Judith, June 4, 2017

 

My name is Judith, I lived in the caves at Matala in the 60’s! I don’t know exactly what year as I was a Hippy, and you know what they say about the 60’s, if you remember them then you weren’t there!

I do remember one thing, I had lived in the caves for maybe 6 months and one day a tourist bus came from Iraklion. We came out with no shoes , hadn’t seen people in months, and were very curious. As they walked towards us my eyes  fixed on one woman and I noticed she was looking intently at me. She was dressed very well; the exact opposite of the cave dwellers. As we walked I kept getting flashes of my mother, no idea what was happening. We got closer and closer and finally she stops in front of me and says a line as if in a theater play, I immediately returned a line. Then it hit me, she was my mother in the play ‘Glass Menagerie’ in Connecticut! It was amazing! We spoke for a while, she was married to an American soldier who was stationed on the other end of the island.

My memory is of the Greek soldiers who were sent daily to kick us out of the caves, so every night or other night they would come, tell us to leave, then sit down and smoke pot with us! This went on for as long as I was there.

Also the fisherman taught us how to preserve the fish they would share with us by rubbing salt on them, and the village women would bring us tomatoes and cucumbers! I often think about my time there. It was one of the best times ever.
I learned to live with very little.

 

Judith