Weddings.
When I was little, I used to go play with my friend Aza in the market. (My parents thought I was wandering the River Street.) Aza was a lot of fun. She wore bright stuff and big skirts and she was really really funny.
Aza’s parents and her numerous cousins and sisters all worked in the marketplace, selling stuff. And sometimes they would swarm a person and then we all would have to go to a different spot in the market. All of Aza’s male relatives kind of looked alike. Even the ones that weren’t really related. Same dark hair, same kind of clothes. I asked her once about it and she said that it makes it harder to tell them apart.
Aza’s grandma was my favorite. She was this cool old lady who sold cooked sunflower seeds by the glass from a big bag and read your fortune if you were really good. Aza’s grandma had the prettiest cards and they didn’t look like regular cards, and some of them had naked people on them, which was all sorts of cool. She thought I had pretty hair and a pretty face. In Russian families it’s often considered bad luck to compliment children’s appearance, so that was all new to me and within a couple of visits she pretty much had her eating out of her hand. I was a very obedient little girl and they did all sorts of crazy stuff, which made me feel, I don’t know, alive. I actually learned how to watch the marks’ faces. Give me a deck of tarot cards, and I will take all of your money. 
I hung out with Aza for so long, I actually got invited to her sister’s wedding. Her sister was sixteen, which I thought was really young, only three years older than me. I asked Aza how that was going to work with school and was told that her sister hasn’t been to school since she was ten. Shocking! I asked if that was okay, and Aza assured me that her sister was a really good bride and you really only had to do three grades. She apparently didn’t go to school either.
The wedding was a huge deal. Aza’s sister had an enormous dress, and everybody was drinking and they were very happy.
And then they kind of had to move, because militia came and started asking all sorts of questions. Aza promised that they would be back to the marketplace the next year, but I didn’t see the tabor next year.
Yesterday my husband sent me this.
Dear English Gypsies! Please invite me to your wedding. I’ve already been to one and I would really like to go again.
Oh man, Ilona. Your stories about your childhood always stir something in me.
I wish mine had been eventful as yours.
*sighs wistfully*
And when we meet someday, I’ll be sure to have a tarot deck with me. *wink*
Most of it was boring and full of work. I just remember shiny pieces because that’s all I have left at this point.
Agreed! Ilona’s stories about her childhood are so entertaining. She keeps us enthralled!
I’m not sure who’d I’d slap first — that Missy girl or her father. O_O
I wanted to be a gypsy so badly when I was young (I didn’t even know what they were, but Barbara Cartland made them sound so romantic — and exactly like you describe, that being around them would make you somehow more alive.) Or a wild girl, so that I could be a female Tarzan. I ran away into the woods once, hoping to make friends with all the animals, but it was raining and cold, so I came back. Sigh. If only I’d stayed, I’d be friends with the beavers and coyotes now.
And, my Indian in-laws also consider it bad luck to compliment a child (appearance or otherwise). It seriously took a while before me saying to my daughter “You’re so cute” or “so smart” before my MIL stopped clutching her chest. (I exaggerate … only a little.) She doesn’t so much anymore.
Well, she probably does on the inside.
WOW that wedding was ridiculously extravagant hahaha DAM!!! I wonder what they would think of my wedding which took place in my kitchen with my parents and close friends hahahaha no joke I’m serious!!!!! But it was the best and I would never forget it….we didn’t even have a reception!!! We went to go eat to San pedro and from there we took off to Catalina islands for a whole week
love your story Ilona!!!!
Wow… I don’t know what to say. I can’t decide what’s worse, the nine year old guests in biki tops, high heels, and make-up or the 10ft wide train that took 10 guests to manuever. Different strokes for Different folks.
“Different strokes for Different folks.”
lol, true. My middle-class sensibilities are like: FOR A WEDDING? But of course the same thing is true of my husband’s family: if possible, they’d have had something just as huge and extravagant, because the wedding itself is such a big deal. I’d need smelling salts to deal with the bills and the guilt; they’d think it was all the best thing ever, and absolutely proper.
Alas, despite my dreams as a child, I wouldn’t have made a good gypsy
Wow. That’s one heck of a wedding there. And fun story, Ilona. However, I am making a note to never let you tell my fortune. I would be sad if you took all my money. Though, to be honest, $10 wouldn’t get you much.
Am I the only one that thinks the chick in the picture doesn’t look 16? lol.. the only word for that story is YIKES!!(and a dismayed sigh)
My family is from eastern europe. (Hungary, Romania).. our outfits for a wedding looked more like peasant garb than anything in that picture. Couldn’t imagine attaching myself to someone at 16, I was a huge pain the ass. (still am to some degree)
Must be nice to have money like that to umm use (err squander).
When I was in high school, Mom made the mistake of saying, “If I had it to do again, I’d wear blue jeans.” My response? “You just remember you said that!”
heh. She lived to regret it.
=A
Speechless! That dress *shakes head* just don’t get it. I wasn’t allowed to date till I was 18!
And I am so not trying to be a perv, but I can’t get the image of boobs out of my head! When did 16 yr olds start looking like that? Now that’s an eyeful! WOW!
IMHO she didn’t get much for her £16,000! Could have gotten the same effect for far less money (crop tops and mini skirts can be gotten quite cheaply at the mall). If I’m plunking down £16,000 (what’s that in US dollars? 30,000 or so?) I want way more fabric in the DRESS! But I’m weird that way…
I want to go to a gypsy wedding too.
I saw that article awhile back. I’m not sayin anything…..
wow thats a little ridiculous….but I guess if you can afford it whatever you want goes.
Well now, here’s the most awesome geeky dress: http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/13/dress-lit-up-with-24-000-leds-perfect-for-your-next-formal-rave