Memostory#4
Zvonko Springer (zzspri@COSY.SBG.AC.AT)
Sun, 20 Apr 1997 11:24:14 +0200
Dear friends in MEMORIES,
I'm so sorry for my mistake in sending Memostory#4 in 'Attached' format.
I won't happen in future. I'm repeating my message of yesterday and hope
you would like me again .. as your old CROATIAN SOLDIER alias Zvonko of the
Oak Hill.
=09
*** Re-forwarded message ***
Hello again to MEMORIES!
The 4th life-story is about entertaining during war times and has as its
title:
*** SNOW WHITE & SEVEN DWARFS=92 BAND FROM 1940 TO 1942 ***
In fall 1940 I started in the Male Real-Gymnasium Osijek my 5th grade.
[For explanation: Real-Gymnasium is a natural science oriented secondary
school with 8 grades and ends with baccalaureate final examination.] Time
came for me to learn dancing and I entered the TOPALOVIC DANCING SCHOOL
holding dancing lessons at Casino=92s biggest hall. CASINO was the place
where burghers from Osijek=92s Upper City met there in a caf=E9 or reading
rooms or card playing rooms. We learned dancing accompanied by a pianist
who must be rather bored repeating the same tune so often. At the beginning
I wore knickerbockers only and got my 1st dress with long trousers for the
final school=92s dancing-party only. The coronet, as it was called, had been
held at the largest hall of HRVATSKI DOM (=3D Croatian Home was a center for
various cultural and social activities). A proper music band played for
entertainment and dancing on dancing-parties like the CORONET one. Parents
and invited friends congregated then and all had a lot of dancing and fun
altogether. =20
I stopped playing violin after long last some time after we moved to
parents=92 new house in Krezmina street late 1936. My teacher was very happy
about and said that World was spared of a non-enthusiastic violinist with
no proper sense of hearing. However, mother insisted me playing some other
instrument. She got hold of Military musician who taught accordion and
started learning to encourage me too. Thus I started my band player=92s
career on a HOHNER dark-red accordion having 84 basses but registers.
Soon I played accordion quite well. Even I contemplated composing a
musical probably as a result of continuing composition tutorial at Musical
school. Our neighbor=92s son Zdenko K. had heard my accordion playing and
suggested we create a band. Zdenko was 2 years older and played violin and
clarinet well. Soon joined us Slavko V. who was about my age but liked
saxophone most. During 1940 summer holidays the band was almost complete
and we had many working sessions. By fall of the same year our band got
ready to go public and we offered our assistance to TOPALOVIC=92s dancing
school too. Soon our band became quite popular and played at most dancing
parties held in Osijek. We could afford buying few new instruments by
saving from compensation and gratuitous payments. Slavko was our cashier
and economic adviser -=96 he was studying economics then.
The Band=92s name was SNOW WHITE AND SEVEN DWARFS =96- thus it had eight
members. Posters on each of the 7 note-stands depicted the dwarfs from Walt
Disney=92s movie. Peter, our piano player, had a large Snow White=92s poster
standing on the instrument. Sometimes it collapsed when band=92s playing
became too furious or Peter didn=92t fix properly its one-leg rear support. =
I
got on a new black & white HOHNER=92s accordion with 108 basses and few
registers (!). Sometimes I accompanied the band on a guitar or drums too.
Could you guess now which dwarf=92s poster did I have on my note-stand? Well=
,
I was the SLEEPY dwarf =96- despite that I was often the busiest one of all
others.
Our Band had been quite busy until World War Two reached into Yugoslavia on
6th April 1941. Later in autumn we came together again and offered Band=92s
services to re-opened Dancing School first. Now, we had to watch what to
play and had to make changes to our repertoire too. Lambent-walk craze was
out and dancing of Swing or English Waltz was not allowed either. Instead
we would play for dancing any fox-trot, slow-fox, tango or waltz. Slavko or
Zdenko, acted as Band=92s music=92s arrangers and were quite busy and
responsible for pounding of correct rhythm at play=92s start. It wasn=92t an
easy task at all because dancers asked for a faster rhythm. Band would
easily go to Swing tunes that weren=92t allowed at all and could bring us in
jeopardy of loosing our license too.
Band couldn=92t continue playing as a team of eight in the long run. We
couldn=92t find a party organizer capable of paying for a big band as ours
anymore. Thus Slavko relieved one the other team=92s member occasionally. We
would play as a smaller group as required or an organizer was prepared to
pay for. An accordion player can entertain and play music alone any time.
Therefore, I was playing accordion or guitar in such a smaller team. It has
consisted of Zdenko (violin or clarinet), Peter (piano or drums) and Slavko
(saxophone or clarinet) and myself.=20
We took orders from and went playing in suburbs and in several villages in
vicinity of Osijek. We had traveled there on horse drawn carts or by
railway. The dancing sessions ended late at night often so we couldn=92t
return home the same night. We played in inns or taverns where people used
to stay after agreed (paid for) dancing hours until the police closure
time. Often waiting persons ordered drinks and started singing popular or
native songs. The accordion player would be invited to accompany this small
crowd =96- after the regular time paid for expired. What to do when my
companions were not invited or refused to join the party? Well, I took my
accordion accompanying crowd=92s demands as good as I could. I got tired or
didn=92t know tune asked to play sometimes too. There is no mercy for an
accordion player and one must continue playing because he gets extra money.
Do you know how an accordion player gets paid with his both hands holding
the instrument? The paying person takes a money note, spits on and "glues"
it on accordion player=92s forehead! Well, it wasn=92t pleasant at all being
the last of band=92s team paid this way, believe me.
The general situation worsened as the war protracted into 1943. Snow
White=92s band has dispersed and we didn=92t play anymore even in a smaller
group. Zdenko and few other band=92s members went into Army and we younger
ones were preparing for the final examination and Army service after too.
The Band never came together after World War II ended =96 many died or
disappeared for ever. Slavko became a communist and entered into politics
in Tito=92s Yugoslavia and could still living now-a-days. All Snow White
Band=92s instruments bought before were gone including my black & white big
HOHNER accordion. My own red HOHNER accordion survived somehow few pillages
at parent=92s house after the "liberation" of Osijek on 14th April 1945.
Looters took all items that seemed or looked like as belongings of a War
criminal like me.=20
At that time I was just about to surrender to the Liberator=92s Army some 50=
0
km westwards near Slovenjgradec. Few days later I was marching back
eastwards in a column of Prisoners of War this time. I arrived in Osijek on
2nd June after a murderous march of some 500 km barefoot in 17 days. The
victorious Tito=92s Army didn=92t care a dime regarding the Geneva Conventio=
n
on Prisoners of War at all. =20
=20
Epilogue: I played an accordion only once more. It was in OZNA 3 (Yugoslav
Army=92s Secret Police) prison in the Citadel of Osijek. I had been kept
there in custody in June and July 1945. After thorough interrogation there
I was exempted of charges against me as a War Criminal. I could get out
from a prison cell for a walk in prison=92s yard twice daily. A soldier was
"torturing" an accordion trying some Partisans=92 tune. First, I offered som=
e
help teaching but soon I discovered that my fingers would fit the keys
anymore. Playing Partisan=92s songs didn=92t go with my state of mind at tha=
t
time either.
We sold my red HOHNER accordion several years later we were a young couple
with little of financial means. Thus, my accordion helped for our domestic
needs for a while in 1952.
=20
Many regards sends you an ex-accordion player alias CROATIAN SOLDIER
living on the Oak Hill (near Anif, Salzburg).
=09
End of Memostory#4.
*** End of re-forwarded message ***
=20