
THE COLLECTION OF MEMORIES
THE COLLECTION OF MEMORIES

Mom has always asked: „What is this man’s errant, doesn’t he have any peace at all?“ And the three of us, knew his destination on Sunday morning very well, with pleasure we were waiting to see what will he bring us this time. Whenever there was a fair in the village, or in the town, and not just any fair, but the one selling old furniture, our father was there. True, my mom was sometimes annoyed by that, especially in the winter when it would be the most sensible to leave the car in the garage, but it was often just not possible because of the things our father put there. Once he brought just a small engraved wooden box which may not have any value for others, but he knew that each of these things will fit perfectly one day in our wooden house he dreamed about. He used to say: „Do not worry, wait a bit longer and I’ll move it to a better place.“, and mum would say “Thank God”, because those things piled everywhere. They didn’t make any sense to her. But she didn’t know his intentions.
At the time, he heard about the sale of one wooden house in the nearby village Mraclin, but he was not sure exactly where it was. As he wasn’t sure about the place, one afternoon he asked us to keep him company. We drove and drove, and then my mother suddenly shouted; “Stop”. On the left, a little set back, there was a huge wooden house, perfectly suitable. You know that feeling when you have been searching for something for years, everywhere, and then one day it just appears right in front of your face. Every detail woven into it was magical. It was simply IT. He inquired about the house and successfully arranged to move it to our land in Mala Mlaka.
When the house was finally in place, he asked mother, our eternal perfectionist, to go with him and see where they could put things. At first she thought that this job will never end, but he knew she would fall in love with the house at the first sight. Dad had a vision of how it should look and was in charge of organizing furniture, and mother was responsible for all those details that complemented the rooms. They didn’t want to come out for days, but then finally, after a few months they gave us the green light, we could come in. That feeling of warmth and pleasure is something I will never forget. Because it was no longer just a wooden house or whatever, but it become one’s soul, one’s dreams, which are told through a search that lasted for many years. Although every piece there is from a different time, the two of them knew how fit it all perfectly together.


For a long, long time we have jealously guarded those beautiful antiques, but we realized that it would be a shame if those things couldn’t be seen by others. We called it „A Collection of Memories“ because, really, every part there, is a piece of something that reminds us of the past, but truly happy days.
While thinking how to describe the symbol of Etno Park Zagreb, with the desire to bring you closer to what it really represents foto us, I remembered the words of my grandfather Nicholas. As it was yesterday…
Mom has always asked: „What is this man’s errant, doesn’t he have any peace at all?“ And the three of us, knew his destination on Sunday morning very well, with pleasure we were waiting …