History /
Communist Era in Poland: Some questions [28]
Re: In clothing, the lack of choices put creativity in the hands of the purchaser.
- Hm, what would 'the lack of choices' mean? That there was just one uniform for all? If so, then no, it wasn't like that. There were clothes of various sizes, colours, and designs. Some of them looked fine, and they were often of a much better quality than the clothes you can purchase in today US and other places. The Chinese rubbish inundating the American and many European shops generally cannot compare with them.
re: One size fits all was a challenge.
- So the underlying assumption is that the clothes were of one size only? If so, the facts would totally contradict the assumption.
re: With food, it was similiar. Potaoes, herring, cabbage and vinegar.
- So your wife tells you that Poles ate only potatoes, herring, cabbage, and vinegar? If so, then, well, she doesn't seem to be in accordance with the facts. There was also lots of other food. After the lean Gomulka years, when meat was rather scarce for the majority of Poles, the Gierek years were generally much better. It got worse at the end of the Gierek decade, due to the well-known (at least to some) shortcomings of the central-planned economy (in a country, moreover, constantly ripped off by the Russians).
re: Do something special tonight....again.
- Was it allegedly so hard to do that? I don't think so.
re: Each day presented a challenge.
- Really? I thought it was all very safe, actually. Just think: 100 % employment (compulsory, moreover!), free day care, free medicare, free education, only symbolic rent etc. bills, no homelessness, paid holidays, etc. What would that alleged everyday challenge be?
re: She sometimes misses the daily struggle to get through til tomorrow.
- I wonder what did your wife struggle with so much? What did she do for a living in Communist (= Russian-occupied) Poland? No offense, but it seems to me that 'the daily struggle to get through til tomorrow' (sic) was the lot of the very few panhandlers and such. I don't expect your wife belonged to this category of people.
re: You were always busy.
- Actually, people had far more leisure time then than they have now.
So Communism had all those aforementioned advantages, and yet living in it was intolerable.
I wonder if any one knows why?
:)