.
Eh, if it were just the customs... Some older guy, looked like an intellectual, could have been a teacher, went on to berate me on the street, in downtown Timişoara, on the matter of my looks. It seems he didn't like what ammunition it gave to the romanian state propaganda to denigrate the SFRY. Yeah, right, I'm like always ready to pander to every enemy. The same thing annoyed me with ours too, that they always took more care of „what will the enemy say“ than of their own opinion, and in a process sacrificed the very liberties they fought for just to appease them. You're bad at dicking it out, comrades. But I'll do that for you: if everyone of us is representing the country when abroad, well then I'm representing the liberty to grow hair.
Kid and Branka visited, while we were away, to say we should talk about the picnic. Since they didn't find me, said they'll wait for me tomorrow at eight. This begins to look like a perfect triper - to have them both in the same company for a whole day, to have her with her ex and her current likewise, it could go its merry way. Also need to see with Vanji and Eči, who are also in Novi. It's getting complicated.
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* Slovakian, from one of such villages; the nickname comes from Zuzana, their variant of Susan.
Mentions: Arpad Gunaroši (Arpi), Bosiljka Šain (Bosa), Branislav Bačikin (Bajče), Branislav Rade (Baki), Branka, Čurda, Dom omladine, Dragana Vitas (Dragana), Endre Felbab (Eči), Gavrilo Taroški (Gavra), Gradivoj Sredljev (Sredljak), IV5pp, LML, Marko Popović (Pop), Milica Erceški, Nenad Bajlo (Bajlo), Novi Sad, Olivera Stojanović (Oli Boj), Oma, predvojnička, Rudolf Ochsner, Slavica Tejin (Tejka), Sonja Savković, šuškavac, triper kombinacija, uncle Staja, Vasilija Zajić, Vilmoš Baranji (Vanji), Zdravko Smetovački (Zova), Zoltan Čonti (Kid), in serbian
19-I-2026 - 10-VII-2026