“I will never forget the 1997 holidays. This is what a carefree summer for children should look like”

I know that such carefree times will never return, like the holidays of 1997. As they say now – I feel grateful that when I was a little girl I spent my holidays with my grandparents in the countryside every year. To this day, memories of my childhood summer appear in my dreams. There were no shops, no internet, and the electricity often went out. You had to come up with your own attractions, because back then no one cared that children were bored. Adults in the countryside had their hands full from dawn to dusk. In the morning, I would pick raspberries, currants and gooseberries with my grandparents for collection. With what I earned, we would go to the store and buy Iza ice cream – that was synonymous with every summer in the 90s. Four flavours and between them raspberry sauce in a square or round container.

“The neighbor had a goat”

Then we ate the ice cream together on the porch with my grandparents. Quietly, without staring at the TV or our phones. I didn’t record it on Instagram, I didn’t brag to my friends. In those days, you lived in the here and now. One neighbor had a goat, I visited it every day. I didn’t do anything with it, I just went there, because that was the attraction back then. Two houses away, I helped a friendly family pick strawberries. The reward? A slice of homemade bread with butter, crushed strawberries and sugar. It was something I will never forget. My grandmother would send me to get milk or eggs from the neighbors. All of this wasn’t an obligation, just attractions that made me happy.

My friends and I rode our bikes for hours on the hills without gears. Sometimes we chased each other in the hay. My grandfather would pick up linden leaves, which he would then drink. To this day, I associate the smell of that tree with him. It is one of the warmest memories I have. My grandparents had a swing in the garden. I would swing on it with my friend until dusk. Of course, I wanted it to be as high as possible. Behind the house there was a carpet beater, on which I would do somersaults and other contortions. I had bruises, sometimes I would get a splinter from my grandfather’s barn, or I would catch a tick.

“This is what a carefree summer for children should look like”

Grandpa took care of everything – he would pull them out, bandage them, no one thought about going to the city to see a doctor. There were maybe 20 houses in this village. Everyone knew each other, helped each other. When I finished the school year, I couldn’t wait for Dad to take me there and meet my friends. It was a magical time. Sometimes Grandma would find time for me. Then I would come to her room and we would play Peter Pan on the bed. In the evenings I would look at the sky and admire the stars, breathe in the fresh air, listen to music from the boombox. This is how a carefree summer for children should look like.