Data from the Decade of the Sixties

by Valtinos, Thanassis; Assimakopoulos, Jane; Deligiorgis, Stavros

• ISBN13: 9780810116993
• ISBN10: 0810116995
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-05-01
• Publisher: Northwestern Univ Pr

Summary

Thanassis Valtinos juxtaposes character voices, stories, and news clips to highlight the clash of the past and the present in Greece during a period of unprecedented cultural transformation. In the 1960s, the Greek monarchy gave way to a republic (via dictatorship); an agricultural society became industrialized; and, no less significant, marriages - formerly arranged - could be based on love.
The many voices in this impressive chronicle coalesce in a series of fictional documents, ranging from personal correspondence between friends and family members to news reports and advertisements. The reader is privy to letters written by lovelorn youths begging for guidance from a radio advice guru and to emigration applications of uneducated and underprivileged Greeks. As governments fall, sexologists, fortune-tellers, garage owners, and lonely matrons advertise their specialties and needs in want ads, while the young and resigned cling to the cheap novels, movies, and gossip columns that are the foundation of their barren existence.
Together these fictional testimonies reveal the tumult of 1960s Greece, where generations and values collided as society struggled to adapt. Valtinos examines the pulse of a decade, portraying the spirit of the century in Greece and throughout the world.

Excerpts

Athens, January 9, 1960

Dear Mina-

Greetings. I am a longtime listener of your program. I have been involved with a 35-year-old man for a year. In the beginning, I didn't know anything about him, and later on I didn't want to find out. He was always, and still is, kind and gentle with me. The only thing is that he never says "I love you" of his own accord. He doesn't deny it but says so only if I press him. I have to tell you that I love him and I show it in every way possible. I am a woman of 35, we are the same age. Not long ago, however, I found out that he is married and has a child and when I told him about it he admitted it. I asked him why he had kept it hidden from me and he said that he was afraid of losing me. He was sure that if I knew how things were, I would have left him. And I would have. But now it's too late, and he knows very well that I can't stop now. I am only able see him once a week. His job keeps him away from me, or rather it keeps him at home, as he lives in a village and sees me only when he comes up to Athens. When I ask him to stay a little longer with me, he says that he can't. I don't know what he really thinks of me and I don't know how he wants things to be between us. In any case, I think it's clear that there is no way he would be willing to spoil his comfortable home life because of me, but then he goes on and on about how unhappy he is with his wife. I very often get the impression that he is just using me to have a little fun. He has never said anything tender to me, as he thinks it might imply commitment. But then he also says that if I ever leave him, he will kill himself. Because he needs me. And naturally I'm half out of my mind with all this. Please tell me how I should act from now on. I will accept your judgment, whatever it may be. God bless you.

Magda Kaliesperi

P.S. Please refer to me simply as Magda on your program.

HERAKLEION, JANUARY 11. From our correspondent. At eight o'clock in the evening, the day before yesterday, in the village of Prosilia, Malevizios, Nikolaos Markomichelakis, 28 years of age, a sheepherder by profession, fatally wounded his fellow villager Emanuel Melissinos, a shopkeeper, age 53, firing nine shots at him from behind, with an automatic German pistol, for reasons relating to a long-standing dispute. Four of the nine bullets missed their target while five of them caused fatal wounds to the victim. The injured man was transported to the Herakleion Clinic, where he succumbed to his injuries at 5 o'clock in the morning. The perpetrator attempted to escape but was later arrested by the police on his way to Herakleion. It should be noted that, in 1958, the perpetrator had asked for the hand of the daughter of the victim in marriage; her parents, however, did not give their consent. This had been the cause of continual friction and the day before yesterday, following a quarrel, the assailant returned to his residence where he picked up his weapon-a Steier-and, subsequently, after meeting his victim on his way back to town, opened fire on him.

