1985
When I was roughly three years old, I noticed something uncanny about the world. Grownups seemed to have it all. They could stay up late, eat what and when they wanted and they were constantly ordering us kids to do this and that. Somehow I think the cause of my rebellion was the abduction of Tedo, my favorite bedsheet that I carried around at all times. Poor Tedo was not unjustifiably abducted. After dragging him behind almost everywhere I went, he had quickly become filthy and full of stains. So, logically, his next adventure was getting thoroughly washed and hung to dry among the other sheets and white clothes.
Twice my mother brought me to the terrace to see that he was well and enjoying the breeze with his friends. But I felt betrayed and missed him horribly. I dragged my misery from room to room crying audibly till my resourceful grandma mediated the situation by cutting the now dry Tedo into six pieces, sewing their frayed edges and handing me one to carry around. Then she showed me the drawer where the other five small Tedos “slept” and reassured me that I would never have to miss him again.
While I ran happily with my new smaller Tedo tied around my neck like a cape and feeling quite invincible, I did not forget my mission to fix the injustice between children and grownups. Years later I recruited my sister and my mom’s best friend’s two sons to the P.A.G (Party Against Grownups), or K.E.M (Κόμμα Εναντίον Μεγάλων), in Greek.
Our liberation front had three main goals. One was to find out what grownups did when us kids were forced to go to bed. My theory was that, away from our watchful eyes, they were all going to the nearby amusement park and playing till dawn. We set out to find evidence to support that.
The second goal was to find logical arguments to object to their tyrannical orders. On a small piece of paper we wrote all kinds of possible excuses to avoid brushing our teeth, eating vegetables, and of course to abolish all schools; first in Greece, then the rest of the world.
I copied the language from KKE (Greek Communist Party) pamphlets I had found in my uncle’s car and adjusted it to suit our noble cause. Soon enough, we were creating our own material. Like the hand-painted flyers we occasionally wedged between windshields and hastily stuffed in neighbors’ mail boxes. At some point we even stuck a few dozen posters on electricity poles, recruiting even more children. We then expanded our cause to ecological demands such as the protection of the Caretta Caretta sea turtles and Mediterranean monk seals.
Some of our slogans were as bold as “Use your feet not your cars!!! You make our city dirty,” ‘’Resist the tyranny of the grownups,” and ‘’Dessert before dinner” which was, incidentally, the third and final mission of P.A.G/K.E.M. Although our parents were adamantly against it then, a belated victory occurred. In solidarity with my childhood comrades, dessert precedes most of my meals till this day.
