speaking about a narrow passage, let's proceed to...
CEREMONY UNVEILING... 12/
this installment shows how an insignificant film scene can become highly evocative (can trigger plenty of vivid flashbacks).
watching the whole litomyšl flick was accompanied by extensive recollections but one particular scene surpassed the others.
it was this one...
some ppl are emerging along the wall of the little fore-garden of the Piarist Grammar School (1).
in the background can be traced the tower of the main square (4).
if you go along the wall of the fore-garden (in the recent past) or entrance (currently) of the regional museum (previously Piarist Grammar School), you follow the steep road (with a few stairs) that turns (right if going up, left if going down) in almost 90 degrees angle — i.e. at one point you don't see behind the corner and only 2 ppl can pass next to each other.
i mean this was the state in the beginning of the 1990s (when the tale of this installment happened) — then it looked something like this...
currently, it looks like this — there is no more fore-garden but the new building of the entrance to the museum and the road along (with a few stairs) was widened...
so, when i saw the aforementioned shot (with ppl emerging from this narrow road) suddenly i was (in my mind) in 1991/1992 and started to vividly recollect the day when i first smoked ganja.
after the restrictive commie regime collapsed in 1989, plenty of new books started to become published.
one of them was this one (the very first local book about ganja published post-1989)...
i was convicted that i read that book prior to 1991/1992 "incident" but, when i searched for the pic now, all the attached information (in various second-hand bookshops that offer it for sale) says it was published in 1993.
the author is a journalist that started his campaign for ganja legalization already at the start of 1990s, so it is likely i read (prior to the "incident") only his articles (maybe??? part of the book was published in a journal — prior to book publishing???).
in any case, (somehow or other) i got (from the guy who published that book) the know-how (in 1991 or 1992) about ganja gardening.
i shared my know-how with my then-best friend and he volunteered to acquire the seeds of cannabis indica (and he did so).
it might seem ridiculous (from today's perspective) that all of this was such a big deal.
but remember local commies (who ruled the country prior to 1989) were neo-Stalinist gerontocrats (not some cool woke acid communists) who considered (the same way as conservative U.S. republicans) ganja as dangerous as heroin, so 1989 was practically an "hour zero" (so, no wonder i started to acquire the ganja know-how only as a late teen and not sooner — as is usual nowadays).
so, we planted the seeds (in 1991 or 1992) in the garden of my friend's estate.
he lived on the very outskirts of the town (on the place beyond the map) — to reach his place, you would have to proceed along the road marked by number (2).
i lived in the spot marked by number (3).
somehow or other, his parents didn't protest against our gardening.
in the early 1990s, local students still held the aura of (velvet) revolutionaries and adults still felt ashamed of being discredited by the stupid totalitarian regime, so parents were maybe??? (for a moment) less inclined to question the "problematic" behavior of their teen offsprings (being still slightly disoriented by the recent turbulent events — not daring to say what is "right" & what is "wrong" after all their past blunder).
so (ultimately), our open-air home-grown ganja reached full bloom (unharmed) and we decided it's the time to harvest and start the journey of self-discovery (fuelled by entheogens).
we invited two more friends and in the suburb house of my friend we held a "harvest festival".
it means, we smoked the ganja, we cooked ganja and ate it like spinach and we drank ganja tea (residue of cooking ganja like spinach).
our open-air home-grown cannabis indica was probably not particularly strong but, due to our neophyte enthusiasm, we had a merry time.
"harvest festival" took place the whole afternoon and when the evening came — and i was supposed to return from the spot (beyond 2) to spot (3) — my friend suggested i take some full-grown (i.e. nearly 2 meters tall) ganja plants with me.
again, it was the early 1990s (the old regime was in ruins and the new regime had not emerged yet) — we felt "anything goes".
so, i grabbed two tall ganja plants, placed them on my shoulder and we walked (i was accompanied by my friend who said he needs a little evening stroll) downtown.
it was a very warm summer evening, the good people living in Litomyšl's suburb were moving their lawns, chatting on the porches, etc., etc. while we two youngsters (representatives of the local avantgarde) were passing along proudly with two big plants of ganja — being convinced that all these good people have no clue yet about the ganja (and its miracles).
thus we reached the spot that is pictured in the aforementioned shot of the film.
we were moving in the opposite direction than the ppl in the film and when we reached the narrowest spot (the moment the road turns almost 90 degrees left and one can't see who is behind the corner) suddenly (due to some weird coincidence) two municipal cops! stumbled upon us (they were walking in the same direction as the ppl in the shot).
we passed next to them — we and them had to step somewhat aside cuz only two ppl could pass next to each other in the narrow spot.
when we were already a few steps behind their backs, they finally started to sniff some crime and called at us, "hey boys, wait a minute!"
i was still convinced they have no clue i carry on my shoulder two big plants of marijuana.
my first thought was they suspect me of committing some act of vandalism in the nearby castle garden (later to become unesco heritage site).
so, i shouted back (without stopping to walk), "it's okay, it's just a weed."
i mean, i said in Czech "plevel" which means "weed" but the Czech word "plevel" is not synonymous of marijuana (as in Egnlish) — i was not that stupid to tell them it is THE "weed".
i was convinced i am calming them down by assuring them i didn't rip off any valuable plants in the castle garden.
well, you know, if you are a teen (and moreover you just smoked, ate & drank ganja for the first time) you think "differently".
fortunately enough, my friend was more oriented in reality and mumbled at me, "throw it away!"
which i instantly did and we started to run.
at that time i was a member of the local athletic club (was good at short tracks of 100, 200, and 400 meters), so i was able to run faster than 100 percent of the local municipal cops (because none of them was a member of the local athletic club).
i was fast runner, my dwelling was approximately 400 meters away, i was able to take advantage of the local (maze-like) arcade of the main square, so no wonder i escaped — my route is the black line from the spot (1) to spot (3).
on the other hand, my friend was not at all into sports.
so, when i was safe at home, i was sure it is still futile because (in my opinion) he was caught, gonna be interrogated (maybe tortured) and thus is just a question of time when the doorbell will ring and the two local municipal cops will ask for me.
so, i was awaiting my arrest while lying in the bed and going through a nearly sleepless night.
now, again, it was only the early 1990s, i.e. no mobile phones, no internet — to immediately figure out if my friend escaped or not.
i had no means to get to know until the next day.
i don't remember anymore if it was me who dared to go to visit him or if he dared to visit me — to inform me he escaped too, following the black-line route from point (1) to point (2).
in any case, for the next 2-3 weeks i was totally paranoid (like never before and never after) and left my home only dressed like Kenny from Southpark (being shit scarred i will stumble upon those two municipal cops again and they will recognize me).
after 2-3 weeks, i gained back the confidence to go out unveiled.
and till now i have a zero criminal record.
tho, my friend then told me that in the local newspaper (in a criminal column) was a short notice titled "Marijuana has been detected in Litomyšl".
i never saw those newspapers, so i have no clue if it is true and if i can truly claim the official primacy in the history of the local "ganja-abuse".
so, sometimes it happens that one watches a minor silent short film from 1921 and, suddenly, he has to relive the drama of his coming of age!
