The Eighth Tribe, 1980 (7. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1980-03-01 / 3. szám
March. 1QR0 THE EIGHTH TRIBE Page 9 while I was balancing the plate with the pie on one hand and holding onto the tree with the other. As time went by without the two of us getting any closer, Jancsy became bored and soon just stood there looking at me or turning his head and looking at the crowd of people behind the gates who kept teasing him. He might have wondered whether he should leave me alone and try something against those still throwing rocks at him from the distance. Because it turned darker and my arms became tired from holding the plate, I started thinking of a way to get away from the billy-goat. I felt that if I caught him by surprise and rushed across the street while he was looking the other way I could beat him and escape behind one of the gates that were held open for me. At a given moment—as Jancsy didn’t look my way—I started to dash across the street. Under different weather conditions I could have made it easily, but now it was different, for as soon as I had reached the middle of the street I lost one of my boots in the deep mud. When I bent down to pick it up, Jancsy caught up with me and gave me a forceful kick on my bottom, with the effect that I threw the plate with pie and napkin into the ditch filled with muddy water and took a deep dive into the mud head first. As soon as I made an effort to get on my feet I received another hard kick from Jancsy who was standing behind me ready for the next one. He seemed to enjoy his victory. He expressed his satisfaction with continuous bleating. He looked towards the house where people watched with tremendous enjoyment from behind windows and gates this nasty game between me and Jancsy. But after kicking me back into the mud four or five times, the animal became bored with his great victory. He kicked me one more time, then put his front legs on my back and, looking about with his head raised high, he bleated again as if he wanted to let everyone know he was “the greatest.” Then he turned around and depositing a handful of his stinking droppings on my back, left for home without even once looking back. As for me, the situation was pure disaster. I fished my hat out of the mud, also the plate and napkin—never mind the pie—and walked home. My mother didn’t let me inside the house; I had to take my clothes off outside before receiving a good spanking as a reward. People in the village had something to laugh about for weeks to come. * it OLYMPICS At the 1980 Winter Olympics held at Lake Placid, New York, the American athletes received 12 medals, 6 gold and 6 silver. As Americans we are proud for their achievement. But we also are proud of those two young people from Hungary, Krisztina Ragoczy and András Sallay receiving the Silver Medal for Ice Dancing. After the performance the audience booed the judges for they felt that the Hungarians should have received the gold medal instead of the Russians. Since the advent of the modern Olympics in 1896, Hungary has won 105 gold medals, 94 silver medals and 116 bronze medals, even though it did not take part in the 1920 games in Antwerp because of the turmoil following World War I. Its best year was 1952, when it won 16 gold, 10 silver and 17 bronze medals at the Helsinki Games. Hungary’s victories were in sports that are more popular here than in the U. S., such as cycling, fencing, water polo, canoeing and archery. This year it hopes to field an Olympic team of about 200 members. For sport-minded Hungarians, the prospect of an Olympic boycott has emerged as the most dramatic development in the American-Soviet confrontation over the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. This feeling is rooted in Hungary’s massive sports programs and the devotion of its sports fang. According to foreign diplomats and government officials in Hungary is deeply concerned over the political and economic implications of the confrontation. Yet one Western diplomat said: “For the ordinary people, Afghanistan is far away from Budapest, and they seem more confused than worried over what is happening there.” But, sources here say, the threat of a boycott of the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow to protest the Afghanistan invasion has jolted the country’s 10.7 million people. Hungarian sports and government officials have reacted to the boycott campaign with a mixture of anger, bewilderment and threats. “Why do you want to do this to us?” a waiter asked. “We are very deeply shocked,” Arpad Csanadi, head of the Hungarian national Olympic committee and Hungary’s representative on the International Olympic Committee, said in an interview. “We simply cannot imagine such a thing happening. Our people are astonished that President Carter has called for a boycott.”
