August 20 continued

On the island of Antigoni -- there is the church of St. George --where my brother was baptized ... beautiful little chuch and the church of St. Yanni -- which was just refurbished ... we asked to go in and a woman who helps with the church -- opened it up ...

Stunning! we really do have some great art in our iconography!

anyway-- under the church of St. George - there was a bar called Parathisos ... Paradise ... and you could go swimming there ... my grandfather Elias would take the smaller kids my mom and my uncle Evangelos and go there -- they would take food with them ..but also buy things from Parathisos .... the kids would go swimming ... my grandfather did not swim my mom said ....

my uncle -- the older brother Christos -- from the age of like 13 would play the accordion there ... he played on Wed. Saturday and Sunday and returned home for a couple of days and then back. He slept inside the house of the owner but he just told us that when the owner's daughter got a little older -- he slept on some wood thing outside .... it never rains -- so he was ok.

He would play the accordion, someone else the guitar and folks like my mom's other older brother Iorthanis (who God rest his soul--just passed away from cancer) would dance ....

sounds pretty idyllic and very fun .... we love music and singing and dancing .... and having a good time ...

my uncle Christos also told us that he bugged and bugged his parents to buy him an accordion ... he totally fell in love with the sound he heard one day ... and bugged and bugged for days on end ...he even would walk to Fendikli where my grandfather worked as a truck delivery person .. he delevered wood .... now that was a walk he did each and every day ....

his parents finally broke down and bought him one and then he asked for lessons ... and lessons he got ... he still is an incredible accordion player...

then his accordion got bad and he heard that the president of Turkey was going to either ITally or Germany -- I can not remember ... so he wrote a letter pleading his case ... a few months later.... a knock on the door .... everyone is afraid -- it was sort of the police asking for him ... my grandfather was like ...what do you want with my son ...

so they took him and he had to prove that he could play ... he did and he got a new accordion ... the president asked him to play for his wife while she was having a luncheon and he took his new accordion and off he went ..... cool story, hey ...

He later went to Germany and became a PhD in Chemistry and he just retired from teaching school there....

He also said that they boys there were 4 after all although the youngest probably did not get too involved .... the boys would fight from time to time ... he uncle Christo made Iorthani so so mad one day teasing him over and over again ... that he kicked Christo .... who was very lucky as he was sitting on the couch to have moved his feet ... and Iorthanis feet went through the couch .... guess who got hurt..... hmmmm

The Iorthanis was involved with Thodoros .... the oldest ...they had gotten a grammophone to play records ... and one thing led to another and Iorthanis took it and threw it on the couch .. well that did not hurt it tooo much ... then Thodoros took and threw it on the ground ..... pieces everywhere ...

my grandmother told my grandfather ... something happened but do not worry everyone is ok ...it is only a thing .... I do not know what punishment happened to the boys ....

Let me end here for now and continue on to Greek stories tomorrow by saying that I may not be able to see all of you here in Greece ...

our cell phone for anyone who cares to call is 698 139-75-99 -- from the States I think you call 011-30 - and then the number.
Our home number here --we are only at home in the morning and like after 9 or 10 ... is 9828165 -- from the States 011-30-210-98-28-165

for now ... good bye from HOT HOT HOT Athens ....thank goodness for the low humidity ....
hugs from all of us ...