Volume 2, Issue 2
May 2009
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There’s just more time in the winter months to think. Only a short stroll through Roda triggers off a memory barrage – events, times, and most of all people, some still with us, others gone, but all forever associated with the village. For instance, it’s easy to recall a slowly promenading figure in a white suit, jacket thrown like a cape over the shoulders, extra-long cigarette loosely held in a hand, regally acknowledging friends and strangers alike as he threaded his way through the crowded streets. Who was this dandy? … why, ‘Captain Costa’ of course – he of the boat-trips – with his blaze of pure white hair shooting from the temple into his otherwise black wavy mane, with impossibly white teeth gleaming beneath the sturdy moustache and deep suntan, he is on his nightly stroll through the cafes & bars avariciously sizing up and blatantly canvassing potential business for his boat much to the fury of the owners of these establishments. Costas was convinced that his mere presence was sufficient to the economy of the village and never, repeat never, purchased so much as a lemonade all evening.
Glowering at this languidly strutting countryman over the top of a tightly clenched small bottle of Amstel, you might have seen Adonis of the horse-trekking centre in any one of a number of hostelries – his favourite being the Afroditi – growling his displeasure at Costa’s flagrant poaching in what he considered to be his exclusive marketplace and complaining, as usual, that his beer wasn’t cold enough. Hardly surprising, as Adonis forever encased his bottle in his fist, only occasionally taking gulps and, within a very short time the beer surrendered to the outside temperature and his body heat but, of course, the blame was laid squarely with the lazy barman, inefficient brewery and corrupted government. This was typically Adonis, the ‘face’ of Roda, almost the first person people looked for on arrival in the village. We all had dealings with this wheeler-dealer, whether you booked for his horses, needed a change of apartment, or a mini-moke (jeep) when none were available. Adonis would always ‘fix it’, not cheaply, but it would be done against all odds, and all with a sincere, humble, almost philanthropic
demeanour, that the twinkle in those deep, dark eyes almost completely contradicted, and instead warned, ‘beware of this man – he can reorganise religions’.
Just two of the great characters of Roda – Titans in their own right – both sadly no longer with us, but indelibly imprinted, with fondness, in our minds.
Just two of the great characters of Roda – Titans in their own right – both sadly no longer with us, but indelibly imprinted, with fondness, in our minds.
Ghosts by Des Nouvel
Sketch by Des Nouvel
