Life in communist Poland - personal relations

West German espionage!!!

Mysterious diver
Local village boys and scouts from a nearby camp spot a strange object moving underwater in the lake. They get very suspicious and invite Captain Wildcat to solve the riddle. It turns out German spies observe the military airport from the ruined castle tower located on the lake`s island. To get there, they use a pocket submarine. Very funny.

• 
  
  
• 
  
  
• 
  
  

Soooo cooooool! :):):)

Yes. Nobody has explained till today how they transported that submarine from West Germany to the lake. :):):)

Where is the Fair-haired???
A boy on summer vacation at his aunt`s gets suspicious about a decrepit house in the outback where strange things take place - he suspects the kidnapped girl who he heard about on TV is kept there. He calls Captain Wildcat........

• 
  
  
• 
  
  

An international (within communist block, of course) gang smuggles valuables across the borders. They are like octopus! They use amazing methods to communicate with gang members in other countries - e.g, secret messages hidden in a musical lighter. Or streamers! Can you imagine they even kidnapped Captain and put him in a large basket??? In the end, Wildcat deals with them successfully.

• 
  
  
• 
  
  
• 
  
  
• 
  
  

Luckily, nobody dies or is seriously hurt.
However, it was not always so nice. Captain Wildcat also dealt with murder. In one case a gang imports and distributes foreign medication - a highly illegal activity in a communist country. A female courier is murdered in an arranged car accident coz she knows too much. Her colleague feels she might be next.

Inconvenient witness

• 
  
  

I remember the hype about taking vitamin C tablets. Our parents made us take one every day. Sometimes, when they didn`t look, I deliberately exceeded the limit coz I always considered the tablets amasing - sweet on the surface and sour inside. That quick change of taste in my mouth seemed fascinating to me.

Now a story which I don`t remember coz I was too little, but was told later on: once my sister ended up at the Emergency with medical poisoning after taking certain medication which resembled a vit C tablet.

I wonder why the parents urged us to take those tablets. Didn`t we have enough vitamins in daily nourishment? Were we, my sister and me, reluctant to eat fruit?

I have to think hard to recall those ancient times now.

I loved hot dogs in communist times coz they were so delicious. A special kind of sausage called leszczyńskie parówki/kiełbaski, was used. The buns were warmed on this hot dog machine with metal heating spikes, you know what I mean. As a child I considered it a very clever machinery.

Unfortunately, those hot dogs were sold mostly by private enterprises so I had to be careful. My pocket money was 5 zlotys a week and a hot dog in a cafe next to my primary school cost exactly 5 zlotys. I could have one hot dog a week. What about other needs?? I hated communism.......

Today I can stuff myself with them without any constraints coz sausages are still produced for nostalgic consumers. Amasing!

My hot dogs are even better - crispy on both sides!

• 
  
  
• 
  
  
• 
  
  

I have just been reading about them. In communist times they were a poultry sausage without a casing and devoid of any dye so they looked very pale. Are they still made to the same recipe today? They do look pale and to be honest, not very appetising.

Yes, the worst quality poultry meat, scratched from bones. :):):)

Yes, still very pale like white sausage.

The recipe is probably the same but ingredients probably changed over the years so I have an impression it isn`t the same flavour as in the past. But I have no choice.

Not very appetising to look at , indeed, but it only enhances the taste of them.

Walking through a small forest my mucker (there's a word) said that at school the kids had to stand up and say what their fathers did. He always felt really humiliated having to do that.

That is not what your posts portray.
Either you are are a terrible poster or a Communist sympathiser.
Which one is it?

@Miloslaw, you do realise that having non-right-wing views doesn't make a person a "communist" or a "communist sympathiser", right? Or don't you? What on Earth did they teach you at school in the UK?? o_O

Ok, so you are in Pawians mentality, shame, I thought that you were more intelligent than that.

When I was a kid the UK education system was superb.
Unfortunately it has gone completely downhill since the leftist morons took over.


Of course.
But someone brought up in that type of environment may be more acceptable of those views.