Iannota, January 21, 1960

To: The Officials of the Dept. for Emigration from Europe (DEME)

Gentlemen-

Good day to you. I received your notice about my departure, which is set for February 12, where I see you also asked me for my son Dimitris's birth certificates. Well, listen, things are like this: First of all, during the time the notice was sent, I was away working over in the prefecture of Verroia and now realize there is not enough time left before February 12. This is on account of my small property and household expense papers still not being in order. Second, about my son Dimitris's papers, which you sent back to me for correction. I did submit them to the Office of the Municipality, they corrected them, put their initials on, stamped them, and when they were all ready I sent them to you on January 4, 1960. But I made one small mistake. Thinking on account of the envelope inside it must belong to the Department of Emigration, I did not put any stamps on. Not only that but I didn't put a return address, I mean my name. I sent it to you just with the address on the envelope enclosed. Then when I saw you kept asking for those papers, I went to the director of the post office at Elassona and explained the whole thing to him. He told me that if it had a return address, it would come back but that by now it must be at the Central Post Office in Athens, with the unclaimed mail. So I would like to ask you, if it's not too much trouble, to please go and claim it yourselves. You can look for the Elassona postmark and for your printed address. Also, I think you can tell there are photographs inside. Otherwise, if you do not go, please send me another set of forms to fill out, blank ones. Because I don't know if the forms they have at the Municipality are the right ones or if they're any good, seeing as how they don't say Department of Emigration in Greek and in English. So I am asking you to please answer my letter as soon as you receive it and write and tell me if the certificates I sent you for my son have been found. I will send you the other certificates about criminal record and debts to the state on January 24. It would be an awful shame to miss my February 12 departure on account of all this. Anyhow, I would like you to let me know when the next departure is and also, when you send my other notice, could you tell me what other things I should bring, like what articles of clothing, or any other instructions, and also if it would be to my advantage to bring my elementary school certificate with me in person. Finally, could you please write just a little more clearly so we won't have such a hard time reading it and understanding what it means. Thank you for your assistance in getting away from this barren countryside of ours, but we will always be thinking of our beloved "GREECE."

Respectfully yours, Good-bye

Nikolaos Giannou

Tripolis, January 29, 1960

Your Excellencies: The Prime Minister, Ministers of Industrial Development, Interior, Labor, Undersecretary Prime Minister, Deputies Arcadia: Papadimitriou, Kaltetziotes, Bakalopoulos, Papaíliou, Aposkites, Michas, and Pavlopoulos, Athens.

Permit issued by Prefecture Arcadia for establishment DIANA razor blade factory, opening of which, as result of law concerning protection regional development, welcomed by entire population Tripolis and outskirts. Stop. Withdrawal of permit following order from Ministry Industrial Development causing great concern. As unaware which parties continue undermine progress in region respectfully ask you take matters in hand use influence to bring about immediate revocation withdrawal order concerning opening of factory. Stop. If this not done, rest assured entire population Arcadia, plagued by economic crisis, will be irreparably distressed. Stop. Hoping to have good fortune of favorable reply, remain respectfully yours.

Association of Shopkeepers and Businessmen of Tripolis

The President Spyros Charitopoulos

The Secretary Giorgios Douros

Rodoleivos, Serres, February 9, 1960

To Mrs. Mina:

We thank you for being on the air with your wonderful program The Woman's Hour and for discussing such exciting and interesting subjects. My particular problem is this: I am 19 years old and very unlucky in love. I was in love with a young man and one day he walked out on me with no explanation. Three months ago I met another young man who is 23. I liked him right away and he felt the same toward me. I didn't fall in love with him, fortunately. Before he met me, this young man had been in love with another woman. While he was serving in the army, she got married. He did not stop loving her and continued to have his hopes. Now I ask you, what could he hope for from a woman who had abandoned him for another man? He told me everything, that their relationship had lasted four years, and only through correspondence. He still has her letters and her photograph. She has been married for two years and has a baby. I want to do everything I can to help the man I care about forget the woman who betrayed him. Now he is working in Thessaloniki. Before he went away he promised me he would try to forget her. He also bought me some presents. A few days ago he came to the village, but unfortunately I didn't see him until the day before he was leaving. The only thing he said to me was that he had come because of me but that I was just stringing him along and playing with him. He also wrote me a nasty letter, well, almost. Feeling unhappy I wrote him back, hoping that he had only written all those things in anger. And he wrote me back another letter that said nothing about me but was all about his betrayed love. He wrote things like: "If you can help me to forget, though it's difficult, my betrayed love, come and find me. If not, forget about me for good." And now I ask you, dear Mina, what should I do? Will I be able to get what I want without being hurt? And then suppose he also leaves me, with no explanation? Please answer and tell me what to do.

Thanking you in advance,

Wounded Gardenia

En route from Melbourne, the transatlantic ocean liner Patris sailed into Piraeus Harbor yesterday, ending its maiden voyage on the new round-trip route between Greece and Australia. The ocean liner covered 9,500 miles in 23 days on the trip there and in 22 days on the return trip, carrying 1,000 Greek emigrants to Australia and 189 Greek expatriates from Australia to Greece.

