One of the traders, who has been running his family business for years thus maintaining his family tradition, is Ermin Miki Destanić, a seed vendor. Miki’s father and uncle – Aco and Malić Destanović – moved from Šar-planina to Gornji Milanovac in 1958. They liked Gornji Milanovac very much, so they continued doing their business which assumed making and selling seeds and sweets. They opened their first shop opposite the Grammar school. That was a wooden newspaper stand. They sold popcorn, sunflower seeds, and seeds which were hand-made in a very simple way. They prepared everything with the help of big baking dishes. They made walnut loaves, sesame bars, taffy apples… In addition to that, they also prepared home-made black halvah, which was sold like hot cakes in the town back then.
Even though they had a shop, Aco and Malić used their bikes to go to street fairs and matches, or schools, so as to sell their products. They visited around 40 fairs a year and they would go in the same way to each one – two boxes would be put at the front part of the bike, two at the back, and one on their back. Besides the first shop, Miki’s father opened the second shop in Karađorđeva Street in 1981. Miki still works there. He kept that old-fashioned way of making all products. The Destanović family has been cooperating with the same suppliers from Vojvodina for decades. They take almost everything from them (corn, sunflower, pumpkin). He orders lollipops from Belgrade and Užice from the same companies like Aco and Malić. There were around 1,500 shops of this kind in the old Yugoslavia, and there are only three of them in Serbia nowadays (in Niš, Belgrade, and Gornji Milanovac). We still buy seeds in cones in this shop, and the measuring unit is a cup. This traditional way of preparing and selling products is the key which preserves this trade, because people like something old-fashioned, as our interlocutor Miki says. His basic tools include multi-level ovens and baking dishes. Even though Miki has two sons, they will not continue their family business because they have their own jobs which they like.
