My mother, when telling stories about her childhood, often tells us stories about the war (WWII). And although the events in the stories are usually unpleasant (being evacuated, Germans occupying your house and sleeping in your bed, bomb in the house, passing by the railway station and seeing Jewish families being horded into cattle wagons, hunger etc), the overall undertone is one of ‘those were the days’.
Today, I was sitting with some colleagues, and I was complaining about the fact that my direct neighbors now all seem to have acquired guns. First we accused the shia in the suburbs of stocking up on weaponry, but now it is clear that all the Lebanese are brandishing arms, and proudly so. Every time a politician gives a speech; his (never a ‘her’, always a ‘his’. I feel that may be part of the problem, But that is a side note) followers pull out the guns from under the bed and start shooting in the air.
“We bought a gun too some time ago,” says colleague #1. “Just in case, but we didn’t get the bullets, so much use is that going to do us.”
Colleague #2 also acquired gun, but she has the feeling that the gun dates from WWI, so that one is a bit of a joke too.
The acquisition of guns is not a new thing. My colleagues obviously have been through this before, some 30 years ago.
Today, I was sitting with some colleagues, and I was complaining about the fact that my direct neighbors now all seem to have acquired guns. First we accused the shia in the suburbs of stocking up on weaponry, but now it is clear that all the Lebanese are brandishing arms, and proudly so. Every time a politician gives a speech; his (never a ‘her’, always a ‘his’. I feel that may be part of the problem, But that is a side note) followers pull out the guns from under the bed and start shooting in the air.
“We bought a gun too some time ago,” says colleague #1. “Just in case, but we didn’t get the bullets, so much use is that going to do us.”
Colleague #2 also acquired gun, but she has the feeling that the gun dates from WWI, so that one is a bit of a joke too.
The acquisition of guns is not a new thing. My colleagues obviously have been through this before, some 30 years ago.
And then the war stories began.
Colleague #1 once lived in an area right between two fighting parties, so the bullets did not come from one side, but two sides. With three small children, and no police force, she woke up in the middle of the night, telling her husband that if anyone would come and knock on the door, they had no protection whatsoever. “Don’t worry,” he told her, “we have a kalashnikoff next to the washing machine.”
The next morning she goes and checks. “Shoe el Kalashnikoff! The thing did not even have a magazin! It was an ornamental object. So I tell my husband; ‘you make us sleep here and the thing doesn’t even have bullets!’, upon which he replies: ‘Ya’ani, do you know how to shoot a gun?”
And the war stories continued flowing.
In the end, we had tears in our eyes from laughing.
“Ah ya, those were the days,” one says.
“And it seems we are returning to it,” replies the other.
That sobering thought got us back to work.
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