08-III-1972.
Whole previous day went in collecting the cash to buy girls some present for the Women's day. Turned out we have enough for a bottle of Merima's (of Kruševac) Chanel.
The best kiss was with Bosa and that blonde from the 2nd division (she keeps vanishing and reappearing), until I came to Bilja. Wow, that was deep and left an excellent aftertaste. I could get used to that. At sociology and maths we mostly sang, sang a lot. For Marko Bozon I wrapped the chalk so that it's exactly 15mm out of the wrap. For some reason, perhaps skin trouble, he asked that his chalk be wrapped*.
The big break was extended to 25 minutes, specially today (now probably the last two classes were five minutes shorter, so the travellers would get to their buses on time). D.M. was not in good mood to me (but said she's fine otherwise) so okay... their usual third friend, the smallish cute blonde, was out of herself with happiness, she finally met the guy in black jeans and green sweater, whom she was ogling a week ago, and it so raised my spirits, to see someone so happy.
This shot is from a whole session, shot on some other day, Slavka and Tejka. They had the idea to climb the flat roof of the rebuilt shed, it's a 4x4 (should be more, it must jut out beyond the walls, at least 4,5x5), and even that wasn't enough, they had to climb the gable to strike a pose there. The next month there was a similar session with Dragana jumping in instead of Slavka, but by then the regula was shitting at large and those came out all unfocused.
The ladder is, by the way, the same one as it ever was, just not under roof anymore, always outside now. And as such it will keep on for at least fifteen years more, even the nails holding this extension will not pull out nor rust much.
The rest of the shots for this month was shot by dad during an official trip to Kotor, and by then the regula needed a repair, too bad.
In Vogošća, Folksvagen will open a car factory, but won't be producing turtles (called beetles much later, fuck Disney's movies), but rather the new golves. A danger of variola appeared, which by middle of the month became officially an epidemy (epidemic is an adjective - begs the question „epidemic what?“). On Torlak [institute] they already produced enough of vaccine, and the mass vaccination was done. I didn't write the day this was done (wikipedia says twentysixth), but I remember the scene when we were vaccinated, guess in the chemistry cabinet (the classroom on second floor, frontside, rather dark and all somehow last century). You roll up [your] sleeve, they spread something to sterilize the spot, and don't even jab you, it's just a small scratch on the skin, with a lancet (nobody knew the word then). One guy from IV3 fainted, he shat himself whenever seeing a needle approaching (no matter that it wasn't a needle). When he beaned to, he just mumbled „can't stand alcohol“. The cleansing agent was pharmacy grade gasoline. (the guy was a mayor, later)
In the afternoon Duca and Tejka came by to pick me up to go to Dom, with a makeup stopover before heading to town. Met a large gang from IV4 (then II, of course) - Milica's birthday, of course. There were three liters of wine (there's a shop between vodotoranj and that dirty passage, which is open late enough, still called Gramag - gradski magacin, ie. city warehouse, so getting a drink in the evening is no problem). First we stood behind the church, and then down to the river behind the economy high. I didn't drink (yet) and Duca said "I'd be ashamed to be so sober when everyone else isn't". Oops... come back, you went through the wall.
Then we went to disco, i.e. Dom. I asked the birthday girl what's her favorite song - "Plavuša", by Kićo Slabinac, okay... I went to the deejay and just told him so. "I think I got the record somewhere in here...". And then it was as in the movies, he called her up to his lectern (or whatever, it was pretty much two elevated tables with some curtain hanging in front, to hide all the cables), gave her a Tom Jones single as a present, and promised to play her song when he finds it (did, when the red light block came, aka "who grabs what"). I actually went back with the single to get a dedication and autograph for her.
Then I spotted B. Just had to get to her. For a moment, under those lights, I thought she was Duda (well yeah, blonde of similar stature), so went and asked her if it was her, nope, not. Then she left but, ouch, I just had to find her. And did, but. She's with three friends, who aren't looking so well, and she won't leave them, and I'd have to find three guys who'd be willing to help me separating them and... too complicated. At least I danced with her once, persuaded her that much, and filled her ear with whatever came to my mind, and then knew I must not let her go. So after each dance I'd come back again and again. She did smile a little. Didn't get a kiss, didn't get to escort her (not with three other girls) but we'll meet again, I'll make sure. I think I was seriously in love on the spot.
On 10th the latin guy introduced coniugatio periphrastica activa, which we then said we did that last year. He was shocked - it was supposed to be the heavier stuff, something for the last months of the course, and he was under impression that the old man taught us close to nothing. He just said "That man is legendary. Genious.".
