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I belong to those unfortunate ones and how simple ”Bee from the village ”I can relax by the lake on the other side of Lithuania. “Fu”, “tundra”, wandered a lady from Kaunas.
Maybe I’m wrong, maybe now everything is a little different, but during my youth you used to hear in the upper classes or in the streets of Palanga: “We are from Kaunas, we were resting in Palanga”.
I will say it openly: at that time I did not like Palanga, but I did not avoid it and even one summer I worked illegally in the parking lot as a cashier. Although you could not work illegally in Soviet times, it was “rubbed”. As for the monetary expression, very good. From what I remember the parking lot was on the outskirts of Vytauto street, unpaved, for an additional fee (illegal) we allowed ourselves to pitch a tent at night and after the shift there was always another Lenin paper in his pocket.
Working like a job, only at first it was a big problem to eat. Now there are cafes-kebabs on every corner, and at that time I went to have lunch at a nearby canteen. The dining room is simple, Soviet. Assortment: beetroot soup, grinders, compote However, the lines of people sometimes remembered seeing at Lenin’s Mausoleum on Red Square. Luckily, he was a young and talkative boy. There were young ladies working in the canteen, so they quickly tamed me. He went through the “second door” and put a grinder with everything that was inside.
I enjoyed working on the site not just for the money. I could feel important in front of the Volga, the Ziguli. I said firmly “There are NO seats”, then, as by the way, I muttered: “If I really need it, I can search. And if you add an extra ruble, I will let you pitch a tent for the night.” It was all like a pipe, I felt happy, but happiness was doubted by an employee. The next shift was an elderly uncle. He took over my shift. Now we would call such a uncle a civic citizen, and in those days it was just sticks.
He complained to the wicked. Not because it’s “illegal”, but I found what I wrote out of bed moth receipt. To this day, I remember the names of that citizen and the OБXCC employee who came. We had to keep an eye on two of us on site, but the second one, who installed me, had endless more jobs in Palanga, just coming to the booth to spend the night and take our part. Fortunately, he had his “roof” in Palanga, everything slipped, but he had to share. You will not do anything, you will not jump in front of the system. When he had fixed everything, he told me a very important axiom of that time: “Everyone steals, you have to steal, but without going beyond your mind, and if you have stolen a lot, share it with your father.”
You probably won’t believe it if I tell you to put all the “sloppy Lenins” in your socks? And you will do the right thing because I don’t shoot. He believed in the bright tomorrow of communism, Soviet money. I did not convert the rubles I received into dollars, did not transport them to foreign banks and honestly returned them to the state treasury through chain stores and bars. If we look at it from an economic point of view, I transferred money from one pocket to another in the same pants of a Soviet country. I was a loyal citizen about it, I didn’t hide anything. After the shift, it all started with an amber beer at one of the beer bars. If someone was not in “Laumės gryčia” or “Clay Jug” of that time, they are not Lithuanian. There it was cheap, tasty and fun, because it was dangerous for representatives to show sadness in public for a long time. The nation would have misunderstood. Well, and at night, to the restaurant. I enjoyed the night bar in summer. Thanks to a close relative, the musicians from many restaurants got to know me and always entered through the second door as a colleague. But after restaurants, there was always the problem of where to shake a young man’s head.
I don’t remember exactly, but the last bus from Palanga to Klaipeda left around midnight. If I didn’t mind, I had to rest my head on the stone next to the pine tree. Sometimes he was lucky and what kind of lady was invited to the “vacation bedroom”, but frankly, it is better under the pine than in such a “bedroom”. I think the older generation remembers a room divided into “grids” by a cardboard wall, a common plumbing unit, creaky beds, and constant sighs and groans behind the wall. Although I was young, I felt the limit of having to travel to the bus station, and I had to rest after the handstand maybe only a couple of times. Before the trip home, he always visited the cocktail bar “Aušrinė” near the station, and when he got home he waited for another golden turn. Such memories of Palanga from the early years of puberty.
When I settled in, I became a father of a family, I bought a ziguli, I forgot about Palanga. We only went to one concert on the Summer Stage. Usually we choose to rest by the lakes and sometimes we are not lazy to drive to the Crimea. Once on vacation in the Crimea, Sudak (Sudak), Muscovites living nearby resented: “You have Palanga, Juodkrante, Nida, we do not understand what you are bleating Crimea.”
And really, what’s up there? Or maybe every real Lithuanian has to go to the Crimea at least once in his life and how can Vytautas the Great bathe in the Black Sea? In Soviet times, this could be done without problems, only reaching Yalta was more difficult, and today, unfortunately, Crimea was closed by today’s rulers and you have to choose other directions.
When I had fully settled my life, I occupied the niche of life for me, Palanga became disgusting, because at that time I was in the wild nineties. The older generation remembers who was the host of the resort.
The average citizen was uncomfortable among boys in tracksuits. The only place I went with friends was Lino’s outdoor pool. It was especially fun swimming in the warm water in winter. I always invited a very big and tough friend together. His skating off the rink and hitting himself in the water caused more joy and excitement than the bath itself. I remember Line had separate locked rooms with pool and sauna. I really liked it, especially since I was able to compare it to a similar service in St. Petersburg. Russia’s northern capital wasn’t bad either, but the mood was affected by noisy cockroaches and intrusive providers of various services. However, once the great Peter’s militia removed my half-naked handcuffs, I stopped visiting the Russian baths, I was satisfied with the rare trips to “Lina.”
When we moved to town, my own patio, orchard, garden appeared, I completely forgot about Palanga. After a little change from the words of the famous cartoon hero – “Why Palanga for me. My patio is full of worries and joys ”. These are the memories of Palanga.
What’s new and interesting in Palanga these days, I’ll say frankly, I don’t know. Last year’s trips to Palanga end at HBH or Holiday Park. I don’t even know if there is still “Clay Jug”, “Fairy Gray”, “Dawn”. It would be fun to walk the paths of youth, to calculate how many steps from “Jar of Molinis” to “Aušrinė”. While writing these memories, I called an old friend, a colleague in his youth, who had lived in Palanga for many years, and asked him: “You are a local. N times you accompanied me from the Clay Jug to the station, tell me how many steps from that bar to the station? “The friend was silent for a long time. He sighed deeply and said, “Those steps are really few, but they were very difficult.”
My true friend. On the other hand, while you are young, who should count those steps. All the life ahead and another: a great reserve. In old age, people start counting steps more often because there are few left.
I write about Palanga, I live nearby, but I feel a sin against it. Throughout my life, I never slept, I got burned, I swam at the Palanga beach, but if someone returned their youth, they would go every day to the Palanga Sea. I promise.
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