detail from: Krk.art@designe

WE FROM PODGRMECH

Simo Jelača,Ph.D.

Podgrmeč has always been a pleasant place to live, and everyone who was born and raised in Podgrmeč was naturally gifted and successful in their professions. After the last war, Podgrmeč almost fell into disrepair. Many families in other areas suffered similarly. Now in Podgrmeč there are countless house ruins, overgrown with weeds and bushes, with dilapidated and broken roads, with destroyed schools, broken windows, burned and not yet restored churches, and with enlarged cemeteries. There are no more children or songs, where they used to play. Now foxes and wolves are seen more often. Only Grmeč has remained the same, and the air in it is still fresh and pleasant. Some of the older generation still occasionally comes by to refresh their memories and drink fresh spring water.

IN THE TAMED PODGRMEC

Spring has just begun to bloom, the sun's rays are pleasant, although the ground has not yet warmed up enough to walk barefoot. The boys learned this from their first steps. They loved to run around the surrounding meadows, and often step into the cold stream. The older ones did not pay enough attention to them, they always had their own things to do around the house. And anyway, they knew that they could not drown in the stream because the stream had not yet risen from the spring rains and melted snow. And they calculated that if the water was cold, they would come out of it without being called.

The fruits that the Turks had not yet cut down during the war were blooming beautifully, and the bees had also begun to gather on the flowers. It was already noon when Marija invited them into the house, they were supposed to have lunch and go to the mill with Father Lazo. It was Sunday, their turn was from six in the evening until after midnight. The two of them, Jovo and Boris, were delighted with that. They loved watching the millstone turn and grind the grain, and under the mill they were especially fascinated by the wheel driven by a jet of water from the well. Their mill was called ''Tajrovac'' and was located on the ''Zaspa'' stream. When they arrived in the evening with the grain loaded into an ox cart, they found Ilija in front of the mill, who was just finishing his turn of grinding and cleaning the flour around the millstones. Lazo unloaded his sacks and brought them into the mill, and tied the oxen to the cart to eat the recently cut grass.

-God help you! Lazo loudly addressed Ilija, entering the mill.

-God help you, my Lazo, how are you? How is your family?

-There, we are all well, thank God, we are alive.

-How is the mill grinding today, are there any problems, do we need to adjust it? Lazo asked, getting ready to grind the grain.

-No need, it is working fine, you are free to start.

If you intend to grind finer, you can just lower the millstone a little. I was grinding corn, so it should have been a little coarser. Come on, good luck and goodbye.

When Lazo had poured in his grain and started grinding, almost nothing could be heard from the noise of the millstones, so the boys went outside and began to walk around the watercourse in front of and behind the mill. They looked into the water to see if there were any fish in it. And since it was already starting to get dark, their father invited them inside. In one corner of the mill there was a spread of straw, where the millers lay down to sleep at night, so the boys sat down in it and fell silent. They sat like that for a while, until their father came over and sat down next to them. The boys were interested in how the mill worked, so their father started telling them about it. He told them that his parents and other neighbors had built the mill and that they all took turns maintaining it.

-And why did it fall to you to grind on Sundays and at night? Boris asked his father.

-That's what my father Jovo wanted. There was a lot of work during the day so there was no time to go to the mill, and on Sundays you rest anyway. And that's how it has remained.

-If I had my way, I would change that, I would make a schedule so that everyone could work on Sundays and weekdays, and at night too, Boris added.

-You don't ask questions anyway, Jovo told him, so you won't want to do that either. You can't change it now. People are used to their turn and it will stay that way. Forget it!

It was only a year after the end of World War II, the peasants had just produced their first grain, had just started raising some livestock, and were starting to build their own houses. They had to cut wood in the forest and bring it home, saw it and split it, plow it and do all the field work, regularly take the cattle out to pasture, and the children were still weak, and the older one had started school. Lazo was struggling, he couldn't do everything on his own, his wife had died, the children remained weak, and he was silent, there was no one to complain to.

Jovo had already started first grade, he was almost eleven years old, because he couldn't before, there was war. His younger brother, Boris, although only seven years old, took over his responsibilities of helping his father. He led the oxen in the plowing, and they were hungry and grabbed every blade of grass while he cried, because he couldn't do anything to them. The father was angry and powerless, holding the plow and cursing. He curses, and when he feels that he has already gone too far, he takes off his hat, turns it over and says:

-Forgive me, God, it wasn't me - It was Dedo. And Dedo was a Muslim who fought on the enemy's side.

When they got home in the evening, they would bring water from the stream and heat it on the stove, partially wash themselves, and while the boys were still waiting for dinner, they would usually fall asleep tiredly on the bench. When their older sister woke them up, they would hardly eat anything, and they could hardly wait to go to bed. The night was too short for them, and as soon as it got dark, their father would wake them up and arrange who would go where. Jovo went to school, and Boris had to look after the cattle. His father often told him:

-You are still young, when we finish everything, you will go to school too. Wait, when winter comes.

