The objects we love and keep are not just memories, they are witnesses that we were once, somewhere, happy.
Author: Orhan Pamuk
From the book: The Museum of Innocence
One item that I have in my possession, I can proudly write, in my collection of trinkets from the cottage, is valuable to me, and I would like to present it to you and share with you a story, how I came to it.
Created in Canva
That item would position this post in #Hivecollectors, the story could be placed in #tbt because of the memory it carries and because of the feeling of happiness at that moment, as well as many years later in #reflections.
As Orhan Pamuk wrote, this object is a witness of my happiness in one period of my life.
Childhood, which is most often the happiest and most beautiful period of every person's life.
During my childhood, I spent summer vacations, apart from certain trips to the sea, with my grandparents in the countryside.
Since my relatives were engaged in agriculture, I started helping them in the garden as a child, and since I had a great sense of adventure and desire to travel even when I was a small child, I managed to persuade my parents to let me and my uncles go to the market, where they sold the agricultural products they grew.
It was not the market around the corner, in the neighborhood or the nearest town and place.
From Serbia, the goods were taken by trucks to the very north of Croatia, to Varaždin.
There was a "Base camp" at the market in Varaždin, and goods were delivered to smaller surrounding towns in small vans.
Once I went with my uncle to Ivanec, a place nearby.
My uncle left me at the market with a few crates of tomatoes and apples, while he went to another place.
Market day, I was a small, successful trader, selling products hard and I was not bored.
At one moment, after noon, when the market was losing its attendance, a military truck stopped by the market fence, from which 10 soldiers got out, with shovels and aces.
They had the task of digging a trench in order to get to the broken telephone cable.
It was a warm day and they often came to the fountain in the market to refresh themselves.
Then they noticed my curious look.
During the break, when they sat down to eat something, I went to them.
"Good afternoon," I greeted them, "What are you doing?" I asked.
"Military TOP secret", they joked with me and since it was clear to them because of my accent that I was not local, they asked me: "Where are you from?".
One soldier's eyes watered at the notion of Belgrade, where he was from.
Word by word, we found out that we are actually neighbors in Belgrade. We lived in the same Belgrade municipality, Stari grad.
When I saw that they were eating beans from their food portions (like this one in my collection), I asked them if they would like me to bring them some tomatoes for the salad.
They accepted with delight, but they had no money to pay me.
"That's my gift to you," I told them.
Along with a few tomatoes, I brought everyone an apple.
They were happy for my gesture.
When they finished their meal, one of them got up and went to the fountain with the empty portion.
He washed a portion of leftover food, packed it up and handed it to me.
"This is our gift to you, neighbor, as thanks for the tomatoes and apples with which you turned our simple military lunch into a real feast."
I accepted this amazing gift and took it home with delight.
My happiness at that moment was too great.
I had in my possession an object that none of my friends had and which we will all have together for the first time only when, like these soldiers, we are serving our military service, a decade later.
When I was showing this portion to my friends on a camping trip, I explained which part was for what. We all drank water from a flask, and I used a portion several times while camping.
Food is poured into one part, most often stewed beans, some kind of fish stew or stew. Salad and bread go in the second bowl.
And according to the tags of the melted plastic, it can be concluded that the lid of the flask was most often used as an ashtray.
And besides the portion itself, the design of the cutlery is also very interesting.
A knife with a part for opening cans (I've used it on every camping trip), designed so that it can fit both a fork and a spoon.
When I grew up and had a similar item among my military equipment, this gift portion was no longer so interesting to me, but certainly, it remains as a reminder of my childhood, of the days of distraction, happiness and games, when I met a soldier in distant Ivanec, with whom I was in contact with in the years that followed and in our hometown.