14-IV-1995.: Choir visit*
(I got confused with the dates here, kept thinking this was end of may, perhaps for the unduly nice weather for mid april... but I found a fact which hooked this into the calendar, see below)
Vanji organized, with help of Mihály and Vilmos, the appearance of our gimnazija's choir in Gemenc. I guess it took some sleeve pulling etc, but it eventually worked. Had to find someone to pay a couple of hundred meals, fuel for two buses and the overnight stay. I don't even know whether the whole choir was here, or only as many of them as could fit in a two buses, with their white gowns/jackets neatly packed. This was some breakthrough, because FRY was still under sanctions, the gasoline was smuggled and bought from bottles at the corner, there was no travel to speak of, and the cultural ties we once had were severed. This choir used to be world famous, and now they weren't invited anywhere for several years. So he got them out a bit.
They had lodgings in a high school dormitory pretty much in our neighborhood, two corners away from Szoftex. Finally saw Slavko after so many years, and never his wife (well, the then wife, later I heard he had a whole lineup), and from her I heard the joke about a female hitchhiker in mourning, to whom the trucker said in the end "will it be a blow job or a song, then?", and she goes "from me, a song?!", because, you see, mourning. Later I heard other versions, without mourning but with some acting, like "from me you expect a song?".
The atmosphere in the dormitory was just great, I haven't seen the ekskurzija hubbub in years. There were some locals, who didn't go home (I guess the easter break was ongoing). There were kids with serious fuckappeal... and then just when you think c'mon they're barely seventeen, then you remember what you did at that age... Eh. And we (Vanji, Joška, Mihály (Vilmos left early, understanding mostly nothing), Slavko's wife (he was around, sometimes sitting with us, sometimes off to manage the crowd) and I were sitting in a corner of the big lobby, from which the halls and staircases branch, just chatting and having fun. In that setting the wife told how the whole choir knows the above joke, so the other day when he wanted to start a rehearsal and said "let's have a song now" they all said, with proper timing intonatione etc, like a choir, "from me, a song?".
So the concert itself took place on 15th, then, in the local cathedral, I'd say reformist if white walls mean that (but then what do I know), with an audience which numbered less than the choir. Even the first row wasn't full. Advertising the event failed - probably didn't insert it into local newspaper nor radio, and the timing was completely wrong, sunday before lunch. Judging by the faces in the audience it was all oral - the huge dentist with her wee assistant girl, two or three doctors from Gemenc, and less than half of Szoftex. Okay, not so - all of us, both bosses, plus perhaps Ula, just nobody from hardware.
At least the kids had fun. They sang somewhat exaggerated - the accoustics were giving them lots of good feedback, so they got carried away, enjoying their own sound.
Vanji bought a huge satellite dish, something that couldn't even fit into his Corolla, so he arranged with the driver of one of the buses to take it home for him.
(I thought this happened in late may, but then while I was gathering the jokes for the new section of sGradlj.com, I found in old logs of sezam that I posted the "gimme a blowjob or sing to me" on this evening - of course I posted it on the same day)
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* "visit" still feels wrong, but the straight translation of "gostovanje" as "guesting" sounds just as odd and throws the reader off.
Mentions: ekskurzija, Gemenc, Gemenc Polyclinic, gimnazija, Joška Apro, Mihály Weisz, sezam, sGradlj.com, Slavko Enbecin, Szoftex, Ulrika Schréder (Ula), Vilmos Hausz, Vilmoš Baranji (Vanji), in serbian
20-IV-2020 - 16-VI-2026