At some point during these months I bought the sixpack of translated Dune books. I did read the original of the first part (concluding with "but the history will call us wives") almost four years ago when Paja borrowed it to me with "you'll like this", and now that I've started making some money, I could indulge this much. The sixpack ends with Leto II, wormlike, running into the desert.
To this day, I've read it several times, including the originals.
Don't know how it happened that I had the books with me in Perlez, the whole sixpack. Perhaps I borrowed them or just brought them to show to a colleague.
Coffee was made in a liter pot, as there was usually seven of us. We'd sip it during the big recess, after the second class, 9:35 to 9:50. The main subject of coffee chat, almost every monday that fall, was the new singer in hotel Vojvodina, and what kind of show did she put up last night. They described her as forward, backward and longlegged (though Pop commented her appearance as „she has it all, just missing an apple in her jaw“). Her main number, the culmination of the evening, would be when she'd allow one of the guests to carry her on his shoulders (of course, she wore a dopičnjak, shortest possible). The guy would, as a rule, be one of the more prominent directors in town. Who knows whether they will have emphasized or removed from their biographies that „Lepa Brena was riding me before she became famous“.
Truth be told, Toma Zdravković also launched his carreer from the same hotel.
The staff room in 13. had two doors (v. 19-VIII-1980.); the door to the hall being in one corner, it follows that the chess was played in the opposite corner. There were several strong players, at least one mathematician, two textile engineers, one construction engineer and some others at times. They even held some titles, some were grand masters or whatever. The games were loud and rough, it's a miracle that a chessman never pierced the board. The rumor said the internal champion of the staff room will get a black belt.
Once Marteš, a fellow mathematician and schedule maker, asked me how can I hold classes so with hair and beard (which I wasn't too dilligent in pruning, what you saw in september is what you get). „Quite simply, colleague, in my work I use the inside of my head, the outside being irrelevant. Don't know how you do.“
Even a tezga for me came along, within the school... Gik's Zangrap decided to pay for various of their trained-at-work majstors - masons, façaders, tilers - to finish a high school, with work. The „with work“ was an euphemism for part-time, because there was also „from work“, when one would get a two year vacation to finish an extra degree, which I completely doubt ever happened, but the legal possibility was there. The reason for this course was to have these get a salary upgrade, as there was another law which tied its level with educational degree, so the self-management bodies there decided to set aside some amount for education, so at least this bunch, which took the effort to go through this, would get that piece of paper, so their average would raise ahead of retirement. Then the retirement was based on your best five years of salary (later ten, or vice versa), so it didn't matter that they were making some pittance so far, as long as they made those last years well, and then they can just tip their hats.
These would start working at seven in the morning, when there was work - because construction work is seasonal, and they are doing the artisanal labor, partly inside, so they can do it even when main construction can't, so they somehow had more work in the winter than in summer. Which means they were doing ten hour shifts, finishing around 17, catching something to eat and then coming to 13. to have a class or two. Them being mostly from surrounding villages, some even from the romanian border, this meant they had to be up no later than 5:30 to get to work, then be on their feet for almost twelve hours, outside or in unfinished cold buildings, and then sit in the well heated school and learn mathematics... Ouch. Half of them would fall asleep before I'd even start.
Once it happened that there was a blackout, whole school went dark, as soon as they got in the classroom. But the school was technically prepared for all situations - the cleaning comradess brought me a petroleum lamp. So I held two classes holding this lamp raised by the blackboard. I don't know what they learned that day, but I guess they at least kept a memory of the crazy prof holding a class like that.
And the money I got for this wasn't bad, so we now had enough to start acquiring larger items, we'll be a household once.
1-III-2020 - 13-VII-2026