NOVI SAD

Father prepared everything for our arrival to Novi Sad. A nice apartment at the back of the yard, the first of the duplex. However, even for the contemporary conditions, it was backward. We had one of the two outhouses at the very back of the yard. The water pump was in the middle between the two apartments, fairly efficient, it started running after one or two strokes. In the picture above standing in the garden in front of our water pump, left my brother Edo, then me, my father and brother Ferdo on the right. The picture was taken not long after we came from Bela Crkva, but long enough to grow flowery vine in the front of the apartment. Father made a wooden structure between the house and the garden and seeded climbing vine at the bottom of each string running from the ground to the roof of the house., so that in the summer we had shady channel in front of the apartment.

Past the second apartment was the woodshed. In the picture to the right is my father sitting and myself and my brother Ota standing in front of our woodshed. At the time I must have been 12 years old. In there we had our supply of wood for cooking and for the winter cold. Father was the main wood splitter, I think he liked doing it. His regular exercise. Why didn't I split wood? I suppose nobody ever asked me.

In addition to splitting wood, the garden was father's most enjoyable involvement. He seeded flowers of many kinds, but liked the red ones the best. In the picture at the right, mother and I were taken in our Sunday best, in the garden, next to the water pump, in front of the kitchen window of  our apartment. In the background is visible vine on the strings, almost half way up to the roof. It must have been in the month of June.  I had the tie, must have just finished the second year of high school ('gimnazija'), which started after 4 years of elementary school. 

Father had everything organized for our coming to Novi Sad, he even bought furniture, however, mom did not like his choice of white colored furniture, so he had to return it and exchange it for a natural colored wood finish. At the right is Papa (father) sitting next to the stove, reading most likely newspaper SLOVENEC, which we got daily from Ljubljana. SLOVENEC, a conservative paper, has accompanied us wherever we went.

I believe 'Slovenec' formed the basis of my view of the world of that prewar period. It described the Soviet Union with it's Stalin fairly accurately. It had fundamental distrust of Germans and Germany with it's Hitler. Italians were never our friends they mistreated Slovenes under their rule. After the first World War Serbs were the only people that profited within the formation of than the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Slovenia lost a third of it's territory to Italy and Austria.