Ludmilla

Ludmilla

Around the summer of 1966, when I was nine, my family moved to Costa Rica. We lived there for about a year and a half.

The first place we lived was a little town called Santa Anna, perhaps an hours bus ride from the Capitol, San Jose. (at the age of nine, time was hard to track)
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I believe that this town is now just a sprawling suburb of the capital, but back in ’66-67, it was a small village.

Living in a small, rural town, in a foreign country; well it’s very different from growing up in Oakland California.
My Spanish may have consisted of uno, dos, tres. But soon, we learned to communicate with the kids around us. The important words are covered early.
Son of a Bitch-Hijo de weputa. Now perhaps they meant puta, perhaps bitch wasn’t a match, but for kids, you translate as best you can.

There was this American family that we were friends with. Well, they were friends with my parents. So we had to get along with their kids. We couldn’t stand their kids; John and Ludmilla.

Ludmilla was several years older than me. She was large, doughy, plodding, ugly; I don’t remember her being very bright. (Oh don’t even start with me! For heaven's sake, I was nine! So grow up and read, or go somewhere else!)

Anyway, there was this group of local kids I played with. We would go exploring around the little town, hiking in the hills. The funniest insult we had was to hold our left thumb and forefinger in a circle; then stick our right forefinger rapidly in and out of the hole and say. “You and Ludmilla in the middle of the night!” And then one of the other guys would say, ‘No! You and Ludmilla in the middle of the night!” And we would all laugh.
At nine, I know I never wanted to do that, with her!

Funny how these things stay with you. I still smile when I think of it. But that has clouded my impression of anyone named Ludmilla. It is a name I will never like. If I ever meet someone named Ludmilla, I will have to fight hard to get past my prejudice. I may never like the person, or be comfortable with saying the name.

On the flip side, I have always liked Becca. Becca is a cute name.