10-V-1982.
Finally got the permit to visit home. Only 2nd time all in all, and even this so late in the game - I'll be civilian in just two months. But there was an internal order that the likes of this outpost be fully manned at all times, because the Sqiptars on Kosovo started making trouble again, and since we're theoretically surrounded by enemies, each neighboring country belonging to this or that bloc, with Austria neutral and Albania sided with PR China at the moment, very few people got to go home at all. Which mostly meant more mail, more psychological strain, and more drinking downtown whenever we went down. Morkec got me into drinking špricer, which he calls gemišt or just gem, and I completely forgot about beer.
(to the right of me, in order, rešo, mirko and kvin on it)
I maneuvered the corporal to give me the permit for the evening before what he told me, as I have a train at 21:00, and then when I was about to go, I already had an airplane ticket from Zadar. The plane did leave in the evening, so it was dark when it took off. To my right, across the aisle, sat a famous football player from the coast - recognized him by the beard, which was rare at the time. He was solving a single crossword all the 45 minutes of the trip.
Barely caught a bus from Surčin airport to the Belgrade busodrom, only to learn that the last bus to Zrenjanin left an hour ago. What could I do, found a bus that would take me as far out on Zrenjanin road as it could, which was somewhere around PKB gates. I stood under a light, and really hated that the SMB (gray-olive color) I wore was making me near invisible. My face tan didn't help either. I was lucky, hitched a truck within 30 minutes and, my parent's house being between the two Belgrade bound major streets, it was no problem to walk the last kilometer. I jumped over the gate and woke her up. Go was asleep.
We had ten undisturbed happy days. I even washed the dishes (photo documented). Go is such a sweet kid.
On one of the photos I noticed I was smoking HF - herceg-filter, i.e. the same škija, just in ready cigarette format. Didn't stay with it for too long, just smoked what we bought then and returned to roll-my-owns. Not that it was bad, it's that it was too easy, just pull it out and light it up. When I have to roll it first, takes less.
Mentions: Damir Molnarić (Morkec), Gorana Sredljević (Go), kvin meri, mirko, rešo, škija, špricer, Zadar, in serbian
15-XII-2012 - 31-X-2025