I spend time by the sea.

Pre-war period
Edgars remembers the new farm "Purvziedi": "Before the war, there were seven so-called old farms in the village of Vaide: "Vecroči", "Jaunroči", "Lekši", "Folmaņi", "Žonaki", "Lāžas" and "Pauli". They had land areas of more than ten hectares. In the late 1920s, the Latvian government allocated land to the landless - new farms with an area of seven hectares, promoted their development and helped with loans. People built houses. Then "Purvziedi" was also created."
Before that, they had no land of their own, only a small hut — a so-called small house on the land of «Lekši». Everyone built as much as their strength allowed. Edgars' father was a forester, at least some income, and it was easier to get hold of fallen trees. It was not possible to steal at that time, so the forester had to say goodbye to the place. Edgars' father was a great wild boar hunter and hunter, and during the hunting season people often gathered at the house. Both acquaintances and Riga gentlemen went hunting. The hunt ended in the dining room at the large table, and then there was a merry party.

Piglet or boar?
One incident that remains in my memory is a hunt in which Edgars himself did not participate. There were several Rigans in the hunting company. Behind Kolcenieki Kangara, directly opposite the Vaide Trail - on the Oņķupa Kangara - there was a fairly thick stand of young pine trees on the edge of the swamp. Wild boars used to stay there. My father always walked with a bag of oats and hid handfuls under the moss so that the pigs would have to search for them longer. They drove the mast from the Vaide Trail to the ditch where the hunters were standing. Shots rang out, but there was no sign of the game. They investigated what had been shot in the end. An elk! But elk were rare back then. The Kolka forester Bērziņš, a tough man, red with anger, but you shouldn't swear too much with the gentlemen. There is soap, but it's a good thing he wasn't hit. The Riga man said to his comrade: "Then why did you shoot?", the shooter: "Well, Max, you said: the piglet is like this (Edgar points), the piglet is like this (hand goes up), and the boar is like that!"

World War II
Airplane in Bažu Bog When World War II began, Edgars was still just a teenager. He remembers that during the German era, a German airplane crashed in Bažu Bog near the Gypsy Trail, where there is such an island. The boy was incredibly interested in seeing such a miracle, so he went to watch. The Šucmans, dressed in civilian clothes, stood nearby with their plinths and guarded it. It is still unknown today why the airplane crashed.

Aizupe Forestry School
For only two years, from 1942 to 1944, Edgars managed to study at the Aizupe forestry school. Only thirteen students remained at the graduation, because every now and then someone was called up for labor service and the legion. The front was already approaching. Edgars managed to work as a forester for a couple of months after the ministry's assignment from the forestry school in Ugāle, Mētra forestry, and Pasīči district, but then he was no longer there, he had to go to the legion.

Wartime
The war ended in Germany in the fall of 1944. Edgar was only nineteen at the time. Remembering the first battle, Edgar laughs: "It was hardly anything..." They had to capture a small town, Nakeli. The young soldiers were added to the 15th Division, which had suffered heavy losses in the battles. Before the attack, the legionnaires had set up camp in a ravine in front of the town. Every now and then someone was sent up to observe what was happening in the town, to see if the Russians were coming. At one point, while moving around without a camouflage uniform, Edgar almost became a target for a sniper from the town. I can still remember the sharp thump of a bullet in the snow. Right there, very close. It wouldn't have taken much to have stayed there without a fight. They had waited until evening and even tried to take someone by surprise.
Then the cities and places changed. Positions were taken up at the railway embankment in Immerheim. Everyone had to lie down there and wait for the order to attack. I remember one unfortunate incident. Edgars had hurried to release his hand grenade from the safety prematurely, saying, safe is safe, so that he wouldn't have to fiddle around anymore. So he had to hold it with his thumb (laughs) so that it wouldn't explode prematurely. All he had to do was give the company commander a message that he had to get rid of the grenade. Everyone lay down, and Edgars threw the grenade over the embankment. It was Edgar's only grenade.

End of the war
Edgars had already waited for the end of the war in a military hospital as a wounded man. They were taken by train to a German city, a good distance outside Berlin. Infirmaries had been set up in all nineteen local schools. There were white crosses on the roofs to protect them somewhat during the bombing, but the British had not sorted them. Edgars experienced one such air raid. The wounded ended up in a small town that was occupied by American troops as the front approached. It was previously known that according to the agreement, the territory was to be returned to the Russians after the capitulation. The chief doctor had advised everyone who was able not to wait for the Russians and to leave. Fortunately, Edgars' injury had not been that serious, and he was already able to walk. He had heard that in Jena, about forty kilometers away, there was a large international camp where privates, many Latvians, were staying, all those trying to get to the West. Maybe he could get somewhere with that group? In the Jena camp, they were immediately given private clothes. As the Russians approached, the Americans promised to take them out of the zone by train, but nothing happened. The Russians arrived in one night. The Latvians trudged away at night, as everyone knows. Edgars stayed because he felt that he would have done more in the West than here.

