Memoirs of staunch Florianite

Joe Bugeja: Reminiscences of Childhood in Floriana. Malta in Peace and War 1930-1950,Floriana local council, 2010.

With a respected teaching career of close to 50 years ranging from primary to tertiary level and involvement in many sports as athlete and as administrator, Joe Bugeja has lived more than a full life.

At a time when many would simply opt for the rocking chair, he continues to play a valid part in society in several cultural associations.

The publication of what promises to be the first part of his memoirs by the Floriana local council is an act of faith by someone who has remained a staunch Florianite at heart, in spite of having lived for long years away from Vilhena’ssuburb.

Reading his descriptions of his youth in Floriana, where he experienced both peace and war, it is pretty clear where his roots lie; it is a love that is reflected in a prose that often erupts into purple passages that sometimes verge on the prolix.

In this respect, one might perhaps point out the lack of a map of Floriana that would have come in very useful for the many readers who are not in a position to know where the streets and areas he refers to exactly are.

Born to a working-class family, the first of 10 siblings, Bugeja experienced a life of what he describes as ‘relative poverty’, made sweeter thanks to his father’s industriousness and his mother’s careful economy. Though there might have been not a few material shortages at times, given the island’s yo-yo defence-based economy in the pre-war years, there was never a lack of love and an insistence of the importance of education as the means to improve one’s lot.

The book covers Bugeja’s first 20 years starting with the innocent pre-war days, going on to the experiences of war that helped many children grow up so quickly, and going on to his secondary education at the Lyceum and ending up as one of the first pioneering group at St Michael’s Training College in St Julian’s and his baptism of educational fire at Qormi Primary School.

Bugeja writes with a disarming honesty which will come as no surprise to the thousands he taught and tutored over the years and to his many friends and colleagues who highly value his human qualities. As in all good memoirs, the character, the values, the philosophy and the mentality of the author come out. A point he stresses a number of times is the mutual attraction that existed between him and the female sex.

Bugeja describes his life with the backdrop of the national, social, political, educational, and religious events taking place at the time which he takes ample time to describe, often at the cost of cutting the narrative development of his memoirs. Perhaps the main problem is that the author feels that he is writing for someone with no local knowledge at all. And yet these instances are in themselves useful historical records given from a very personal point of view.

The very charm of the book is the fact that Bugeja is just one ordinary person and we are therefore given a view of life that rarely makes it to the history books. We share both his joyful moments and the instances when life is not so kind to his family and him.Even his war experiences which must have been pretty traumatic are presented through innocent eyes, when all the bombing and deprivations were almost like a game played by adults too complex for the child to take in.

The book is generally very readable although one can make a few positive suggestions to be considered should a second edition be mooted.

The choice of a sans serif type makes it difficult to read for long stretches, while an alert copy-editor would have improved the book by removing some repetitions of details especially in the first half, spot the occasional typo, and shorten some sentences.

The references are also presented in a most idiosyncratic way that are of no practical use whatsoever either to check or to read for further enlightenment.

There are also several instances when the author’s enthusiasm leads him to make erroneous claims. Thus, on page 162 he claims anachronistically that the prickly pear bushes are as old as the ancient Phoenicians, while on page 295 he states that voting for 18-year-olds was introduced by parliament in 1947 when it was actually first used for the 1976 elections. And surely the author’s reference to having been on the substitutes bench in a Floriana football match in 1948 is another anachronism as substitutes were only introduced locally in the 1960s with FIFA then agreeing to them in the 1970 World Cup.

Bugeja’s reminiscences make up an interesting experience and many, especially those who had the honour of knowing him throughout his very active life, will surely look forward to the other volumes.

The book is available from the Floriana council offices and leading bookstores in the islands.