St John’s Eve
St John’s Eve night is approaching. Alongside the villagers gathering around the bonfire, drinking, singing, and jumping over the flames, there are also dances at the village club to the music of the local orchestra - conducted, incidentally, by Johannes Sooster. And of course young Meedi, only fifteen or sixteen, lively and restless, can hardly wait to go dancing. There are already boys showing interest in her… but she is still too young to go alone - she may go only accompanied by her elder brother.
Her brother, however, as luck would have it, is too lazy to get dressed. Yawning, he says he is not particularly interested and can very well do without the village girls - after all, he is already a city boy, a resident of the capital, studying at the French Lycée in Tallinn. But of course, if his beloved sister is so impatient to go, she may dress him herself - and then, all right, he will escort her to the dance! And so the younger sister irons his shirt, ties his neckerchief, fastens the laces on his already polished, gleaming shoes, and helps him into his jacket. When everything is finally ready, the elder brother offers her his arm like a gentleman and leads the trembling, excited Meedi from the farmyard toward the village club.
Have a wonderful summer!
In the photographs: Ülo Sooster’s paintings Rooster (1958–59) and Portrait of Sister Meedi (1944).