I stopped by the other day, unannounced, at the Podgorica barbershop, on the corner of Balšić and Miljan Vukov; I asked from the door, can I...
- You're home! said the barber Jika.
That was always the case with the people of Staro Podgorica; you enter your house...
Cities are born, grow and die, just like people.
- But there are cities that don't die; they find within themselves the strength to survive wars and earthquakes, fires and devastating blows of time, the strength to rebuild themselves - said the Montenegrin writer, academic Cedo Vuković.
So is this town, on Ribnica and Morača.
And: "the memory of me". It's time, student, so with a friend, Miro Raičević rushed from classes to the barber shop Branko Mirković, across the Braće Zlatičanin bridge, along the left bank of Ribnica, to dive. Three pictures on the wall: Parisian motifs. Bao Mandić and Slobodan Pavićević they were apprentices. In front of the barber shop, on sunny days, on the sidewalk, Branko's mother, It's sleeping...
Sometimes I would s Ratko Vujošević stopped at an old woman's inn let go across Osmanagić mosque, where bohemians from Staro Podgorica used to gather with a glass of brandy.
"Orevuar Montenegro".
Montenegro, the tragic mountain... House, history...
The scion of an old and respectable family from Podgorica, Branko Mirković, loved football; was friends with the football player "Budućnosti" Budjo Vukotić, a former member of the youth national team of Yugoslavia.
The people of Brije, Satkulani, Tećani, Draca played romantic football; initially with "patchballs", and later with "real" balls. Old Town residents were always good football players: they learned football in the neighborhoods, and then went to "Budućnost".
They delighted football bohemians, Chaplain Mustagrudić i Peko Methadžović, one of the best Montenegrin defenders. Both artisans; Kaplan an upholsterer in Vučedolska, and Peko a tailor in his shop on the corner of Miljana Vukova and Balšića streets. He sewed superb suits; the family tradition was successfully continued by his son Enver called Choco.
Football masters from Staro Varo were swarming; on Morača Hill, brothers, Ćaka and Gano Ćerić; Čaka a killer shot, fast, and Gano a football charmer, later a successful coach. Then, brothers Miročević, Janko and Tonko, pillars of "Budućnosti", Janko in defense, Tonko in attack. Tonko also had a very successful career in the English "Sheffield", one of the oldest football clubs in the world.
- We practiced football in the neighborhoods of Staro Varo, and then, almost from the street, we would go to "Budućnost", a real institution in the Tito's Yugoslavia - the longtime first team player of "Budućnosti" told me Milan Rogošić.
And two lawyers, two soccer aces, Vucina Vasovic i Lazo Radović. Vučina played left wing in "Budućnost" for several years, but he stopped football early. He graduated from the Faculty of Law, received his doctorate and became a university professor. Lazo also graduated from the Faculty of Law, after "Budućnosti" he played in "Partizan" and European clubs.
from Brijeca (from Brije Morača), Ratko Rogošić, he told me that Vučina and Lazo were able to get from goal to goal in a match, with the ball, playing with their heads!
Bim him! - Lazo Radović would say.
Sat-color code, matter Tuzović, where would Notification, sister of my colleague and wonderful friend, Cena Tuzović, a warm loaf of bread arrived...
And down Ribnica, the mills: Stankovi, Muratovi; on Vreli Ribnički, mills Petar Tokov... In the past, May Day, Labor Day, was celebrated at Vreli, where the beer cooled, and the youth danced, sang...
One day long ago, I went down to the mouth of Ribnica, so to speak, in the center of Titograd, above the ancient bridge of the builders Adži Pasha Osmanagić, rebuilt on the foundations of Roman. Two winches turn wearily. Next to them are the old millers, Miroje and Petar Radulović.
- There is less and less work. In the past, all six winches worked in these mills, and that was six oxen, six large estates, that was the factory! - says Miroje wistfully.
Klopara was waiting. Pours corn from the basket; grain by grain. One sheep rat jumped out from somewhere, looked at us curiously, and quickly slipped into the long-dried vitae.
- And our fins often break. At Kuča, we order onion wood, which we cut ourselves and use it to make fins - says Miroje.
He had Aco Prijic nice idea to build painting studios in the mills on Ribnica. The lovely Ribnica, as he said, would squint Jevrem Brković, sometimes a river and sometimes a rivulet...
My friend took the picture Bato Brajović, people, regional leaders, miraculous čunov, Lake Skadar, Vranjina, Dodoše...
Among several of his most successful paintings, he singled out the oil "Across the Big Mud", painted in 1967.
The painting is composed in such a way that the viewer becomes a participant in the procession of painted figures, unconsciously identifying his own with their fate.
- The sensitive simplicity of the strict minimum of artistic means with which this painting is expressed, make its thought unobtrusively accepted - Bato Brajović told me.
His canvas is sunny, bright...
He painted Bato Brajović and the Parisian Seine, where he spent several years.
Of course, pond mills too; often.
On a bright June day in Podgorica, six years ago, he brought me a picture of the mills in Ribnik (which we are publishing today). Written on the back: "To my friend Slobo Vuković, Bato Brajović, 8. VI. 2018.”
In Podgorica - you are home!
Bonus video:
