MEMORIES

Each year in the middle of December, I start reminiscing the Christmases of my early childhood in India.  The tree, beautifully decorated with ornaments and flashing candles and the great expectation of the visit of Father Christmas who always dropped in with a large bag full on numerous multicoloured parcels with gifts.

My first tricycle was a Christmas present when I was three-years-old, which delighted me and make me so proud of being a big girl.  However, I was told that I had another one when I was almost two, which I, obviously, don’t remember.

The Parthenon at Sunset

The National Archaeological Museum Athens

The years went by, and, as I have previously mentioned, we went on home leave to Greece every two and a half years.  In 1940, we left Karachi on a Peninsular and Oriental vessel called Celicia and after twelve days of smooth sailing, we arrived at Port Said where we disembarked.  From there we boarded a Greek ship and sailed, with choppy waters, to Piraeus.  We stayed for fifteen days in Athens and we saw the Parthenon and the Archaeological Museum, visited our dear relatives and friends and then we left for our island, Cephalonia.

Argostoli

Pre-Earthquake Argostoli

The Corialenius Library

Argostoli

Platis Yialos

Argostoli was a beautiful small port and the capital of the island. Built amphitheatrically it is surrounded by mountains and verdant forests.  Then, it had blooming parks and magnificent buildings constructed so many years ago according to Venetian and, later, to Neoclassical Architectures.   Yellow, sandy beaches run across the coastline and I still recollect the great pleasure I felt when I swam and splashed in the deep blue Ionian Sea, at Plati Yialos.

Meanwhile, a terrible war was raging in central Europe, between England, France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxumber on one hand and Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy on the other.  It was a devastating war, which is still considered "the deadliest combat in human history."  

Most Greeks, living in a fool’s paradise, refused to believe that the Italians and the Germans would attack a small country like ours, despite the fact that the Italians had already torpedoed a light cruiser of the Royal Greek Marine, called Ellie. 

Unfortunately, Mussolini declared war on Greece, on the 28^th October 1940.  As the Italians had, already, invaded France, British Somaliland and Egypt, they considered Greece an exceptionally easy target.

Although greatly outnumbered, the Greek forces fought bravely and successfully and they advanced deep into Albania, to the admiration of both allies and foes.  This compelled Hitler to send German reinforcements to support the Italians so, unfortunately, Greece was occupied by the axis, during the early spring 1941, despite unrelenting resistance and bravery, as mentioned above.

Naturally, we were devastated by the turn of events but also very proud of our armed forces.  During the occupation, not only did the Nazis embezzle the bullion from the Greek state, requisition houses and stole cars from individuals but they also stripped the land and shops of food in order to provide nourishment for their own troops.

My parents and I, obviously, did not return to India as planned, so we were compelled to stay in Argostoli during World War II, with terrible consequences.  Our house was requisitioned by the Italians and as the drachma was daily. greatly devalued, my parents’ money was just enough to buy a pound of pulses.  As we were in deep poverty, my mother's jewellery and several paintings were sold for peanuts.  My father had a friend, Dr Marketos, who offered us a flat in the middle of the town. My mother’s cousin and dear friend, Cosmetos Cosmetatos, and his wife Evanthia, who had a farm just outside the town, brought milk, for me, every day and a basket of fruit and vegetables every weekend.  Moreover, because he spoke French like a Frenchman he tried to teach me the language with frequent lessons. We were always deeply grateful to the doctor’s and my uncle’s and aunt's thoughtfulness and generosity.  

Christmas 1941 was bleak and cold, but my parents insisted that we should try to enjoy ourselves, almost, like pre-war times.  My mother made soap with aromatic herbs as gifts and she knitted a fantastic pink cardigan for me. She, also, served us a delicious bean soup, piping hot, and my uncle brought a bottle of red wine to celebrate the occasion.  My dear cousins Ioanna Papas, her husband Vassilis and her sister Aliki baked a bobota, a cake with cornmeal and brought it with them.  So we had a wonderful Christmas, full of fun and laughter, despite the difficulties.

Auckland House School Simla

 When the war ended in1945, we went back to India and I was sent to Simla, a hill station in the Himalayas, to attend Auckland House School for two years. I always returned home for the Christmas holidays and went back to school by the end of February. This was planned so that children would not be spending the extremely hot, tropical summers in the plains. 

