History /
Memories of the Polish communist era [115]
Eurola, when did the first modern style nightclubs come to Poland and what was the reaction?
Was recreational drug abuse widespread prior to the introduction of modern nightclubs?
What about hardcore drug abuse i.e. heroin addicts?
There was nothing modern about the places, they were just for people's enjoyment whoever could afford them. There were also nice restaurants, tablecloths and all, but very expensive. Cheaper restaurants were always full of drunks, but you could have a great "schabowy". At end of 70's, when the lines were very long, I often stopped by a place like that and had a dinner. There were also "bary mleczne", where variety of pierogies were served. Big cities had a few of them, small ones like 10,000 people town, would have maybe two restaurants plus kawiarnia. I'm talking about 70's when I was a teen and a young adult. I left Poland before the strikes and marshal law, and some of the stuff Krzysztof or Bunia write. I know from my family that 80's we brutal. My sister and I, we were sending money and packages with goods like spices, cacao, chocolates, fruit and of course clothes.
I never met or heard of anybody using drugs of any kind. This kind of stuff was only in western movies from "rotten west". I heard of people creating drugs (opium) from poppy. My aunt had a small farm of poppy, and I loved to eat them, but she would not let me eat too much. I was maybe 10 or 12. I did not know why...at that time.
As I mentioned in my previous post, my father was pro-America and did not belong to the communist party. I heard my mum objecting to it sometimes, saying that we'd be better off, if he had. We had a hunting gun at home, since his job was to watch the government forests. They were "nobody's" and farmers tended to go there at night and cut down trees for their needs...:) If they were caught, they usually bribed my father with vodka and home made sausages... He would put a special, legal stamp on the stump and come home drunk :(
MY oldest brother had the special party membership book. He had to, in order to work with the police. He was in some criminal justice dept. He had lots of problems when my sister left and did not comeback to Poland as promised. When I was trying to get my passport to leave, I was denied every year for 5 years. Finally, my brother was called to Warsaw. "So, Mr. R, you have one sister in the rotten west, and now another wants to go? (my brother said, he was Russian and barely spoke polish). Well, you have a choice, she stays and you still have your job, we let her have the passport, she leaves and you don't have a job. He just said. "Let her go". So, he ended driving a taxi, but I left. When he was getting married at the end of 60's, they got married at night, in the rectory, so the true commies would not know. His civil ceremony was the official one. The kids were also christened outside of church.
