03-VII-1970.: and the following days

On 3rd we went to Borik. Tejka with her family, plus Ivka were already there. We picked uncle Staja with family along the way. Danica is growing somewhat wrong - almost ugly, and then she cuts her hair and looks worse.

So we played a lot of remi, at our tent, because every now and then she would find something to be irritated by at her place. And would want to have a smoke, too.

We had a long recap about the last years of the elementary. Some conclusions:

- two most together-with-each-other classes ever were VIII₂ and VIII₃.

- D.K. was the worst; as V. said there's a lot about her that nobody suspects. While she's very unhappy with her mom whoring around the neighborhood, she herself ain't much better. And spreads gossip around.

- V. is just a good girl but quite naive. She and Z. have once plotted a revenge on D.K. but V. gave up, didn't have the heart.

- The best teachers, in what they did for us, were that other oto teacher and Ivka; the worst was that classmaster of VIII₁, who was ill with ambition and envy, we were still better. Being a good hypocrite she managed to hide that, but now in retrospect it becomes obvious.

- Ivka knew long ago who the smokers were, but wisely kept that to herself.

Of course, during the following couple of weeks I spent a lot of time with her, but with her mood swings and taste choices it didn't work out. I had to maneuver around all of that, and one evening, when we walked down all the unlit paths and empty beaches and all the way to the Ferial home, I wanted to take a peek there. She didn't, but told me to go. I did, and it was boring, the music was so-so, but not too bad either, so I said let's get in. She didn't want to, so I told her to just go back, I'll go in. She didn't like it, but went, probably expecting that I'll change my mind immediately and go after her. I walked in, but then the music took a turn for the worse, so I gave up and went back, reaching her soon enough. She said she wasn't mad at me.

A note on Ferijalac. The Ferial League was a way for youth tourism to happen. They had dormitories and/or camps near any tourist resort, perhaps not in the best places but within five minute walk from them. You'd join, then go there for a shift - ten or fifteen days - and for the time you'd have free accomodation and food. The standard thereof wasn't much, it was bunk beds and mess hall, and you had to do your day or two in the kitchen or as a room orderly, but it wasn't hard at all and it was almost free (you still had to get there, even though if you traveled as a group you'd have a big discount on the railway, but rails didn't go everywhere)(perhaps they too got discount on buses if hiring one for the whole group?) and it was great fun. Now these were mostly teritorial, so this one was for the young of Bjelovar; those of my city had one in Promajna or Makarska or Vrsar... which is how habits were made: for years these same folks would go to these same places, once they could afford to have a vacation on their own. Which is why these three places were exactly the ones to avoid if you wanted to meet different people - chances of meeting someone you know were extremely high there.

On 16th they (Tejka and her folks) were packing to leave, and she just came to announce that she'll come in the evening to say a proper goodbye. The weather was bad, it was raining on and off, so we went to town, and stayed a bit longer, so this farewell didn't happen. tetka was checking out a dress in Beko's shop (a Belgrade garment factory), Anica and Danica were checking out funny book names in a bookstore (yup, the foreign, well, western only names were written unphonetically), so I went to see the bookstore's window (Rad, from Belgrade again)... um, let's see, LP records, Jackson 5, Fifth dimension... Hair! I showed mom that they had Burda in serbocroatian (finally!), and then asked the nice girl there to show me the LP. Which was confusing, because I kept mentioning it in translation, which to her meant nothing, she wouldn't know which album I meant... so there was some confusion but eventually I got it. And she was a nice girl, would fit with me squarely, even though she was probably a couple of years older than I. (which would be correct - the chronic shortage of workforce during the tourist season would fill a place in a bookstore with any random highschooler, specially if she was, say, 2nd grade of merchants' school, which would make her 16-17.)

The remaining two weeks were then boring. There was some german girl with interesting swimsuit, in separate pieces held by metal rings on the sides and shoulders, quite cute and eye-catching, so I just liked to watch her, until I lost interest. Then she started watching me... and again nothing happened. We came home on 1st of august, 21:00. blaženko was pleased to see me. I played the record right away - I somehow managed not to look for a place to listen to it for whole two weeks, wow. Didn't sound like anything much on first ear, but the next day I got a much better - excellent! - impression. Put it down to bad voltage on that first. Yeah, right.

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Mentions: Anica Tešić, Blaženko, Borik, Danica Tešić, Ivanka Tomašić /Čardić/ (Ivka), OTO, remi, Slavica Tejin (Tejka), tetka Mima, uncle Staja, VIII₁, VIII₂, VIII₃, in serbian