Julija & Algimantas GRIGONIS
As is true for most of us, the biggest
influences in my life as an Australian born Lithuanian, were my parents Julija
and Algimantas Grigonis.
Most of my generation typically started school
in Australia with no English but went on to become very articulate in English
and to do well academically.
Mum and Dad's generation were all
bilingual as a minimum, but many were multilingual before they even came to Australia
with English becoming their 3rd, 4th or more language. Hearing a variety of
languages from an early age may well have sparked my interest in later language
study.
Going to Lithuanian school on
Saturdays at Lithuanian House was not always what we wanted to do as some of
the classes were not easy and we needed help with homework which was often very
hard especially for History as I struggled to understand what we had to read.
How Lithuanian grammar works did not
fall into place for me until I started Latin in high school when it all became
abundantly clear. I can still decline
and conjugate much better in Latin than in Lithuanian, but I understand that
this kind of thing is often typical of native speakers of almost any language
when it comes to grammar.
We had to catch two buses each way to
Lithuanian school which was quite an undertaking back in the 1950s when I was
only 9 and taking my sisters with me on the bus. Luckily, we sometimes had Mr Kubilius, Mr
Pakalnis, or other Lithuanian drivers kind enough to let us out at Eastry
Street past the actual bus stop and not always ask us to buy a ticket.
Dad had taken us the first couple of
times to show us the way. After that we
got used to the going back and forth.
At some stage Dad bought a car and drove
us there. I still often take the same
route along Payneham and George Streets to Sydenham Road and Gray Street.
My family had little by way of
material goods, but Dad was a good musician and we grew up with lots of books
and music.
Packages of books from Lithuania,
especially from Senelis Matas Grigonis were special as were the postcards he
sent. I still have several of mine on which he wrote poems and stories. His
language was beautiful but then he was a known wordsmith with a lot of his work
having been published in Lithuania. Dad
told us a lot about him and we had books such as Žemuogėlės, Algimantelio
Metai, volumes of children's poetry. Senelis
Matas was Lithuania's first poet who wrote specifically for children. He wrote many letters and articles for
magazines. I learned much more about his
work as an adult but as a child I knew that Dad's Dad was someone special and
that fostered my own interests in words, languages, translation and being a
bookworm. At age six I decided I wanted to be a teacher
and Senelis wrote that I had made a good choice. Although it did not come to
pass I have always been interested in education and have pursued language
studies along the way.
I finished Lithuanian school in 1962
and still have the certificate.
Many of us still have friends from
those days. We might not meet that often, but we remain friends.
I am also very glad to have had Ponia
Jurgelionienė teach me how to weave and I still know how.
Dad played music every day. He played violin, accordion, ocarina, mandolin
but we mostly heard the accordion.
He also had a lot of records including
Lithuanian 78s. Some are now collectors' items.
We often stayed late after Lithuanian
School on Saturdays as Dad played music for folk-dancing practice which I loved
to watch.
I got to know the music and dances
well but was never in the dancing group as we did not have tautiniai
rubai/national dress.
Dad taught us songs at Lithuanian
school and at home, which was not always fun, but I still remember most of the
melodies if not all the words.
It was also usually Dad who scolded us
for not speaking Lithuanian at home. "Nesuprantų!" (I do not
understand!)
We attended Vasario 16, Motinos Diena,
Tremimo Minejimas, Tautos Šventė , Tevo Diena, Kariuomenės Švente and other
events for many years. Some of the
speeches were very long but we loved the 'meninė dalis' especially the dancing.
Later on, we also joined ALSK Vytis
and played basketball for quite a few years.
Volunteers took us to training and
games as Dad did not have a car at the time.
Dad told us about living in Panevežys
and his Dad being school principal at the various towns in which they had lived
such as Rožalimas, Anykščiai and Panevežys. Today there are plaques on the walls of the
houses indicating that Poet, Author, Teacher, Pedagogue Matas Grigonis had
resided there and the dates.
Dad hardly mentioned anything of his
time as a Plechavičiukas. All we heard from him was that he was in and out of three
armies within a year; Plechavicius for which he volunteered, German
(conscripted) and Red (conscripted). He
deserted the Red Army and never went back to Lithuania even when it was
possible, as the Red authorities had long memories and he was sure that they
would lock him up. That was really sad as he had left home for the war effort
at age 16 and never saw his family again.
