The Way We Were - 140 of Bulgarian history as seen by Georgi and Gocho Chakalovi

In the second half of May there was no end to the events we wanted to attend. One of them, which we did attend, gladly and with curiosity, was the presentation of the book The Way We Were by Dr. Georgi Chakalov (1867-1960) and his son Grigor (Gocho) Chakalov (1919-2003). Both authors are American College graduates - the father graduated in Samokov with the Class of 1887, and the son studied in Simeonovo with the Class of 1939.

In the period 1934-1942 Georgi Chakalov was the College doctor. He also had a daughter American College graduate, Maria (Mary) Chakalova, Class of 1931, who after graduating from the school in Samokov worked in its administration on the new site in Simeonovo.

The book The Way We Were, compiled and edited by another member of the Chakalovi family, Gocho’s wife Dani, first came out in 2007 (until the changes in and after 1989, Gocho Chakalov was afraid to talk openly about his past) and its recent re-publishing was conducted by the Rotary Clubs of Samokov and Sofia Sredets. The book spans 140 years of Bulgarian history, which we see through the prism of the life and destinies of several generations.

On the presentation on May 19, against the backdrop of archival photos, Tsvyatko Kadiiski from the Rotary Club spoke first, ardently, follow by Dr. Chakalov’s first-born grandson - the soft-spoken Georgi Shopov, Mary's son, whom we already knew from worked together since March on a material for the ACS blog. With every new stroke, it became increasingly obvious that each member of the Chakalov family was exceptionally interesting and worthy. Dr. Georgi Chakalov is even described in Aleko Konstantinov’s To Chicago and Back; he lived in the United States on several occasions during his life and worked as a physician to highest-ranking people, left career and prestige several times though to start from scratch in his homeland Bulgaria.

His son Gocho Chakalov compiled the first English-Bulgarian and Bulgarian-English dictionary. "At home we called it our dictionary,“ Gocho's nephew Georgi Shopov recalls. Shopov lived under the same roof with his grandfather and uncle and their families after the death of his father when Shopov was just 9 years old. "I remember a lot of deadline-related tensions, hurrying before the printing house would be nationalized; in the end, the dictionary came out mere 24 hours before the nationalization did happen. The first copy with the dedication “for my father” was given to my grandfather Georgi, who was the one to make the second proof-reading."

We left the book presentation immersed in thoughts, happy to have our own copy of the book holding two vivid personalities’ life stories, in fact, holding the life of a whole family of many worthy personalities. We couldn't wait to find out more.