1969 with a rifle à silex
(my manufacture) |
| I
was the leader of the clan.
My obligations included the elaboration of weaponry, disguises
(among which, false moustaches were a must) and programming
attacks on rival groups of youngsters. My friend,
Kemal, worked at an ironworks and between us we possessed
the knowledge to build an imposing arsenal; bows and arrows,
lances, all sorts of knives, firearms, swords and shields.
We often incited riots in our neighborhood and elsewhere
in the town with local inhabitants and youths come from
other villages. Everyone took part in the melee; men,
women, children… Like most of my friends, I was
forced to serve time in prison(1 day!) for delinquency
arising from these disturbances or for petty theft, such
as stealing copper wire from an abandoned construction
site and reselling it.
|
1969 my frend Kemal |
|
|
|
We
were not sensitive to words like "past" or "future". All the future
was in the present that we lived from day to day. Our passion for
life was the passion of those not destined to live long.
|
The Rahova plateau |
Sometimes
our games where of the roughest sort and broken bones were not a rarity.
We slept in caves or camped in the snow, we hunted in the forests,
stole fruit and chickens from farmers and taunted youths that, unlike
ourselves, went to school. To my parents, I was a model of discipline
for I was deeply afraid of my father, a man who would not hesitate
to beat me to within an inch of my life for the smallest wrongdoing.
But once out the door of our home, a small army awaited me, false
moustaches glued firmly to their upper lips, and we ran singing into
the mountains… |
With my false moustaches(1969)
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