Early Life
George Psychoundakis was born in Asi Gonia (Greek: Αση Γωνιά), a village of a few hundred people high in the Mouselas valley in western Crete. The village was not serviced by a road until the 1950s. He was the penultimate son of Nicolas and Angeliké, one of the poorest families in the village. They lived in a one-roomed home with an earth floor. After a minimum of tuition in the village school, he became a shepherd, tending his family's few sheep and goats. He developed an intimate knowledge of his part of the island.
In the coming war, people used the caves to live in and to store weapons. They traveled the goat tracks to carry messages, goods and people. Crete had a tradition of resistance to invaders; the island only obtained its freedom from Turkey in 1898. Numerous insurrections during the long occupation, together with the mountainous terrain, helped maintain an independence of character and willingness to bear and use arms.
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