Childhood nostalgia - Karolina Skorek

27 Nov Childhood nostalgia

Posted at 13:55h in ART 717, Photography, Research, Work in Progress by 0 Comments

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I was born during the era of big shifts and political changes in Poland. 1985- the down of Communism. Did it affect the way I see the world around me? Probably. My parents definitely did. With their love for storytelling, fairytales and magic, I have to say the way I was brought up has influenced how I see the world.

I don’t really remember anything from that time… I remember a child asking my mother what I was eating (when I was munching on a yellow banana). I remember the carefree summers when my grandma took me to her mother to a countryside, and the fact I punched a girl in her nose in a kinder garden, because she was bullying me; okey I punched her about 3 weeks after she was stealing all my toys, but I wish I could see this as an observer… a little curly haired girl in red overalls with a blue train on them gets up from a floor where she was playing and smacks the not expecting kid in her face… I think I broke her nose back then… when I was asked why I did it – I simply said my mom told me to defend myself so I did… (well my mom probably meant that I should not allow her to bully me when it happens- but still).

I recently had a chance to visit the countryside where I did spend a good amount of my childhood school breaks. I had so many strange memories coming back to me, associated with sounds, or smells…

The house of my great-grandmother did not change a single bit.

The little wooden house in the village, no running water, no toilets.
There are so many little scenes from that place that I remember… Running away from my “brother” to go and play with my friends. Adventures when I could go next to a tiny river that was behind the house, and trips that felt like a huge distance but in reality were a minute away from the house. The summer school disco that my friends invited me to, and we danced to Backstreet Boys; drawing in the evening and the smell of the house. I cant put my finger on what the smell is… its a mixture of old house and dust, the wood burning stove, the freshly cut grass and my grandmothers cooking and the lime they used for protecting the walls. Oh! and that time when a circus arrived in the village but in the mid show the place had an electricity black out.