When we were very young
After WWII Greece was involved in a five year civil war that
stressed the already ravaged country to its limits. Refugees arrived from the
north, chased by relentless rebels, their houses burned, their animals
slaughtered; they piled themselves in the shanty towns that the previous wave
of refugees, those from the 1922 war with Turkey, had built as first shelters.
These were tiny corrugated iron rooms, with a lean/to kitchen and a
god-help-you toilet, shoulder-to-shoulder in long streets full of mud and
worse. In one of these, a first cousin of my mother with her five children
found refuge and tried to rebuild their broken life. My mother helped as much
as she could, with clothing and blankets and food. Those were hard times for everybody.
Still, my father managed to give us idyllic summers. He rented a plot of land
in a pine forest close to the sea, and with his brother, erected a large square
tent whose sides, lifted up, gave a lot of airy shade for more then ten beds.We
learned to swim in turquoise waters,and turned brown as walnuts. There were
other families camping around, the children running in gangs all over the
place, inventing games for ourselves. Once we brought down a sparrow, and I
remember cleaning it and cooking it over a condensed alcohol pan, like the one
boy scouts had. It is a wonder we did not set fire to the forest.
One day, my mother's sister came from Athens with Stella in tow. Stella was the
daughter of the relatives in the shanty town, close to my age, around eight. My
aunt thought she was doing a great favor to the little girl, bringing her to
the seaside. But she had not a swim suit, and my aunt decided it was OK for
Stella to go into the sea in her underwear, which proved to be pants cut out
like diapers. The child freaked out. She cried and refused, and once she got
free she climbed on top of a tall pine tree, in her ridiculous panties, and
clung there crying for her mother. My aunt, a school teacher, was expostulating
under the tree " come down immediately, so I can spank you" !!!
I do not remember who managed to get the aunt away and calm the child. Probably
my mother, who was a soft spoken and kindly soul.