The owner of the vessel, Mr. D. Chandris, announced that in spite of heavy foreign competition the new Greek line is now firmly established and will create substantial tourist travel from Australia to Greece. Serious efforts are also being made to stimulate increased commercial activity between the two countries.

ThePatris, fully booked, will sail with its passengers from Piraeus to Australia on Wednesday, February 28.

* * *

PATRA, FEBRUARY 14. From our correspondent. By wire from Kalavryta. In the village of Skotani, 9-year-old Konstantina Bei was pitifully dismembered when a hand grenade that she found inside the house exploded as she was examining it. It appears that the hand grenade had been kept in the young girl's house since the days of anticommunist civil war operations.

March 2, 1960

Dear Mina-

I listen to your broadcasts every time and all the interested things on them. And please forgive my writing but it's the best I can do. Now I would like your help with something that happened to me. My nickname is Christakis, that's what everyone calls me, but I want you to use my real name, Christos, so that no one in my village will know who it is. My wife, without so much as a single word, left me and went back to her mother's. And seven months later my child was born and it was a boy. People are talking a lot but my son looks like me, just like me. Please tell me what to do. I asked my wife to come back but she won't. And she told me that she had no particular reason for leaving, she just felt like it. So she did. And that's that. Sorry I don't know what I should write in this letter to thank you. All my best.

Christakis

P.S. Mrs. Mina, I forgot to tell you that I am very poor and just barely get by on my low salary. Could that be it?

Members of the First Security Police Squad, following a stakeout on Kolokotroni Street, took into custody Georgios Anthopoulos, a former diver from Volos, as he was breaking into the automobile of lawyer N. Koinis and removing a raincoat from inside the vehicle. Anthopoulos literally preyed upon parked cars, from which he would remove articles of clothing that he would subsequently sell at ridiculously low prices. Anthopoulos confessed to 18 similar burglaries. This arrest is particularly interesting in light of the offender's life story, which could have been taken straight out of a novel. He left his parents' home in Volos at the age of 15 and came to Pireaus, where he joined a gang of small-time robbers and illegal importers of American cigarettes. He was arrested for one of these thefts and was sentenced to be sent to a reform school for one year. He was sent to a prison on Kos, where he subsequently worked as a diver, was afflicted by a serious case of the bends, and suffered paralysis of his lower limbs. Upon returning to Pireaus, where he underwent extensive treatment at the Navy Hospital, he attempted, contrary to his orders, to emigrate illegally to America but was arrested and deported. Since then he has been involved in burglarizing automobiles. It is interesting to note that Anthopoulos comes from a respectable family in Thessaly.

* * *

WANTED. Employee under provision of Bill 751 for position as accountant's aide. Applications, handwritten, to Mr. G. Papagiannopoulos, Notary Public, 14 Charilaou Trikoupi St. during that same year, after the fighting at Grammos, when the communist guerrilla headquarters were located at Pyxos, in Prespa, Zachariades abandoned all pretexts and now presented Roula to the world as his legal spouse, and he even went so far as to live with her in a private bunker. Comments were rife among the comrades and quite often the "chief" found it necessary to take strong measures in order to admonish the "gossipmongers." Following the defeat of the guerrillas, Roula, using the name Rhea, common among village women, made her way with Zachariades to Bucharest. The couple took up residence in a luxury apartment in a well-to-do neighborhood at Stalin Park, where mansions housing the foreign embassies were located. There Roula and Nikos brought a son into the world, naming him after the Red dictator. Henceforth the activities of the "chief 's woman" became more and more intensified. In October of 1950 she was elected a nonvoting member of the Central Committee of the party, and took part in most of the Communist Party's international conferences, directing a steady barrage of criticism toward Greece from the radio station of which she was in charge. When the crisis broke out inside the Communist Party of Greece, she remained a devoted companion, standing by her "chief" and fighting by his side in order to refute the charges being leveled against him by the supporters of Vaphiades and Partsalides. Her versatility and competence as well as her aptitude for conspiracy during the crisis persuaded the "chief " to entrust her with the "most important mission in her life." The reconstruction of the outlawed Communist Party apparatus was the important mission given to her by Zachariades.

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Excerpted from DATA from the DECADE of the SIXTIES by THANASSIS VALTINOS Copyright © 1992 by Agra Publications
Excerpted by permission. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.