Although winter days were short, we still found time to play games;
one of the games we played as a group was a "pretend war".
There must have been at least 10 of us ranging from 8 to 10 years
of age. I think the group was made up of boys only, most of us were
Macedonians and the rest were Greek. We chose the battle ground for
our pretend war. It was a flat open space covered with snow, left
of the creek and north of our house. It was Macedonians versus Greeks.
We stood facing each other at about 20 metres apart. We were friends,
but for the purpose of the game we pretended to be enemies. The rules
were simple: stand your ground, make snow balls and throw them at
the opposing enemy. The highest number of hits would determine the
winner. At the count of three the pretend war started well and it
looked like good fun until it started to escalate into a serious and
potentially dangerous affair. It didn't take long for one of us to
improve the weapons of the war by soaking the snow balls in the creek-water
in order to make them harder and heavier. A heavy and harder snow
ball goes further when thrown and it hurts more when one is hit by
it. I for one was worried by the thought of being hit by a wet heavy
snow ball and didn't want to participate in this dangerous game but
reluctantly I continued on. But then when I saw one of the opponents
making a snow ball with a decent-size stone in it I thought that this
game was becoming too dangerous, so we called for a truce. I remember
walking away from the pretend battle field satisfied that at least
we the Macedonians didn't lose the battle and I was relieved that
I for one or anyone else for that matter didn't get hurt. I am amazed
how this make-believe war game mimicked a real life military situation;
and despite that we all thought it was great fun, so much so that
we agreed to have another pretend-war but this time during summer.
Sure enough summer came along and we arranged to have our make believe
war again at the same location. This time the Macedonian group would
play the part of the partizani and we would hide in the nearby hill
we called "Chukata". Chukata was a small bald hill rising
from the base of the creek and plateauing at about 300 metres where
low, dense bushes were growing. We called these dense bushes "shumka".
The Greek group on the other hand would play the part of the Greek
liberation army. They would start from the same flat open ground near
the creek and from there they would cross the creek, climb Chukata
and search for us in the scrub. I don't know how this idea came about,
or who thought of the idea of surprising the enemy with an unexpected
weapon but it was a great experience. We brought ropes and matches
with us and we had our usual knives with us to cut the "shumka".
We chose and cut the dry branches with lots of leaves on them, bunched
them together and tied them together in rolls. Due to our excitement
at seeing this weapon at work we only made two rolls of shumka. We
hurriedly rolled them out at the edge of the plateau, lit them and
pushed them on their way down the hill. The plan worked perfectly,
the flaming bushes picked up speed and bounced down along the hill
all the way down towards the creek where the pretend enemy was in
the process of crossing the creek. Eventually the flaming bushes crashed
into the creek, extinguished themselves in the process but still forced
the pretend enemy to scamper for cover. Needless to say the pretend
Greek liberation army surrendered and gave the partizani a decisive
victory. I remember this as a fun day that was enjoyed by both participating
parties but we didn't re-enact another war game again. There were
so many other things to do.
Top
row from left: Clay car and a spinning top. Middle row: tractor, made
out of a cotton reel, a rubber band and a bar of soap for lubrication,
a propeller with a cotton reel. Bottom row: a rim steered by a wire
handle made by us, a monastery made from a pile of flat stones, a
tangelo (shanghai) made out of thick rubber band and leather. Bottom:
a modified sled with a steered section and a brake.
I enjoyed making things as much as I enjoyed observing how things
worked. The first thing that I made was a three dimensional map of
our region, called Lerinsko after its town "Lerin". The
three dimensional map was good enough and it served its purpose as
a school project but it was a display piece only. It did not move,
which means I wasn't excited by it and therefore not interested about
making a similar display-type object again. I liked making things
that moved or at least were useful, so the next thing that I made
was a toy car. It was made out of clay with clay wheels; the wheels
were held by four sticks stuck into the sides of the clay body. After
several days of drying the clay toy with its clay wheels in the warm
sunshine, I let it roll down an incline and sadly watched its wheels
crumble gradually as it rolled all the way down the incline. It was
a failure but it was a good failure.
It was more of a lesson for me than a failure: never make toy cars
out of clay. During the days when I was watching the sheep I would
carve shapes of common objects out of small pieces of wood. I loved
carving out small boots out of wood. At other times where there were
flat little rocks on the ground I would stack the rocks on top of
each other and build a small monastery. But my proudest achievement
in making things was when I modified an old sleigh by adding a steerable
section to it and by adding a brake to it. The sleigh worked pretty
well to my pleasant surprise. I and others in our group made several
other interesting toys (see the drawings in figure above). There was
always something to do or make, I can't remember there ever being
a time when I was bored.
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