WITH GRANDMA
My Grandmother woke me up with her usual softness and sweetness in her voice.
Wake up PAIDI MOY she said at my ear ,I want you to come with me to the KEPO,the garden, she said.
Now if that was my Mother I would just turn the other side and I would go back to sleep,
But it was my Grandma, and I actually jump up and was ready in two seconds.
My Grandma would do anything I wanted and I would not have to do any work at all.
Not that my Mother would put me to work ,but I knew that I would have so much fun and enjoy the whole day with Grandma.
I knew that I would ride the sympathetic donkey all the way going there at first.
There was room for me going ,not coming back.
The <<gaidouraki>> was full of stuff on him coming back.
But I would be so happy to walk back because I had such great time all day with my Grandma.
And so it was, I got on the donkey and I ride the morning breeze like Clint Eastwood
Is the old western movies.
I caught my self singing from time to time, songs we heard on radio when my brother was getting a station from AMALIADA sometimes.
It was very difficult to get signal those days on broadcasting radio .
It was the sixties after all in Greece, the island of Ereikousa was just there and so were we .
The woods , the olive trees, the gardens ,the sea, the people, the houses , two churches and the school.
No places to go , no shopping mall , no movies , no T V , hey there was no electricity.
And of coerce no refrigeration.
The lamps were on fire every night. And the fireplace was burning wood all winter.
The happenings or rather the big events of the week was the boat’s coming or some airplane passing very high in the sky , and of coerce the ships across the waters towards Albania and Italy.
So I was very happy to go with my Grandma to POTAMI, than staying home doing just whatever I was doing every day…. Nothing.
On the way we met lots of people, we stopped for a minute to say hello and where we were going.
The people than had no fear to say where they go and what they were going to do .
What will they cook for lunch or dinner. Every one knew each other’s business up to a detail with no objections from them.
But the main thing was the gathering of everyday under the olive tree after lunch
And after dinner when all the neighborhood was there to talk and say things .
After we get in to someone’s house and have coffee while the men played cards for fun.
