It is cloudy today, and Motovun is full. Most of the tourists are from central Europe, but some come from as far as Finland and Russia. Sitting on the hotel terrace, I start following the messages on children’s T-shirts. Apparently, they are in vogue nowadays, and they are all in English. “Respect recycling,” pontificates a boy of about ten. “Don’t believe in hype,” castigates another boy of the same age. The girls are rather different, though. “Wanna be my friend?” tantalizes a busty girl not older than fourteen. At most a year older girl goes a bit farther: “No damage, no fun.” As soon as I start wondering about who bought these T-shirts for the children, I see a father in his late thirties wearing one that he must have gotten from a teenage daughter of his: “Best dad ever.” The sampling took me about a quarter of an hour, but a crafty anthropologist could learn a good deal about our civilization by studying the messages parents and children exchange in public.

Addendum (July 7, 2011)

This morning I saw in the center of Zagreb a girl of at most twelve with one of the pluckiest T-shirt messages I have seen so far: “It’s OK for me to have everything I want.” Wow! The principle is set. The parents have been informed, too. One more thing I can add about the girl is that the only sign of her gender are tiny breasts that are starting to bud. Otherwise, she looks and dresses just like a boy her age. Her T-shirt messages to all and sundry would be worth following through her adolescence, no doubt.