"I once used to work as an engineer in a trader braccera of 150 tones. It was called "Saint Spyridon" and belonged to Dimitris Mpinotsis. It had a Greek "Axel" engine with power of 120 hp and we used to route Rhodes - Symi - Piraeus with eight miles per hour. It was a real wooden sea boat, thirty metres long".
"Like all men don't wear the same size of clothes, animals need different kinds of saddles as well. In the previous years, animals used to get sweat and hurt by heavy loads. The animals experienced poverty just like people did. People couldn't get enough of food, how were they supposed to feed their animals? Few people used to feed them, the rest of them just left them in their fate, wandering in the mountains looking for food".
"At first I used cowhide (red and black leather) to make strong shoes for mule riders. They had nails in the soles so as not to be worn out too quickly. Then I used to make sewn shoes as well, which were fashionable for grooms. Nowadays there are still some aficionados who insist in ordering sewn shoes. They seem to like them and pay good sums of money for them. In the last few years though, I was hardly making by with my job, as the price of leather shot up because of the appearance of industrial shoes. From 30 drachmas per kilo it reached 15 euros and counting".
“I met a girl walking near the lagoon and asked her to go on a boat ride on my gaita (small boat with a sail). We didn't have motors back then, only the sail and the “floko” (a smaller sail at the front of the boat). A light northwestern wind was blowing and she sat on the stern and started singing with her beautiful voice. “On the magical sand a woman embraced with her beloved fisherman. He's drunk with joy, both of them are, in the scarlet sunset...” she sang.
Women are gathered in a warehouse at St. George Sykousis in Chios and are plucking red roses. They're moving their hands quickly as if they were jugglers and they are picking up all the petals that are destined for the preserves. They don't work silently. They sing, joke and laugh out loud. They are restless women who are not content only doing the housework and they work with preserve industries in order to make some extra money.
"I returned to Magouliana after many years of emigration in America. I am a nice, good-looking, smart businessman. I opened this department store consisting of a cafe, hotel, tavern and a barber's shop, at the same time". Jimmy Gontikas’ store is under a huge plane tree, which entirely covers the tiny square of the village. It is under the same plane tree where Theodoros Kolokotronis and his lieutenant Photis Chrysanthakopoulos, aka Photakos, who was born in Magouliana, used to make their plans for the Revolution of 1821, 200 years ago.
"Why do you take pictures all the time, what is it that you like here? Do you like the mountains? Do you think that you'll never find these stones anywhere else? Why are you in a hurry, do you fear the wilderness? At least here if you shout, people on two mountains will hear you; in Athens nobody will hear you shouting if something happens to you".
“A judicial officer serving in Nafplio once came to my shop, but he didn't mention what his occupation was. In order not to ruin the dye I was making, I had to keep him waiting for a few minutes and he got angry. ‘Do you know who I am’, he told me, ‘I am the public prosecutor’. ‘And why should I care, I am the shoeshiners' prosecutor’, I answered. He was impressed by my prideful answer, and from that moment on he became a costumer and a friend of mine”.
