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bikinimom
- Thread starter Lao Tzu
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vinylgroover
New member
I would say Hungary would have been somewhat different to East Germany.
Hungary and czech. were always a little more progressive than their Eastern bloc cousins.
Hungary and czech. were always a little more progressive than their Eastern bloc cousins.
Bikini Mod
New member
No, I was born and raised in the US but I had the EXTREME PRIVILIGE of summering in Magyarorszàg frequently.
Life was waaaaaaaaay different there then it was for us growing up here FOR SURE.
What would you like to know?
Life was waaaaaaaaay different there then it was for us growing up here FOR SURE.
What would you like to know?
Lao Tzu
New member
anything really about the culture. My professor was talking about how in East Germany everyone had money but there was nothing to buy, how you couldn't really leave the country and if you didn't come back your family would lose their job as punishment, how you couldn't get a car unless you were Russian, etc. It added a real face to the cold war and what it was about.
Bikini Mod
New member
Well, NOBODY HAD MONEY.
Anytime day or night a policeman could stop you and ask you "for your papers". If it was during the day and you were not at work or in school you had better had a DAMNED GOOD REASON why you WERE NOT THERE... BUT - CRIME WAS LOW.
There was no TV on Monday AT ALL. The rest of the days it was for a few hours in the am and again for a few hours in the evening (We are talking AFTER 7PM).
My mother's family was in a very small village. We are talking one looooooong dirt road, cows, pigs, chickens, outhouses and chamberpots. NO INDOOR PLUMBING and there was one phone and that was at the post office in the next town over. We drank, cooked and bathed with water from a well. We would fill a stainless steel bathtub with cold water and let the sun warm it and bath behind a towel hung on the line or if it was too cold or in the evening, we dragged the tub into the door floor kitchen where the water was heated on a wood-burning stove.
The BIG "THING" was when some of my aunts and uncles got indoor bathtubs. NONE OF THEM HAD AN INDOOR TOILET WHEN I WAS THERE LAST. I was 18.
We made our own games up and swam in a swimming hole. We played for endless hours with no gameboy, no TV and no fear of someone "stealing" or hurting us....
My grandmother (who was an indentured servant because her and her twin sister were orphans) would make something different for breakfast, lunch and dinner for her "American" grandchildren on a woodburning stove every day that we were there. She didn't even get her first pair of shoes until she married my grandfather.
Goodness, how I loved my Mama....
We would bring suitcases full of presents for our relatives and things to sell because these items were not available there. Denim pants, makeup, cigarettes, coffee and rice (believe it or not - the quality available was VERY BAD WHEN it was available), bubble gum and other American candy.
Growing up we never really had a lot because my parents came here with nothing and couldn't speak the language. BUT - we had WAAAY MORE than my cousins did where they were.
Ironic thing? One of my cousins came to the US when my oldest was one year old (10 years ago). AND HE DID NOT STAY. He said that at that point EVERYTHING was available in the country (not like before), but now it was just a matter of whether or not one could pay for it. And from what my cousins tell me, stuff there ain't all that bad now....
Anytime day or night a policeman could stop you and ask you "for your papers". If it was during the day and you were not at work or in school you had better had a DAMNED GOOD REASON why you WERE NOT THERE... BUT - CRIME WAS LOW.
There was no TV on Monday AT ALL. The rest of the days it was for a few hours in the am and again for a few hours in the evening (We are talking AFTER 7PM).
My mother's family was in a very small village. We are talking one looooooong dirt road, cows, pigs, chickens, outhouses and chamberpots. NO INDOOR PLUMBING and there was one phone and that was at the post office in the next town over. We drank, cooked and bathed with water from a well. We would fill a stainless steel bathtub with cold water and let the sun warm it and bath behind a towel hung on the line or if it was too cold or in the evening, we dragged the tub into the door floor kitchen where the water was heated on a wood-burning stove.
The BIG "THING" was when some of my aunts and uncles got indoor bathtubs. NONE OF THEM HAD AN INDOOR TOILET WHEN I WAS THERE LAST. I was 18.
We made our own games up and swam in a swimming hole. We played for endless hours with no gameboy, no TV and no fear of someone "stealing" or hurting us....
My grandmother (who was an indentured servant because her and her twin sister were orphans) would make something different for breakfast, lunch and dinner for her "American" grandchildren on a woodburning stove every day that we were there. She didn't even get her first pair of shoes until she married my grandfather.
Goodness, how I loved my Mama....
We would bring suitcases full of presents for our relatives and things to sell because these items were not available there. Denim pants, makeup, cigarettes, coffee and rice (believe it or not - the quality available was VERY BAD WHEN it was available), bubble gum and other American candy.
Growing up we never really had a lot because my parents came here with nothing and couldn't speak the language. BUT - we had WAAAY MORE than my cousins did where they were.
Ironic thing? One of my cousins came to the US when my oldest was one year old (10 years ago). AND HE DID NOT STAY. He said that at that point EVERYTHING was available in the country (not like before), but now it was just a matter of whether or not one could pay for it. And from what my cousins tell me, stuff there ain't all that bad now....
HansNZ
New member
I lived in the USSR for a while.
I enjoyed my time there. Everyone was quite laid back. It wasn't at all like on the movies. You weren't aware of men in black suits watching you or anything. In the West propaganda painted life in the USSR as being like it would have been under Stalin, rather than how it really was post- 1954. People talked about politics, criticised the government, etc. It was only if you did something big, like starting an underground newspaper that the authorities paid any attention to you.
Luxuries didn't really exist and you didn't miss them because you don't miss what you don't know about, hehe. You didn't feel deprived there either because the wealth wasn't relative, ie. everyone lived much the same way. You had what you NEEDED. There wasn't really any poverty because employment, apartments, utilities, etc. were all guaranteed. The subway was only a few cents. Food was heavily subsidised. Basics were either free or very cheap.
People weren't stressed because no one got fired. No one worked particularly hard because they had a labour surplus, and businesses had to employ people anyway regardless of whether they needed the staff, so 50 hour weeks were unheard of.
It is a system that was FAR from ideal. It was a suffocating environment in many ways. I was happy to come home to my decadent western country. But there were certainly positive sides to the soviet way of life that you don't hear about because only the negatives get publicity. I was only there for a short while, but all in all I enjoyed my time there.
I enjoyed my time there. Everyone was quite laid back. It wasn't at all like on the movies. You weren't aware of men in black suits watching you or anything. In the West propaganda painted life in the USSR as being like it would have been under Stalin, rather than how it really was post- 1954. People talked about politics, criticised the government, etc. It was only if you did something big, like starting an underground newspaper that the authorities paid any attention to you.
Luxuries didn't really exist and you didn't miss them because you don't miss what you don't know about, hehe. You didn't feel deprived there either because the wealth wasn't relative, ie. everyone lived much the same way. You had what you NEEDED. There wasn't really any poverty because employment, apartments, utilities, etc. were all guaranteed. The subway was only a few cents. Food was heavily subsidised. Basics were either free or very cheap.
People weren't stressed because no one got fired. No one worked particularly hard because they had a labour surplus, and businesses had to employ people anyway regardless of whether they needed the staff, so 50 hour weeks were unheard of.
It is a system that was FAR from ideal. It was a suffocating environment in many ways. I was happy to come home to my decadent western country. But there were certainly positive sides to the soviet way of life that you don't hear about because only the negatives get publicity. I was only there for a short while, but all in all I enjoyed my time there.
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