George's Blog For Friends: Rolling Down the Hills

I explained many times. In Romania during communism those admitted to college, after a very tough exam we were supposed to go for a mandatory 9 months military stage that was equivalent with a western Military Academy. That is, after college you were made a reservist and your rank will increase with age and periodic 2 weeks stages every five years.

I went to Galați to a tank regiment (of course, soviet T55s) and we were there 6 platoons (a battalion) of TRists (TR from Reduced Term, normal mandatory stage for those not admitted to college was 16 months).

Our platoon was in the same dorm of 40. I would not try to describe the smell when we were getting off our boots at the end of the day. Maybe similar to one right now in the apartment after doing laundry upstairs and shaking more litter dust inside walls. First 3 weeks when we did intensive basic infantry training, mostly movement in formation during a hot September, the showers "were broken". A nail "grew" in one of my soles and i had an open wound. That is a nail was too long or something. It happened sooner or later to all of us because of the defective boots. Until we figured that if we pulled them out nothing the boot won't fall apart.

One of us was chosen to be the "replacement of lieutenant" when he was not here, that is evenings and nights. Over the years i came to believe the man was actually Roger Moore, who was in his 40s at the time.

Recently after i saw the face of Hungarian tenor who was doing Ceaușescu i started to believe that he himself was present there as Lt.Modiga. Also ex King Michael or Romania as Captain Mihai Oprea, batallion commander.

But that'ts not all. My colleagues were not from the same faculty. Some of them were admitted at evening classes, and never saw them again. Some, i saw them a few times. One of them was Victor Tăbușcă, a very shy guy who wasn't drinking or smoking and was speaking slowly (for obvious reasons, he wasn't speaking Romanian as first language). I think i identified him with either of the twin brothers Sorin and Liviu Avram, both journalists from Suceava, were Victor was supposed to be from.

Recently i identified another one. Aurel Patraș who though he was at a different faculty, i was meeting with him from time to time (mostlly for drinking, going to discotheques) and after that, until i won the green card lottery and moved to the US in 1995. I recently identified him with a Hungarian... conductor, and now i remember, some tried to give some clues over the years. Also from Suceava county, were i was born, he was speaking better Romanian but still (none of the people i ever met were real Romanians or Americans). Last time i saw him in my 3 months stay in Romania in summer 2004 and din't seem very prosper, judging by his teeth. After i came back in the US i continued talking to him on the phone. He seemed compassionate and listening to what i was saying.

But after moving to Lake Oswego, the smoke appeared in the apartment, under the "reason" of a broken chimney. Most likely, other smoke was coming from those holes in the walls i tried so hard to cover. I once i think when i was high on that smoke i tried to explain to him the American expression "S... rolling down the hill". He asked me to repeat it.

I figured also recently that it is possible that most of my phone conversations with him were broadcast by Sorin Avram, maybe on the internet. In September 2015 after i moved here, at Rolling Hills, Sorin Avram "died" and Aurel stopped talking to me. (Will come back with pictures of that Hungarian conductor). I feel too nauseated by the smell to start digging.

Here at the apartment the leasing agents were Demi Lovato and Keiko Fujimori.