Dear dear reader, this is a photo I want to share since I was 8, a great day for any kid of a communist Romania...we were promoted to the title of Pioneers of the country...from the previous one in kindergarten...called the Falcons of the country...Now we were about to be offered the red scarf and become little communists, so proud of this title...The ceremony of investiture was a big deal for all of us, especially because not all the kids in my class were included in the first wave...You had to have high marks and prove yourself to be included in the first wave...So you can realize what a big deal this thing was...and the event was scheduled to take place on a really big ship (because a dad was a marine officer, of course)...I remember a few things about that day...First of all how much I hated my white stockings...I was itching every second...how much I hated my long skirt and the belt...which was too loose...and how I was wondering when the elder kids would stop singing that stupid song that went like this...”I have my scarf/ I'm a pioneer (x2)/ It's flauting in the wind, as pledge of our promise/ My first promise as a pioneer...”etc, etc...and also...”Ta-ra-ta-taaaaaaaa, the trumpets called! Ta-ra-ta-taaaaaaaaaa, and in one voice we saaaaaaang! We thank the party from the bottom of our hearts!...etc...etc...(I can't remember that one very well)...but I can remember that I thought the party was a person or something...The really cool thing was visiting that huge ship, eating cookies and drinking something that was so very rare...Pepsi!, none of them offered by that Party guy, but by our parents... Oh, and taking pictures...Then in class I became a “row commander”, one of the three, subordinated to the “class commander” who was subordinated to the “brigade commander” and I was wearing a red braid...etc etc etc...
So I guess I'm not being totally honest when I say I've never been involved in politics because I have been...since that day...;)...and have hated it all the way.
Oh, and...in the photo...I am the one on the left. And this is a repost, I wrote this on Janusry 20, 2007. I guess I'll repost things every once in a while...
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I love getting a glimpse into your childhood like this, Pati. Of course, the Communist angle is intriguing to me, too.
And I can relate so such to vivid childhood memories--usually having to do with food(Pepsi in your case on that occasion), music, scent or sounds...and clothing! Your loathing of the scratchy white stockings and skirt remind me of an outfit I was made to wear when I was six or seven. This must have been at the height of unatural, polysester clothing(the 60's and early 70's)since this set of little teal green and white jacket and skirt made me feel so..."icky" in in it! The material was so itchy that I didn't even want to move in it, but I never, ever dared to speak up about it(I was that kind of child), especially since my mother made such a big deal of how adorable I looked in it.
I've got quite a few childhood memories which are very vivid, both good and bad, maybe I should share more of them...There would be so much to write about how life had become in communist times, true. Oh, I was always complaining if something like itching stockings bothered me. I mean I agreed to wearing anything, but then they would regret making me doing it cause I was constantly reminding them I hated it.:D
As a child everything is a game. Looking at the photo I think you didn't know what it was really all about.
Your memories are of itching stockings and your feelings and the thrill of belonging to a group and of getting to eat and drink fancy things, as a child would.
It wasn't exactly a matter of choice. Every child would have joined this I think. It's just a matter of where you are born... or into which environment.
It would be interesting to hear about your later experiences as a teenager and how your own opinion developed. Were you a convinced supporter of communism?
You mentioned here that you hated it all the way, so I guess not?
Yes, we had fun just because we were together doing something so out of the ordinary. At that point in time we didn't know much about it, since we didn't have something to compare it with...I knew my country's name was The Socialist Republic of Romania, but had no idea what "republic" or "socialist" meant, of course. Propaganda was all over, but I remember as a child I never took it seriously because of my parents's comments towards it. I grew up knowing for a fact that everybody hated the regime, and why and hearing stories about a world out there where people were free and had food on their tables and heating and electricity at all times.
Now I only joke about it, as most people, especially because most of our childhood memories are connected to those political times.
And that is one of the many fun memories.
Hai ca eram dragute si cu uniforma de pioneri si amintirile sunt delicioase. Ritualul din ziua in care ne faceau pionieri, snurul la care aspiram cu totii...
Salut! Ce surpriza! Te muti si tu?:)
Faza e ca eu chiar nu-mi mai amintesc mare lucru din ziua aia, in afara de ce am scris aici, plus faptul ca inelul meu de cravata era foaaaaaaarte larg si a trebuit sa-mi lef cravata/imprumut inel de la cineva...ooooof, aveam opt ani...:)
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