In August 1947, India was liberated from the British rule but was, separated into Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan. As we were living in Karachi which was then the capital of Pakistan, I, unfortunately, never returned to Simla, which I loved so much.

Alexandra College Dublin Earlsfort Terrace Dublin

I attended the Karachi Grammar School for one year and then I went to Alexandra College, Dublin, for two years.  I wished to continue my studies in history in Trinity College but my parents were adamant, so it was out of the question. Instead, I went to a finishing school, called Irena, in Neuchatel, Switzerland for a year.  We had a lovely time improving our French, studying French literature, and taking music and elementary cooking lessons which were called l’Art de la Cuisine! We went to the theatre, to fashion shows, and skiing in Arosa.  For Christmas, I travelled by train to London where my parents were staying.  London was. then, a lovely, busy and bustling city but still so devastatingly destroyed by the blitz.  

After the end of the school year, I flew back to Karachi and I was delighted to meet my parents and old friends.  I, fortunately, found a fantastic job with the Belgian Embassy in Pakistan, settled down beautifully and made many new friends.  Christmas came once again and was celebrated with parties and official balls, where I had a wonderful time, dancing with my friends until dawn.

Argostoli after the 1953 Earthquakes

When we went on home leave in 1953, we first arrived in London, then we travelled to Venice, with which I fell in love, and finally, we sailed to our island Cephalonia, beautiful as always and packed with tourists.  On the 14^th August a monstrous earthquake, measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale, rocked and flattened Cephalonia, Zakynthos and Ithaki, leaving 600 dead and many injured. A terrifying, horrible disaster.  After a few days, we left for Athens and Loutraki, a spa in the Peloponnese, only two hours away from Athens.  We were invited by Aleco Cocalis, one of my father’s young colleagues, to meet his family in Kifissia.  We had a wonderful time and when I told Aleco how much I loved Venice he promised to take me there one day.   

 We returned to Pakistan and on the 8^th of June 1954, I got married to Aleco, the love of my life.  We were extremely happy, very much in love, and as we were, apparently, rather popular, we were invited daily to parties and official receptions.   We spent Christmas with my parents and my mother, with the help of her cook Hussain, prepared, among other delicacies, the traditional turkey, with Greek stuffing with minced meat, pine nuts, raisins and chestnuts, and of course Christmas pudding, pineapple sorbet, a superb chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream. We were invited for New Year’s eve at the Dendrinos, a wonderful, elegant Greek couple, and had a fantastic time, as always.   Alec Dendrinos was Aleco’s boss and we were very fond both of him and his lovely wife Pitsa. 

Just before leaving for home leave, in 1956, thanks to the Dendrinos who were both Corfiots, we rented a small country house by the sea, in the village of Perama, in Corfu.  We also ordered a Fiat Cinquecento from Turin.  We sailed to Italy by Victoria, a Lloyd Triestino cruiser, arrived at Genoa after 12 days and then, we immediately left for Turin to collect our new car. 

The Family House in Kefalari Kifissia

We decided to visit the South of France, so we spent a wonderful week on the French Riviera and then we crossed over to the Italian Riviera, Porto Fino, Santa Margarita and Cinque Terre.  We also visited Piza on our way back to Genoa, where we boarded a ship for Piraeus, which was our final destination.  Aleco’s brothers Pericles and Nico, were there to meet us and we drove to Kifissia where we were welcomed by my Mother-in-law and my sisters-in-law Dolly and Cleo.  They are wonderful, warmhearted people and the girls, over the years, became my best friends. We were terribly spoiled by all the family and after spending a lovely Easter in Kifissia, we left for Corfu.

"Our Beach" as it is Today

Corfu was a revelation for me, it was such a beautiful island,   Aleco had very fond memories of the town, where he had lived with his family when he was a child.  Early every morning we used to sit on the patio, with a cup of coffee, waiting for the sun to rise over the mountains of Albania, across the glittering blue Ionian Sea.  Then, we went swimming on "our beach” and later we either visited local landmarks or explored the countryside.  Corfu is a gem of a town, with beautiful architecture and very interesting and friendly residents.  Everybody thoroughly enjoys visiting both the town and the island, young and old, sportsmen and intellectuals, artists and bons viveurs, even students on a very low budget.

