01-V-1989.
The first mayday party, aka uranak, of DBA at dad's vineyard. Brata, being a hunter, had found a lamb somewhere in the villages, and had it slaughtered and skinned - the latter part he did himself, not sure of the former. Brought it to our place the day before to prepare it (perhaps he did the skinning on the spot, details of the arrangement are blurry, but I remember seeing the fleece).
We all got there early enough, I paddled across the river a few times - don't know if perhaps one or two other guys knew how to negotiate the stream.
The lamb was duly set on a spit, fire was started, and it took several hours to roast. To achieve the proper outer crust on the meat, it allegedly had to be sprayed with beer every dozen minutes, which took a lot of beer. One shook the bottle to produce pressure, then sprayed it thinly as someone else turned the spit - on this picture it's me with the bottle and I'd say Vanji turning it. The guy on the bench should be his older son. On the right, from behind, Sale.
The lamb was excellent. Perhaps because we had to wait so long for it to be done, or because of the amoun of beer we ingested (though I probably didn't, I stuck to not drinking when there's more to drive in the day and did so until retirement at least). We probably had just bread and salad to it - the salad being made from whatever dad could have growing at the time, green onions and perhaps a few radishes.
On the picture, Vanji is holding the spit while Brata chops the meat into servable chunks. The back in the front is Blaža.
Everyone brought kids - Vanji with both sons (but I don't see E. on the pictures), Brata came with his son (again, see no wife), Sale with wife and both kids (daughter in kind of bad mood, serious face on each picture; son still in a stroller), Nena with daughter, not sure if I recognize Željko on the pictures; Blaža probably alone (but then there are two skirts and pairs of legs on the pictures, which I don't recognize, so perhaps both he and Brata came with wives), and Grgi alone.
The kids loved the boat. After lunch, even while most of the guys were playing kind of football in the meadow between the upper and lower levee, at least one adult was in charge of being on the boat with the kids. The overhanging willows make for a nice shade where the boat is moored, though on this day it was not doing much, the whole day was bright cloudy.
Go and Nina are on my side of the boat; next to me is Vanji's younger, the girl to the right is Sale's, and the boy in the middle I actually don't know.
Mentions: Aleksandar Raskov (Sale), Atila Gereg (Grgi), Blagoje Vrbović (Blaža), Brata Avramov, DBA, Gorana Sredljević (Go), Nevena Sredljević (Nina), Nevena Žaja (Nena), Vilmoš Baranji (Vanji), Željko Žaja, in serbian