THE RIVER

In the summer heat the Maritsa River used to shrink to the size of stream, about three to three and a half metres wide, the rest was sand. This is where we would play our numerous games, like chilik, machka, or buki. While Maritsa was clean, there was a lot of very good fish. When it dried up in the summer we used to play football on the sand. If you felt thirsty, you would dig a hole into the sand until you reached water, you would wait for a while so that it settled down, and you would drink. We drank water from the river. The fish were healthy. It would happen for a client to pop into a restaurant in the morning and order fish for the evening: the owner would then summon a fisherman, the fishermen were walking up and down Opalchenska Street, and would order fish. Off he goes to the river, brings his catch and there is fish for dinner. The fish were perfectly healthy.

From Stoyan Kissikov’s recollections, transcribed by M.K.