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Ogurlic
'85
I
TOO SAW MARSHAL TITO
Very
vague, dim, almost split sight remains. And, it is very
hot. I am standing in the second file of the right half
of the row, underneath the hospital, constantly hustling
and fighting for my place. I have two streamers in my
hands with wooden chipboard handles, manually made in
our school's technical workshop.
We
shout out slogans, and then we sing. We are not sure
how long all this will last. Someone tore my streamer.
I ask comrade teacher if she has adhesive tape. My partisan
cap with a plastic red star is to big for my head; it
keeps falling over my forehead, and I am constantly
lifting it up and arranging it. The cap is wet around
the edges. There are some tall girls in front of me,
I can hardly see anything. The teacher has assumed a
conductor's pose and we start singing again. It is OK
when we sing, because then we hustle less. Then we practice
waving our streamers. Our hands have to be raised very
high and our eyes must be set right in front of us.
Later on a policeman requires us to move onto the sidewalk,
which creates jostle. In this tumult, I succeeded to
emerge in the front row.
I
managed to see an escort car and two uniformed men on
motorcycles, when suddenly someone pulled me back and
momentarily I found myself in the third, maybe even
the fourth row. When the limos were announced, I again
shoved my way between the bodies, into the second row.
Someone cursed me, I was downcast and lost my will to
advance. I hardly managed to see the white limo, followed
by the black one, and the wide shoulders that blocked
my horizon.
In
the midst of despair, I found that I remained without
a second streamer as well.
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Jurkovic
'85
I
TOO HAVE SEEN MARCHAL TITO
first
of all you have to learn a few things when Tito sojourned
on the island of Vis I was not born yet and secondly
I moved to Komiza on Vis only four years ago you know
if you want to talk about 1944 you will have to look
for someone much older because I am still a young man
you see we can talk right here about different things
otherwise your questions are ok and provocative usually
I am happy to support youth newspapers but you see I
really cannot answer this one I mean it is not the real
thing I tell you I see you insist upon my meetings with
Tito but all right maybe I will tell you what happened
to me last summer when my nephews came to visit me you
know they live in Osijek they are my brother's while
my sister's kids live in Zadar but still they like coming
to Komiza every summer really and I love that too then
one evening little Zvone he is eight years old plays
the guitar the boy is awfully musical child prodigy
he found some music papers inside my stuff and it was
that nice old song by Balasevic I have seen Tito three
times and so he took the guitar in his hands and I got
overwhelmed with some melancholy and I recalled one
summer work camp when a boy of his age succeeded to
make half of the youth working brigade cry you know
those were such times so he played that song we were
sitting on the waterfront little Anna three years old
and then Zvone asked me whether I too have seen Tito
three times so I explained to him that I was born too
late but he keeps molesting and won't surrender so easily
and so you know I have seen Tito only once when together
with Ogurlic I don't know whether you know him I attended
the third class of the primary school and I recall we
had a day off school and when the suit of Mercedes came
by he waved through the window and we wrote essays later
on you know I told this to Zvonko and he was a little
bit disappointed and then Anna asked will I see Tito
too I start pondering and then said yes you will Anna
if you desire it strong enough
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