Arcadia in Map of GREECE (red)
Arcadia is a bucolic land
Mother and family donkey
As baby
With high school cap
With high school classmates and young friend
Father in army, 1941
Maternal grandmother
Friend with his bull
Sister 'Lemonitsa'
The village school... erected in 1948 with contributions from the Brotherhood of fellow villagers living as immigrants in America
Closed for decades
It all started here... my home (to the right) and village church
Paying homage to my parents
At backgammon with cousin
On May Day
Itinerant tinker
My desk...still there, but God knows for how long.
The school closed 20 yrs ago.
The hill on the right in the background is where Ancient Mantenia was... and the site of the Gortsouli Fair, where Angelo and his parents bought the ill-fated mare from the gypsy
My uncle's mare's collar, identical to our own ill-fated mare's collar. I used to urger her on at the mangani (water wheel) so he could water his little farm faster
Interior of Arcadian countryside chapel…
We wished that our prayers that accompanied the lighting of the candles reached to the Heavens...
Sparta (Spartium junceum) in Elati area
People used to make brooms with them
“Της δικαιοσύνης ήλιε νοητέ
και μυρσίνη εσύ δοξαστική ,
μη παρακαλώ σας μη,
λησμονάτε τη χώρα μου.”
(Της Δικαιοσύνης Ήλιε Νοητέ, Οδυσσέας Ελύτης)
'The sun of justice, and you myrtle, branch of glory, I beg you, please do not forget my country...' (Nobelist Odysseas Elytis)
Neighborhood folk market
Neighboring village pond
The site of endless frog summer concerts
St. Basil's Cathedral, Tripolis, capital of Arcadia...
At a typical Arcadian tavern with sister 'Lemonitsa,'
cousins, and village friends
'Honey anyone...' (at popular countryside restaurant)
With Sam Sianis, of the Billy Goat fame, and Co., in Arcadia
Ampelaki Monastery, popular baptismal place at that time,
where my parents rode for several hours on donkey
and horse to have me baptised...
Spring in Arcadia
Avid soccer players (high school in town)
Arcadia Christmas at local nursing home, Tripolis
Visiting residents at local nursisng home on Christmas Day, Tripolis
Leading the traditional man’s dance
on national holiday (high school)
Passport
Honoring a great friend of Greece in the main park of Tripolis
Helping on the threshing floor in Valtesiniko
Nature is always luxuriant in the Spring
Imposing monument honoring General Theodoros Kolokotronis, Greece's George Washington, in one of the main squares in Tripolis
Millet's The Gleaners was an inspiration for the story
National Holiday, October 28
Η ΓΚΟΛΦΩ
The period's most popular love story and my mother's favorite
(The only 'literary' book in the family during my childhood)
Countryside chapel of Saint Nicholas
I also served there as altar boy
Monument honoring the mother
Jasmine on a balcony
Blacksmith's shop in front of which my mother
sold her flower and vegetable seeds
Family mangani (water-wheel) abandoned for decades
Decay in Arcadia
The Kotsianis old café in Artemision
Building with stone is very popular in mountainous Arcadia
Grave of wealthy upper-class citizen
Ancient Orchomenos supplied the entire country with sheep wool (Homer)
Paralio Astros, one of the few main Arcadian accesses to the sea
Launching Ελλάδα Μου, Πατρίδα Μου at Parnassos
Greece's most revered literary club
Thanking the audience and the book's panel presenters at Parnassos
Peaceful and popular Saint George Park,
a place to spend a few hours studying in high school
On the family farm, now barren, the mulberry tree
I once grafted to produce larger leaves for cheep fodder
Our neighbors
I climbed to the belfry to toll the bell and summon
the fellow villagers to church on Sundays and holidays
The sage-leafed pear whose fruit we boys used to eat when hungry, while roaming the hills. If not ripe yet, the pears would turn our mouths and tongue numb.
(The steps to the Saint Nicholas Chapel are new)
Boxes of exhumed bones in the church ossuary
(As altar boy, I helped the priest dig many of these bones from their grave and wash them with vinegar before putting them away)
Fellow countryman
Seaside café and restaurant in popular Tolo,
one of the few accesses to the sea.
Catching up with old friends after half a century
Popular seaside 'Popi's Café' in Tolo
Potato harvest time
Potato field
Grape harvest time
Daily morning scene in town
Local Public Library
Visiting the local nursing home (Dekazeion)
Re-uniting with old friends after fifty some years,
and making new ones visiting from Germany
Commemorative plaque on the wall of the local hospital
The local holiday brings everybody out to the square
The Piteros Taverna, a local landmark in Tripolis
Blossoming fennel along the roadsides
Garlic in Steno--spread out to dry
Paralio Astros
The love of flowers is evident everywhere
Everybody likes backgammon
On a balcony in town
Karytena, a town immersed in history
At a restaurant in Vytina, one of the most popular
local and foreign tourist destinations
Easter dancing in main square
Palm Sunday
Preparing for the Easter celebration
“Come ye take light from the light
that is never overtaken by night…”
(Easter Midnight Service)
Bell ringing on Good Friday at the Saint George Chapel
Waiting for the traditional Good Friday procession
at the Saint George Chapel
Tripolis, capital of Arcadia (view from the hills)
Ancient Mantenia
Saint Barbara neighborhood, Tripolis
Sparta (Spartium junceum) along the country highways
“God writes the Gospel not in the Bible alone,
but also on trees, and in the flowers and clouds and stars.”
—Martin Luther
May Day wreath
Nature putting a smile on the face of poverty
Ostrakina, ski resort on Menalon Mountain (partial view)
Donating copy to local public library where
I was introduced to the magic world of literature
Wild thorn flowers over deserted fields
Saint Patience Vesper Service in Tripolis
Well in nearby town
People drew water for their animals here when I was a child
Arcadians, like most Greeks, love flowers
If my dream had not been realized...