Filtration
Then came the filtration camps. Edgars maintained that he had never been in any legion, had been drafted into labor service and worked in a shoe factory. They could not prove anything to him. Finally, Edgars was settled in the Carpathians, in Ukraine. He cut down the forest "by hand" in the mountains. It was a beautiful place, the cliff was not particularly high, but it was difficult to work, and quite dangerous. The most excellent trees that were not allowed to be cut down were stamped with a special stamp. —. Polish foresters worked there. From the local city of Borislava, by some order from above, they sent the settlers back to their homeland in groups. And so in the forty-sixth year before Midsummer, Edgars returned home to Vaide.

Life after the war
Defenders
Edgars does not remember when the border guards arrived here, but he thinks it was immediately after the war. The border regime appeared at the same time as the border guards. The commandant's office was in Mazirbe, apparently in a former pharmacy, and also in Saunaga. In Saunaga, on the land of "Vecpauli" near the house of "Pauli", they built a so-called "zastava" - a border guard settlement. A large house, they lived there for quite a long time, but then they dismantled it and built a new one in Mazirbe. Now only ruins remain in Saunaga.

Construction of the Ventspils - Kolka highway
It must have been around 1952 when the highway was built. The army men worked there - the so-called strojbat. They lived in bunkers. A command post was set up in the empty "Mežrukši" house, where the commanders lived. Once, one soldier was apparently tired of work to the last. He said that it was better to shoot himself than to work. The officer, thinking that this was just talk, gave the soldier a pistol. He clicked! and he was dead. The soldier lies right here in the Vaide cemetery.

Village destruction
The new government tried to reduce the number of people along the entire seaside. Lielirbe was completely destroyed, it was no longer allowed to go to the sea - everyone moved to Kolka, Ventspils. It destroyed villages. In Saunag, the boat dock was in a large barbed wire fence. Only there was it allowed to go to the sea. Such restrictions were in all villages where going to the sea was allowed. Everything happened behind barbed wire. The area designated for beaches was also fenced off with barbed wire. In Mazirbe, the beach was about 500 m long with the inscription "Pļaž" - beach. You could visit from 6 am to 10 pm. At that time, everyone had to always have their passports with them. If someone was caught without documents, a report was inevitable. The administrative fine was 10 rubles.

Bunker Russians
There were no special restrictions for the forest guards, except that they were not allowed to shoot and, of course, they were not allowed to go straight out onto the beach. At first, a bunker was built in the dunes in the fields of "Žonaki" in Saunag, where four or five border guards lived, whom the locals called bunker Russians. Later, they built a turret near the "Lekši" house. Their boss was a burly sergeant who used to sneak around the forest with. Behind the main highway, very close to the Vaide ditch, there was a black stork's nest. Edgars and his father happened to be there when the sergeant climbed up to get the eggs. The fight was terrible, but you had to be friends with the bunker Russians, because they didn't have a telephone themselves and it wasn't possible to get a connection so quickly. Now and then you had to go to them.

Arrested in Jaunciems prison
Once Edgar had to spend the night in the Jaunciems forest reserve as a prisoner. At that time, Edgars from Šlītere was occasionally sent on audits of the forest rangers' patrols. The forest ranger Ķierpe lived in Jaunciems. He had to do an audit with him. Ķierpe was a beekeeper and always honored him with a medal. The two of them sipped it in the attic room. The Jaunciems forest ranger can be seen through the window. Immediately, Ķierpe says from behind the window that logs had just been brought into the farm by car. They disappeared so quickly that Edgars didn't even have time to notice. It was clear that they had been stolen. Ķierpe knew where the logs had been in the forest. Gone, yes - they are no longer there. Ķierpe also called the forester Saulītis, because the logs were under his supervision. Edgars immediately went to the forest ranger's chief. A big shower, he also got a medal, there is no tremor and there is no need to turn around. The boss was a captain after the rank. But it shows one empty diaper, where, of course, there are no logs. They are not allowed to search anywhere else. They had run away quickly. There was shouting, arguing, and threatening with the chief of the border guard (by the way, it is clearly visible that he is a Jew by nationality). The captain found a Finnish dagger found on the seashore, which Edgars was wearing on his belt, especially suspicious and illegal. It was confiscated on the spot. Then, in anger, he snapped at Edgar: «Vaša mesto v lavke siģeķ, ņķe zģes načalņikom zastava!» (You should sit in the stall, not here as the chief of the border guard). Arrest was inevitable. He was pushed down the stairs, locked in a separate room, and had to sit there overnight. A witness from Sīkrags was called, who could confirm that such a person really lives there. Meanwhile, the soldiers rode around on Edgar's "goat" (motorcycle) for safety. The next morning, Edgar was shown a large wad of papers, which were supposed to instill the necessary fear in the prisoner - if this was sent to the commandant's office (at that time it was in Mazirbe), then it would be very bad. Well, whatever happens, it will happen - they have their own right, Edgar has his own. The director of forestry, Siliņš, also intervened. But later, not a peep from the commandant's office. Everything fell silent.