Tag: memory
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Borders, Questions, Answers
“Muhandis” I said at the Damascus airport, happy for knowing some Arabic and picking “engineer”, of all possible professions. After that I thought I would have to stick to that answer each time I visited the country again. But people do change careers too, alas! Is that suspicious, or what? What do you say when […]
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Miss Helen In The Bath
For a very short time Johanna was my best friend. She was a Jewish girl, we were between seven and eight years old at the time when I did not really understand what Jewish even meant. Her family lived very close and they had a piano. Her grandmother could play it and sing, I was […]
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Hands Up!
From what I remember, our house was always full of people who would often sit in our only bedroom and play records and drink, or play cards and drink. Happy youth! I passed out once when I had emptied, unnoticed, a large glass of Long Drink, a local gin. Among these people there was also […]
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A boyband from Pahaniemi*
In this photo my friend is playing flute and I am plucking balalaika, wearing a tatar hat. Judging from my facial expression, we never excelled as a band. But I did like to perform. My grandmother taught me vulgar folklore songs with double meanings and I would entertain the adult audience without really understanding what […]
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Open Air Gym
In summers our courtyard was a training ground. My uncles were semi-professionals in boxing, which resulted in a bookshelf filled with trophies rather than books. It fell into my responsibility to polish them twice a year with toothpaste and a rag. Once my cousin and I were taken to a boxing club (perhaps we had […]
Jarmo Pikkujämsä 