The sisters did all the housework. They were still little girls, and they had to know everything. No one had to teach them, their mother had died, life taught them. Marija finished four grades of elementary school before the war, so she was literate, and the war had just arrived for her younger sister Sava, so she didn't have time to go to school either. She studied with Marija, so she learned all the letters on her own, and began to read and write. It's a shame that life took that part of her life away, she would have been a real little genius. She even drew beautifully, embroidered, sewed, knitted and learned to sew at an early age on a sewing machine called "Singerica". She had beautiful chestnut hair, always neatly combed with hairpins in it. She was popular among her friends, peers from the nearby neighborhood, with whom she occasionally saw each other. The children of Jelača-s grew up in this environment. Their area was called Plećine, because of the terrain on which they built their houses and cultivated the land. And down at the bottom of Luka, where the stream flowed, a house was built by Lazo, whom all the children also called "Ćić Lazo", and even his own children called him "Ćićo". In order to more precisely determine where someone lived, Lazo's area was often referred to as "in the stream". Lazo built his house there after he returned from America. He and his brother Dušan also had a third brother, Đuro, who immediately after the war moved to Vojvodina, and gave his then house to his brother Dušan. Uncle Dušan was an educated man, he graduated as a forester and performed that duty in the surrounding villages of Podgrmeč, and he was skilled in beekeeping and his children always had honey. That's why the other children from Jelačka gladly visited Ćić Dušan's house, expecting that Aunt Milka would give them honey. Ćić Dušan was much more generous than his wife. He did not regret anything for his children. And his boys were all good, like their father. They were all excellent students in school, and as they grew up, they gave their goods to other, younger relatives.

Everyone called Slobodan Ilijin Boćo and he most often guarded the treasure with Boris. All of Ćić Dušan's boys (Braco, Trivo, Predrag and Nenad) went to school in the morning. They always acted nicely, like real gentlemen's children.

While guarding the treasure, the boys were interested in wrestling, throwing stones, jumping long distances (from a standing position and from a running start), croquet and similar village games. While they were herding cattle in the fields, with Turkish children, they always competed with them. Lazo's land bordered Turkish fields in the fields and gardens, so they often helped each other during the digging of corn and the harvest and always lived well with each other. He maintained good relations with the Muslims, which he passed on to Job. Lazo often used to say:

- You should live well with your neighbors. They are often more important than your relatives, because they are closer. He passed this tradition on to his children.

During the winter, the snow was usually always heavy and lasted for three months. The boys would sled on sleds they made themselves, and Braco was much more skilled, he also made skis. He taught the other boys to ski. Sometimes, during the ice, the safest thing was to go down the hills on fur coats. Braco also knew how to make tambourines, and he also learned to play, so they sometimes called him to the threshing floor to cheer them up a little. On one occasion, during the threshing of wheat, the threshing machine's engine broke down and the owner didn't know how to fix it. Braco looked at the engine, touched it part by part, did something he noticed, started it and the engine started. From then on, everyone in the village considered him a genius.

During the winter nights, village spinning parties were organized in the houses. It was a way of meeting and informing each other, as well as teaching younger girls handicrafts. There they learned from each other and from older women how to spin, knit, embroider, and along the way they exchanged knowledge on how to make various dishes. Many of them lost their mothers too early, so they had to do everything for themselves and their families. They did not see it as a hardship, but more as fun. Young men also came to the spinning parties to get to know the girls, so spinning was the only and most beautiful form of entertainment for all of them. In the summer, when the grain was being harvested, people went to the fields early and worked until sunset. It was usually very hot, so they drank a lot of water, and the children brought water to the harvesters. The peasants helped each other in these tasks, and they planned in advance when each person would work. The housewives, even if in some cases they were girls, prepared dinner for all the harvesters and knew that dinner had to be ready by sunset. Only after they had eaten dinner and had a few glasses of brandy would they go home, tired and completely exhausted from the sun. Everyone considered the harvest to be the most important thing, because it was the guarantee of survival. Harvesting was the most important job of the year and the guarantee of survival.

When Lazo and his younger son Boris finished the autumn plowing, tied up enough wood for the winter, planted all the hay and clover for the cattle, prepared the corn in the cornfield and other work, he said to Boris:

- Now that the snow falls, you too will be able to go to school. - Why should you have to wait for the snow to fall, can't I do it right away? –There will be more work to do, and only when we finish everything will you be able to go to school. Go this year to study a little, and next year you will go to first grade.

Boris would not have the right, but he had no other choice, so he waited until Christmas, when the first snow fell. Sister Marija took him to school and handed him over to teacher Nadia. He sat on the last bench and listened to the lesson. His older brother Jovo was already sitting in the class.

To be continued

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