Today is my father’s hundredth birthday. Back then, there was neither electricity nor running water on the island of Krk. He must have had a blissful childhood.

Addendum (May 3, 2012)

I cannot complain about my own childhood, either. Not in the least. In spite of occasional shortages, there was electricity and running water in Yugoslavia just after World War II, but there was little else of the modern world. Both in Zagreb, where I was born, and in Belgrade, where my parents moved when I was a toddler, there were plenty of children, though. Swarms of them everywhere one turned. And they were free to frolic among the ample ruins to their hearts’ content. Toys were few and far between, but the children knew how to make their own out of scraps of wood or metal. Comparing my childhood with that of my children, I have always felt sorry for them. They could not even imagine the bliss I had lived through. But not to worry. Electricity and running water are hardly forever.