Dad was part of the group in Adelaide
who started the local Lithuanian radio program. He worked on it for 15 years
and created a complete archive of all the programs on tapes. After his death a selected few ended up in the
Mortlock Library in South Australia while his lifelong friend Vytas Patupas
sent the rest (over 700) to Martyno Mažvydo Biblioteka in Lietuva/Lithuania. I
heard the late Gabrielius Žemkalnis mention that they were there during one of
his programs in which he spoke about the Mazvydo library. Dad also sang in the choir for several years
and was very involved with Adelaide's Lithuanian theatre group Vaidila, for
which he prepared sound effects for many years.
Mum's maiden name was Žiukelytė. She
told us about being born in Žiukeliškes (there were so many Žiukeliai that
there was even a village named after them!) and growing up in Dūsetos. When the lake froze over in winter she and her
brothers watched horses in harness racing on the ice. That event happens every year on the first
Saturday in February even now and is know as Sartai. Dusetos is on the shores of Sartu Ežeras/Lake
Sartai.
Winters were very cold and Mum and her
siblings had to cover up very well to prevent frostbite on the tips of their
noses.
We learned about her older sisters Karūte
and Marytė, brothers Vladas and Rapolas plus sister Elenutė who had died at age
20 from TB. Among the few possessions Mum had brought all the way from
Lithuania via Germany was a photo album which she showed us. We learned about
the people in them and what our grandparents looked like. They both died just before WWII. During our childhood the names and faces were
only in photos and we never knew if it would be possible to meet our extended
family. We learned that Dusetos is in
pretty countryside, very green and a lovely town. Mum went to live and work in
Kaunas. She worked in a bookshop and
devoured books all her life.
Mum was a member of Moterų Sėkcija for
several years.
One of my earliest memories of both
Mum and Dad is from when we had moved from the city to Hillcrest. I was not quite four years old . Mum taught me
how to dance Suktinis while singing Bitutė Pilkoji, plus Klumpakojis and its
song, with Dad's accompaniment on the accordion.
We also knew songs like Ant kalno
murai, Ant kalno karkliai siubavo long before singing them at school. Tautos Himnas was also in my head long before
I really understood it but that happens with many songs and poems. When Dad
took us for drives, we sang in the car. A favourite was Išėjo Tevelis į miška.
Childhood rhymes are still in my head
eg. Lyja lietus per karaliaus pietus, Karalienė verkia, Karaliukai knarkia.
(like It's raining, It's pouring).
I tried hard to speak Lithuanian but
it wasn't easy when English dominated at school and with neighbours. Plus when our brother Algiukas was little,
those who supposedly 'know' advised that two languages in the home were
delaying his speaking. English had to
take priority which was very disappointing for Mum and Dad. We all know that
"Bilingual is beautiful"! Ironically when Algis grew up he understood
Lithuanian quite well. The psychologist's advice was wrong.
Reasonable proficiency in Lithuanian
language was a huge help on my first trip to Europe in 1975 when I met Mum's
brother Vladas in Munich and spoke Lithuanian with him and his friends. My German was limited. Uncle Vladas took me to Lietuva where I met
many people who had till that time simply been faces in photos. Being able to communicate with them was
wonderful and even though I made mistakes, Močiutė Jadvyga Grigonienė was
amazed that I could speak the language at all. She also remarked that I spoke old fashioned Lithuanian
as the language over there had changed over the previous 30 years.
I am the only grandchild born in
Australia who met Močiutė albeit for just 7 days. While I was there, Uncle Kastytis organised a
phone call to Adelaide and Močiutė got to speak with Dad once again. Many years later Dad rang his brother Kastytis
when Lithuania had regained independence in 1991.
I was so glad that I went to Lietuva
back in 1975 and met so many members of the extended family on both sides. I made a few more trips too, the last one
having been in 2000 so I must go again. Contact
with relatives continues and quite a few are on Facebook!
I will forever be grateful to Mum and
Dad for telling us so much about their lives and families before they came to
Australia. They fostered my love and interest in my Lithuanian heritage,
language, history, people and our culture, including great food.
Happily, Mum was able to see her
sister Marytė again after 49 years when my sister Dana took her to Lietuva in
1993.
Much of my appreciation of being
Lithuanian grew as I became an adult, but the seeds were sown right from the
start as in the few examples I have outlined.
It is a major part of what makes me
who I am.
An Australian friend once told me that
I was so lucky to have this special cultural identity with its traditions.
I know!
AČIU MAMA IR TĖTĖ!
Juratė Grigonytė