In the afternoon we traveled with Veca et al to visit their kum, somewhere in the south. Our fathers and this guy were old pals, probably from late forties - early fifties, and they stayed more or less in touch. The weather was so-so, we even had bits of snow at times. Their daughter is a nice girl. I felt not too much out of place, just a bit. Milivoje is a problem, though, first for being notoriously the gung-ho driver, we always lose him, specially through Belgrade (the highway still wasn't cut through it, and the beltway wasn't even in the plans yet). The bigger problem is his health, which he's quite the drama queen about. It took some time to convince him that the cataract is not such a serious thing, and then he passed his attitude to the car - it started stalling on idle. Well yeah, the dirty romanian gasoline in the souped up tiny engine, of course. Then he had a flat tire. And his wife is a big lady, her mom was cooking for them for the critical first fifteen years of marriage (i.e. until they moved). She doesn't even go to the marketplace, but knows well how to create problems. Went to Vrnjačka Banja, seems to be close, and also visited the Žiča monastery. The acoustics of the place are amazing, the sound of the nuns singing among those walls is memorable, I wish I had at least the phone I have today to make a recording. Saw several shops with auto parts, though. And Mataruška Banja, where I revisited all the spots where we made havoc during that ekskurzija on 17-VI-1968..
Around 17th was that time when I had a safety needle stuck to the fly of my jeans (now already properly worn out), for Spužva to notice. It was a trap, of course, just to check where he's looking, and to see how he may react, but he didn't bite. But the story about this was a good conversational piece on the walk home, when the conversation with Višnja and D.M. just stalled. (thought this was on the big break, when we also had the third girl along, who found something wrong about that guy in black jeans and grean sweater)
D.M. is somehow mad at me - perhaps I said something wrong, or made a pass at Višnja when she expected a pass at her, who'd know, she doesn't say, just sulks. We crossed the whole bridge and they were still laughing about this safety needle. This was the time when they would suddenly burst into laughter over seemingly nothing, and then couldn't stop for at least ten minutes. Luckily it happens only twice a year, they say (and lasts six months at a time).
In the evening tetka and hers were visiting, staying for the weekend. On TV, "Lights of distant harmonies", which was actually the whole (first, finally) album of Korni grupa. We still had that b/w TV, Ei Niš, from 1965. and the picture wasn't that good, though the horizontal smudging is much less these couple of months, since there's the 2nd programme, and the signal is in color. The album wouldn't be out until a couple of months later. Good timing of the advertising campaign... and fuck, the album will be mono. Later I found that even small and relatively unimportant bands from Croatia and Slovenia had their records done in stereo, but in PGP RTB they were sticking to their guns and didn't refresh the equipment until about 1974, when the big rock party was practically over. Assholes.
On 19th in DC-99 I showed the rough edit of "Can not", and they were astonished, specially Pop. I took the camera with the leftover tape from 19th of february, to shoot the credits for it, the summer vacation movie, and for "Portrait of a Višnja" (in advance). I painted those in watercolor, and later pasted them on the wall sidings in the club.
On 21st we had trouble in the class. The crazy Jolpaz was chasing someone (probably Bajče, he had a pique on him) and at some point jumped over the teacher's desk, leaving a footprint on the top. I was in the hall, with some guy from Narodna Tehnika, about the next competition season, and saw the historian enter the class, so I leave this guy and get in. The historian was mad as hell about the footprint. It's not unusual to have smudges in that spot, sponge and chalk do that, but this drove him insane. He wrote the orderlies (Bosa and, ahem, Z. - don't remember we had one with such a name) and took Jolpaz to the principal. And then he questioned us, including me. The folks said I should have got a five for the answer I delivered, sure does, under normal conditions.
Our reputation as a class isn't too good, and now it will get worse. Now we'll get hosed for things we haven't even done. Comes from being second door from the staff room.
Tejka came in the afternoon - some mess with an anonymous letter, recognized as written by Miljka and Milica, about some guy from their IV4, and some proposed revenge by that guy and three pals. Came to ask for advice. Went with her to the movie, saw Fellini's "Clowns". This guy knows how to retell his childhood. Managed to get to Prleski afterwards, just before closing.
I'm sneezing all the time and it's getting worse. Consuming lots of honey and lemon mix. Not that it helps, but is weirdly satisfying.
As for the movie, Višnja (also sneezing... it seems to be half the folks got it) is firmly on board, and D.M. is in charge of catching the music. I want to have things from Korni grupa as the sound in the movie, and the album won't be out on time, and she has the tape recorder, so she's the safer bet. I wonder when will I ever be with Višnja without her? Or is it that she's just beautiful, but I'm exaggerating because I don't actually know her too well? It's many hours of conversation by now, but never alone and always within the narrow range of subjects - school, and a little else.
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* though I think it's an affectation - I held the chalk for five years and had no problem at all.
Mentions: 17-VI-1968., Biljana Lajković (Bilja), Bosiljka Šain (Bosa), Branislav Bačikin (Bajče), DC-99, Dom omladine, Dragana Vitas (Dragana), Duda, Dušica Tošin (Duca), ekskurzija, IV3, IV4, Korni grupa, kum, Marko Damjanov (Marko Bozon), Marko Popović (Pop), Milica Zubatović, Milivoje Stojanović, Pavle Džeferdarević (Jolpaz), Prleski, regula, Slavica Tejin (Tejka), Slavka Vinković, Smiljka Grajin (Miljka), tetka Mima, Vera Stojanović (Veca), Višnja Lazin, vodotoranj, in serbian
31-XII-2020 - 25-III-2026