DUGI OTOK

(LONG ISLAND, in Croatian)

T THE RIGHT is an image of the bay view on Dugi Otok, off the Dalmatian coast of Croatia, near the port city of Zadar. Dugi Otok is about 27 miles long and is a thin sliver of a long island - hence the name. Marijan, senior, was born there in 1911, when it was still a part of the Austria-Hungarian Empire. He took my younger brother Dennis and my mother for a visit in 1969. At the time my family visited, the way the compound got its water was for the teenage girls to take some goats and goatskins down the path to the centuries old cistern where people in that area got water. Once the goatskins were filled with H20, they would be draped over the goats, with the goats being led back up the hill. I presume the presence of goats, means that my father's homefolks include goat cheese in their diet.The socialist government of the former Yugoslavia replaced the original rock lining of the cistern with concrete, but other wise at the time of my family's visit, the traditonal method of water "gathering" was still employed. Olives were grown. There is an olive press so the people can make their own olive oil. I am nearly the age my parents were when my brother Dennis took this photograph in 1969. I wonder sometimes if I will ever get to visit. The pictures and the stories I've been told make me want to go there for a while. Of course, I'd like to find the place near Krakow, Poland, my mother's folks came from, too. These photos remind me of places I've seen in Northern New Mexico. While my mother, father, and younger brother - who took most of these pictures - visited dad's ancestral home, some of his relatives got married. That's what's happening here. Since this time, my father made a solo visit, with the winnings from a $1000 NJ LOTTO ticket, and my younger brother, Dennis got to visit our uncle Marco, who was still alive in the early nineties. I learned that my other uncle, Fabian, owned a two wheeled wooden push-cart called an OKOLICKO (surprise!) in Croatian, because one would push it "around" - the basic meaning of okolicko. We, the three Kolic sons were learning about our heritage in bits and pieces. Robert Hunter, webmaster for Dead.net, has included my account of the day Marijan, Senior died in his Library of the Uncanny. Scroll down the page until you see this: Jesse Slokum sent us this literal spine tingler...Give some of the other stories a look-see. Note that he invites submissions from reader/visitors... For other people named Kolic (pronounced Koal-itch), or for those curious about Mariners in general (and sometimes, with my father's sailing heritage, I feel - on a bad day, of course - as if I am the Ancient Mariner in Coleridge's long narrative poem, "The Rhyme of The Ancient Mariner" - lost among a nation of people most of whom have forgotten where their ancestors haled from...talk about Stoney Lonesome!), you'll be interested in this! Below, is a less festive, but still happy gathering. This is the one time my mother would get to visit her inlaws - she's not had a chance to visit Poland, yet. The full image is 21k That's grandma Kolic in front between Ma'n'Pa, the two elder women in widow's black are dad's aunts , plus various other kin. This photo dates from 1969. Note the laundry hanging to dry in the tree branches... Lake of PEACE -- DUGI OTOK Speaking of bits of a puzzle, here's a homeland link to Dugi Otok and other Islands off the Dalmatian coast. The Lake of Peace is indeed stunning, isn't it? Click the foto for some info on the island. Just scroll down the page until you see the Island of IZ. Dugi OTOK is the next one. Thanks to a young signer of my guest book, Jelena, I now have this link, and even a chance to learn some croatian from her website! I want to go there, and swim, IMMERSE MYSELF in the WATERS of PEACE. SHALOM. SALAM, PACEM... This list will grow...rest assured. Somehow, I'm going to get to Dugi Otok, and Next year would be such a great time to make my first trip to Europe...who knows, maybe you will see me busk my way from London and Paris, through Germany and Poland, and on down to Slovenia, where I have a friend who studied at IU for a while. Then, what I'd really like to do is play Zagreb, Zadar, Belgrade, Dubrovnik, Sarajevo, and Pristina. Maybe, If I start with The Lake of Peace, it'll all FLOW from there...Now, Through the wonders of the Internet, I have another look at Lake Mir (PEACE), this from a distance overlooking the sea...another descandant of Dugi Otok found this page Trough a search engine and contacted me....she's just returned from a visit to her folks, and sent a few foto images....Sea, cliff and Lake MIR.   Image is 48k Here's an English language travel guide description.

Now you can

walk the "cyber" rail
to a "ghost" town!

To my visitors from Robert Hunter's Library of the Uncanny:
This takes you back! Right to where you were in my spine tingling tale!!	Are You Intrepid? Experience Nobody Special Dancing with the Dead!
Fret not! You'll be able to return to the Library of the Uncanny directly from the next page...