The Dendrinos introduced us to their friends, and as Corfiots are very hospitable, we were often invited to their homes and parties and, to our great joy, we soon became part of the crowd.   We often met with Tony and Ellie Palatianos and their young son.  Also, the Manessi brothers with their charming wives and mother often invited us to their beautiful homes.  We went swimming together and they taught us underwater fishing, which for many years was our favourite sport.  Also, Jenny Samandaris and her Italian husband Carlo held two large cocktail parties that summer and often had us over for the most delicious meals.  I must, also, mention a naval officer, Dimitris Soutsos, a childhood friend of Pitsa, who was, then, the aide-de-camp of King Paul I.  He used to, frequently, pick us up in his speed-boat and we visited small coves to which no roads led to.

We left Corfu with great regret and sailed to Cephalonia, which was desperately trying to heal its wounds from the massive earthquakes that struck and flattened the island in 1953.  With deep sorrow, I showed Aleco where our house and important landmarks of the town had been before the disaster and he was shocked by the destruction.   Most of the houses were being reconstructed according to very strict anti-earthquake specifications, so there was an orgy of building going on.

My parents, who were also on home leave, were living in a makeshift concrete building, so we stayed with them.   We visited relatives and dear friends whom I was delighted to see and recollected events that had happened when we were children, during the Italian and German occupation.   We visited most of the beautiful Cephalonian beaches and went underwater fishing with an old friend, Spyros Cosmetatos, and we were very happy and proud of catching a large number of various kinds of fish. 

Our home leave was coming to an end, so we had to return to Kifissia.  As I have already mentioned above, our destination would not be Karachi which we loved, but Mombassa, Kenya.  Several years later, we were very happy, indeed, with this transfer because we lived in two beautiful East African cities, Mombasa, where our son Spyros was born, and Kampala in Uganda.

In early September 1956, we bid tearful (on my part) farewells to our family and friends in Kifissia and boarded a BOAC aircraft for Kenya.  After 12 hours we arrived at Eastleigh airport near Nairobi.  My first impression was the colour of the runway, which consisted of compact "murram", as the red East African soil is called.

We were warmly welcomed by an English couple, we had known from Pakistan, who was then with Ralli Bros. East Africa, and we remembered events and situations that we had shared in the not so distant past. Then, we boarded a British East African plane that took us to our destination.

Kenya

Mr D C Sevastopoulos and his charming wife, Betty, were there to meet us and took us over to their house for a huge breakfast.  Soon after, we went to a lovely small bungalow on Mbuyuni Road which the company provided for us, fully furnished, with a cook and bearer.  Our little Fiat 500, that we had bought the previous summer from Turin, was shipped over, and we were delighted to have with us, as we considered it part of the family

The garden of the bungalow was quite large with beautiful tropical trees and shrubs.  But the earth was just a thin layer of murram covering a coral substructure.  This was a great challenge for my husband who had the prospects of a keen gardener so, by changing the soil and a lot of hard work he managed to grow a lush, green lawn which became our pride and joy.

Elephant Tusks on a Busy Mombasa Avenue

Malindi Beach

We loved Mombasa, a beautiful city with a medieval Arab town and lovely. white sandy beaches, like Malindi, which we visited every Saturday.  As a coral reef protected the shore from sharks we went underwater fishing and caught white snappers, kingfish and stingrays that were very tasty either poached or grilled.   We also went on a glass-bottomed boat to catch a glimpse of marine life, such as multi-coloured tropical fish and purple sea urchins.

We made life long friends with people of various nationalities.  We invited friends over for lunch and dinner and attended tremendous parties.  As Mombasa was a very busy port we were often invited aboard luxury ships for cocktails and fabulous food.

Libro d'Oro de la Noblesse de Chios by Philip Argentis

La Famille Calvocoressi

I wish to thank the Sevastopoulos for their support, especially Betty who helped me settling down.  We went shopping together, she introduced me to many interesting women and gave me subtle advice with the house.  As Aleco and Mr Sevastopoulos were both from Chios, he showed us a book by Philip Argenti that included the history and family trees of twelve families from the island.  Besides being the manager of Ralli Bros, he was also a very famous entomologist, specialising in moths and butterflies.

I am extremely embarrassed with my fading memory for not remembering the name of a Greek couple who had a chic boutique with women’s clothing, in Mombasa, with whom we were very friendly and who had several very elegant dresses made for me.  Shame on me.       

To be continued