![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
There’s no time
Jan. 26th, 2019 12:42 amWhat is the basic soldier’s treasure? It is definitely a spoon.
My granddad went through the WWII with his spoon and used it for the rest of his life.
Still in the lines, at the halt somewhere in Hungary, he scratched a phrase on it: “Good grub is best of funs”.
Other treasures include a watch. He had the watch of officer’s version granted for bravery under fire. Also survived and worn in the post-war period.
But not to the end of his life. After more than 40 years of service, it was broken. And I
participated in the mishap.
Granddad had a lot of strange but funny plays, jokes and phrases in his head based on country or military humor, sometimes being a medley of Ukrainian and Russian words.
Many of them I never heard anywhere else: “fistic plays with a grin on the face”, “Banqueting! – cried the devilkin and jumped on the Jeremy’s chin.”
His star turn was the following fancy trick: when you gave him a hand for salutation, he held it and seriously asked: “Do you have time?”
If you answered in the affirmative he did not let it go said “Then a shake is no crime” and started to shake it like hell.
If you wanted to stop it, you had to say: “I have no more time”. Then he let your palm go adding: “Time’s up, shakes clap” and looked satisfied.
Once, when we both were in playful mood, I was caught in the game with my “yes”, and he started his shaking work. After quite a while, I commented: “Let’s see who will last longer”.
It was utterly foolish, but granddad did not want to surrender and went on.
Granny entered the room and asked: “What’s the matter with you?”
Granddad only waved aside: he was a risky type of guy in cards or any contest.
No one knows how long could this silly battle last and who could win but the fate intervened: the watch unfastened from excessive shaking, left the old man’s wrist, landed on the ground and stopped.
The game discontinued. “Eh!” – repeated the granddad regretfully trying in vain to wind up the mechanism.
The endeavors to bring it back to life failed. The clock smith also washed his hands: the device is old – a spring broke, a part failed and there is nothing to be done. It was normal aging. Almost half a century of service, it’s no laughing matter.
“Haw” – granddad smiled ironically putting the watch in the remote drawer of the cupboard.
“There’s no time”.
And these words stuck in my head for some reason. I do not know how much presumptuous is this, but I think it was a gift of Fortune, God or Universe, call it as you choose, personally for me.
Idle pleasure seeking stops the time.
And the moment comes when I will need it badly. I will eat the dust and appeal to the Fate to grant me at least a year or a month. Or a week! At least an hour more!
And the Fate will declare: “There’s no time” and will write me off the inventory like that watch.
That is the whole story. I have no time to add anything to it.
My granddad went through the WWII with his spoon and used it for the rest of his life.
Still in the lines, at the halt somewhere in Hungary, he scratched a phrase on it: “Good grub is best of funs”.
Other treasures include a watch. He had the watch of officer’s version granted for bravery under fire. Also survived and worn in the post-war period.
But not to the end of his life. After more than 40 years of service, it was broken. And I
participated in the mishap.
Granddad had a lot of strange but funny plays, jokes and phrases in his head based on country or military humor, sometimes being a medley of Ukrainian and Russian words.
Many of them I never heard anywhere else: “fistic plays with a grin on the face”, “Banqueting! – cried the devilkin and jumped on the Jeremy’s chin.”
His star turn was the following fancy trick: when you gave him a hand for salutation, he held it and seriously asked: “Do you have time?”
If you answered in the affirmative he did not let it go said “Then a shake is no crime” and started to shake it like hell.
If you wanted to stop it, you had to say: “I have no more time”. Then he let your palm go adding: “Time’s up, shakes clap” and looked satisfied.
Once, when we both were in playful mood, I was caught in the game with my “yes”, and he started his shaking work. After quite a while, I commented: “Let’s see who will last longer”.
It was utterly foolish, but granddad did not want to surrender and went on.
Granny entered the room and asked: “What’s the matter with you?”
Granddad only waved aside: he was a risky type of guy in cards or any contest.
No one knows how long could this silly battle last and who could win but the fate intervened: the watch unfastened from excessive shaking, left the old man’s wrist, landed on the ground and stopped.
The game discontinued. “Eh!” – repeated the granddad regretfully trying in vain to wind up the mechanism.
The endeavors to bring it back to life failed. The clock smith also washed his hands: the device is old – a spring broke, a part failed and there is nothing to be done. It was normal aging. Almost half a century of service, it’s no laughing matter.
“Haw” – granddad smiled ironically putting the watch in the remote drawer of the cupboard.
“There’s no time”.
And these words stuck in my head for some reason. I do not know how much presumptuous is this, but I think it was a gift of Fortune, God or Universe, call it as you choose, personally for me.
Idle pleasure seeking stops the time.
And the moment comes when I will need it badly. I will eat the dust and appeal to the Fate to grant me at least a year or a month. Or a week! At least an hour more!
And the Fate will declare: “There’s no time” and will write me off the inventory like that watch.
That is the whole story. I have no time to add anything to it.
