Story:

I am the descendant of a family of educators, fifth generation, on my mother’s side, as well as my father’s, but my mother’s goes further back. In the family, we were always surrounded by books, bookcases, and there was always a segment about education. This book says it’s an older edition, from 1969, it also says its price, it must have been 70 drachmas. The year ’69, for me, is an important date.

Vaggelio explains to us that, originally, she is from a village outside Thebes, where her parents worked as educators.

In my village, they spoke Arvanitika. My parents were the teachers in the village and, ever since I was 5 years old, I would hear discussions that “we’re going to Athens, we’re going to Athens”. I would imagine Athens as a magical place, something like Disneyland. In ’67, my father came here, in Moschato, and started building our house. We came in Christmas of ’68.

She narrates that Athens was not what she imagined.

My mother really wanted to come to Athens, but, in the village, I was something like a small princess, because I was the teacher’s daughter, I had everything a child could want, I had a huge garden with roses, I had friends, I would play, we would go on amazing trips outside of the village, the grandmothers would make fritters and, because I was the teacher’s girl, they would put me on the donkey so that I didn’t have to walk, I had a lot of privileges. But, probably because of my family, I never thought I was better than the others. I accepted everything gratefully. I also had some responsibilities that came with being part of the village’s leading team, but, even those, I took them at face value and everything was flowing smoothly. I was a really, truly, happy child and, suddenly, this happy child comes to the city, where nobody knows her, where in fact she stops being a princess, and different things happen.

Vaggelio tells us that she arrived in Athens when she was 8 years old.

We were going with my brother to buy milk and I was wearing a skirt that my grandmother had crocheted. I thought I was really beautiful with this skirt and, at some point, a kid from a flat points at us and says “mom, look at those gypsies”. It was the first trauma, the first real discrimination, that is.

She explains that especially in middle school, but already since elementary, this dictionary was useful, because many things were in Katharevousa, while Dimotiki’s dictionaries came much later.

I would take it from my parents’ library and return it. It was a book I would refer to when I was taking the entrance exams for university, when I was studying Ancient  Greek, etc. I have others like this one that I used when I was studying Ancient Greek, which is a very important part of how you study at 17 and what it means for you to enter university, what it means to the family, so you, as well. My father, although a very educated person, had told me, either you enter university, or you get married. So university was an one-way street. I don’t know if he said that on purpose, or if he believed it, but to me that was clear. This item, in a way, is like a photograph of my father mostly, and of my mother.

She describes her parents as progressive for their time and explains that she was lucky enough to be raised in a very liberal family.

I went to school very young, as well, because they didn’t know what to do with me, so they took me to school ever since I was three years old, I’ve been through the first grade three years in a row, I would participate in all school celebrations ever since I was very little and, in the photos, the other girls are a head and a half taller than me, because I’m little! But my mom included me in the dances, the theatre performances, and I would spend time with my parents. I was always with my parents and I loved and appreciated them as educators. I have a lot of books in my library that I also used later on, as a teacher.

She tells us that she has grown up surrounded by dictionaries and books.

This is more than a dictionary. It symbolises two transitions that have been important in my life, it has carried all of these identities that I try to take off of me or to explain, but which remain mine… from the village to the city and from elementary to middle school.

She explains that she started teaching when she entered the university, in the Sociology department, at Panteion.

My mum asked me if I wanted her to find students for me, because then, at Moschato, there were no English after-school classes yet. I said why not, and started teaching small groups of children and I really liked it and made insane amounts of money as well. It made me understand that I’m good at teaching and I didn’t want to do anything else. When I graduated, my dad told me he could speak with someone who could find me a position in the public sector and I freaked out and took entry exams for the Pedagogic department. Back then, those years, it was quite easy to get a job. That was also around the time of the first migrant flow from Albania, so schools were full. The dictionary kept being a constant point of reference throughout my whole life, until the Internet came. That’s a big issue regarding our relationship with books.

Vaggelio tells us that her parents are no longer alive.

They lived here for many years with their children, their books, their students and they retired here also, and died at a very old age. In the village, they would only go for vacation. I would also go.