@Miloslaw, what "pawian's mentality"? You simply sound very ignorant, because I'm guessing that the only reason you may consider pawian as a "communist sympathiser" is because you think he has "left-wing" views. I see it as the only possible reason, because pawian made it clear in his posts that he was against the communist system in Poland and he praised those who stood up against communism.


Maybe, but "some" doesn't mean "everyone".

@Miloslaw
You got to understand that certain people have little power with their words, as they don't put much value to it. As a tool to humour or lessen a blow or help somebody with their feelings. Also different mentality with regards to feelings, some people utter and use words as hate, hating when they merely despise or dislike something (who loves to overdramatize) and think people understand that considering the context of the conversation, what kind of real mood they really are in as to make it interesting and fun (other people with principles find fun and enjoyment elsewhere and can easily find such behaviour not only anouying but, disturbing. Especially those considering words more sacred and holy)

So when you read words like hatred, you might start imagening a bloodthirsty SS-Man wanting to destroy everything around you and murdering everyone, yet you see a happy but, moody teacher writing stuff on the internet and get frustrated and anoyed.

Yet he sees a guy suddenly bursting out over not a very big deal. Words have different meaning to different people due to different perspective, which is why conflict happends. More easily over the internet due to lack of body language

Yes, it is true - I remember saying it, too. Each family was categorised in 3 groups: working class, intelligentsia, peasant. Schools kept this info in students` files. It was written in class registers, for example.

In my high school, our class unit had 24 intelligentsia, two working class and one peasant student.

Sometimes the fourth category was used - peasant working.


Yes, I am an antirightist monster. The Hammer of rightist witch people. hahahaha

Thank you :-(


He did indeed.But then went on to propose very similar left wing idealism.

I concede that he may not be a Communist.
But neither of you can deny that he is a Socialist.
In my book, they are too similar, it is like saying that a regular dope smoker is not a drug addict.....

In another thread we talked about geraniums and pelargonias.
A little riddle from communist times: why did my parents, or my mum exactly coz dad didn`t care much, kept geraniums on the window sill in early 1980s?

to repel mosquitos?

Sorry, no. But don`t give up. A hint: I mentioned early 1980s for a good reason.

Because they're red and white? During Martial Law?

Sorry, no. My mum didn`t keep it for flowers.
Hint - it had a more practical designation.

I remember hearing that some people used to use quince when lemons weren't in the shops. And you can make tea from geranium leaves. there are also lemon-scented geraniums.

For tea?

my grandma kept geraniums because she believed they can heal an earache, but I don't remember having ever used them

Yes, lemons were scarce during the most severe crisis of 1981 so my mum got a fashionable geranium - quite a lot of people kept them.

However, she wasn`t so enthusiastic after all and decided to buy lemons at the open air markets.

PS.
BTW - why was there an economic crisis at the time?

Communists took huge loans from Western banks and govs in 1970s to modernise the industry. They hoped they would be able to pay off the credits with manufactured goods. Unfortunately, Western clients weren`t so eager to buy communist stuff and the loans remained unpaid. Soon the cost of servicing the debt was higher than the Polish annual export to hard currency countries. That meant Poland wasn`t able to repay its old debts and interest and had to take new loans.

In 1982 the Polish national debt was 42 billion $, while the annual export amounted to about 12 billion. Hopeless situation. We were cooked. I remember one of our uni teachers tried to get the message across to us but we didn`t believe her - we were so optimistic. The privilige of the youth.

In communist primary schools, especially in 1970s (I don`t know about 1980s) milk was served free to students in school canteens. I hated it coz it was always burnt and smelled horrible. Besides, we suspected our school cooks added water to it to have more.

• 
  
  

What about the meals they served?

My wife said she was served good meals at her grade school in the 80's.

This may be off topic, but this past weekend I saw a Czech movie about 70/80's communist era life with the English title "Prefab Story" by Vera Chytilova. Very interesting portrait of everyday life and interactions during that time.

Our meals of 1970s were basic. And cooks were frugal. Incidents like dividing one whole chicken for 30 students were not rare. In kindergarten we mostly received kasha with some gravy but without meat.

I never dreamt of communism coming back, like some other people. Lousy homo sovieticuses. :):):)