02-VI-1969.: Trip to Fruška
Got a second kitten, all white, so Blaženko is not alone. It has some gray-green spot behind the ears. Nice furry tail.
We (dad, mom, I) went to Fruška gora yesterday, with dad's colleague. And also another guy, who was a driver somewhere, and lived somewhere downtown. I know once, a few years ago, he took us to a similar outing on Tisa, and we dropped by his place to pick something (his wife?), and years later I recognized the place as one of the passages between gimnazija street and main street.
Dad's studying, btw, part time. Needs that to get a promotion but also to get to the position he deserves by his practical knowledge. So he's exchanging textbooks and other literature with a few other guys who are in the same pot, and one of them, with his wife, was with us too. Had barbecue, pancakes, and I kissed the mountain when I had a dispute with gravity while running downslope.
This is probably that time when I lost my winter jacket. Left it hanging on a tree. Too bad, it was one of the few garments at the time that I actually liked.
[This is where the so-called fact contradict my timeline. A photo of me wearing this jacket in december of 1969 just came up. Or at least one that looks like it. Can't believe that they bought me another one so quickly after this, but then they might have had to, reverting to whatever I wore before was out of the question, I grew fast.]
From the photos I recognize one sweater, bought in Timişoara, which was mostly black, with some geometry, seemingly random squares in pink and...umm, beige or some such colour. The Romanians, just like Germans, seem to have a peculiar taste in colors. I remember once (later, mid 70s perhaps) seeing a blanket in totally psychodelic colors, in a shop right next to the opera building. It was like two demented guys were high on who knows what and then the blanket was hung in front of them, and they were given a dozen cans of neon spray paint. Absolute madness. Perhaps if you manage to get asleep, what dreams would come then?
BTW, the colleague's wife told us an interesting case which happened in their novogradnja just near Groš, one floor above. About a clogged kitchen sink drain, a majstor who said he'd drop by but it was almost 14:00 and he still didn't, so the housewife let the apartment unlocked while she hopped to the supermarket right across the street. While she was getting her groceries, the majstor came and understood the circumstances and dived right under the sink and tried to dislodge the syphon. A minute later the housewife comes, and sees just two legs peeking out the cabinet door. She thought the majstor didn't come at all, she recognized her husband's trousers, it must be him coming back from work a tad earlier. To reward his good behavior, she tickled his balls a little. The majstor, in shock, started and hit the syphon with his head. Then the lady understood her mistake, called 94, luckily there's just 2km to the hospital. The guys came quickly, put the poor guy on the stretcher, and while they carried him down she told them what happened. They laughed so much that they dropped the guy on the staircase. Then it got serious, they got serious, and finished the rest in neat order.
It all fits. Dad's friend does live on the 2nd floor, so 3rd would be right above; there really is a supermarket right across; the working hours of most working people were 6 to 14, except paper pushers' 7 to 15. The syphons were brass or iron and hard to unscrew. The choice of mans' trousers wasn't too rich, so seeing two guys with same ones in one day wasn't improbable. And the lady who told me this had also confirmed the story from the other end, she was a higher nurse in the hospital.
Why did I write this checklist? Because this became an urban legend some 2-3 years later, and has since happened long ago in all the possible cities.
Mentions: Blaženko, gimnazija, Groš, majstor, novogradnja, in serbian
5-VI-2020 - 21-III-2025