25-XII-1993.
The big day when we moved. A shitty winter day, with mud, clouds, no rain nor frost, just shitty.
I came home to decant ten liters of the age old heating oil, because that was the price of transportation. We weren't using oil heaters for a couple of decades now, and this old barrel was left over. We got the truck from ms, who was DBA's customer, and I was counting on getting Ćola to drive, but got the other driver.
By the time I got home, mom and the girls already dismounted the kitchen cabinets and the double bunk bed. We (Števa, Grgi and Željko) came with one of them yugos. The truck came soon and we loaded the heating oil (which is actually diesel fuel, supposedly dyed so it's not to be confused with the more expensive diesel fuel, but the driver just didn't care - dyed fuel is much better than no fuel, and he only had to cover about 2km and he gets 10l, and fuel was very hard to find these days), and then all the cupboards and stuff went through the windows, into the truck.
We then unloaded at the new house. It was rather hot already, because we turned the heating on, and the differential feedback sensor wasn't really working. It was supposed to turn it off when the difference between pumped water and the reverse falls below 15 C, but it didn't. And we didn't have a thermostat yet.
The guys helped us unload, then we all helped the truck driver get his wheels out of a ditch - that's where the gas line was dug in, then filled in but not compressed, and now the soaked soil gave in. We didn't really get too muddy, the driver was experienced and steered sideways.
The guys stayed a bit, then went their ways, and we stayed to enjoy the first night in the new house. The beds weren't exactly in place yet, so we laid down the mattresses on the floor, between the cupboards laid on their sides. I slept on a sofa.
In february 2011, (... 6 words...) we found a scribbled "selidba 25.12.1993" on the underside of one, where the previous owner wrote a similar date from the seventies.
The shots were made while the girls were dismantling the beds and mom and she were taping the kitchen cabinet doors so they don't open during the move.
There's another story to this, but it couldn't have happened this time, because it was saturday, must have happened within the next two weeks. I left her old red bike at DBA, and not inside but leaning on one of the columns in front of it, in the underground. Of course, the next day the bike was missing, and I almost went to the police (at the other exit of the underground) to report theft, or maybe I called them on the phone, when I noticed a couple of guys pushing that bike outside, next to the place where I left it. I went out and had a few words. It was the neighbors' night guard (Jovela the pharmacist, same guy who was my lieutenant in the reserve, and few other shops paid him together) who "moved it to a safe place so it wouldn't be stolen". At some point he wanted some proof (the other guy stayed silent), because how does he know it's my bike at all. I took the bike by handlebars, pushed it behind me, looked him straight in the eyes from 1 pedalj away, and started "the left bolt on the rear axle is larger than one on the right side, the spike on the left pedal's shaft has been hammered and the right one wasn't" and a few more details that I couldn't possibly notice so fast. Then I suggested we take the bike to the police to solve the dispute. I somehow knew these night guards are probably ex cons and guessed this one wouldn't want to do that walk. Got the bike.
Among the first things we did right after the move, maybe on third day, was that I went up to the attic and wired the antennae. On that matter we so far managed the way we could, but now we intended to do it the best we can and not worry later, just like we did with hundred other things while building the house. The antennae for USW and teevee should have the transmitter in line-of-sight, because their range behind the horizon was weak. Both Avala and Crni Čot peak on Fruška were at about the limit of range, despite being on tall hill tops. While we were at šećerana we were obscured by the factory itself, it's a tall pile of iron, well half the kombinat is on that side, and from Novi Sad side it's the whole town. There was always noise on the radio, and the teevee signal was bearably good.
To prevent that repeating here, I decided to raise the antennae the tallest I could. There was a piece of pipe, Vlasta procured more than needed, managed to put everything together without this six meter length, a nice piece. I gave up in advance putting it above the roof, the one layer of tiles doesn't eat much of signal, as we already knew from experience. I just screwed both antennae to the pipe, and stuck it somewhere between the beams on top, and against the floor. Didn't have to apply any screws to affix it, it's inside, no wind may turn it. I already had ducts in the walls, flexible tube through which I lead the cable, so no extra hole in the ceiling, a beauty. And it worked, what sound equipment we had at the time, the Pioneer's mini line, with that cassette player with touch commands which activated the electromagnetic controls, played nice, though I can't recall where we kept it. Most probably in the girls' room, there was another duct there. Go simply arested the equipment, well okay, it's her turn for it.
On the day of 26th december, a copy of „Politika“ cost 4,000,000,000 dinars. On 27th, 8,000,000,000; 28th 15,000,000,000, 29th 40,000,000,000.
Mentions: august 1971., 25-XII-2018., 31-XII-2023., Ćola, DBA, Ferenc Gereg (Grgi), Gorana Sredljević (Go), kombinat, ms Rašetić, Novi Sad, pedalj, Stevan Garaj (Števa), šećerana, Vlasta Čkuljić, Željko Žaja, in serbian
8-I-2011 - 19-VIII-2026