And it was brought. Now, the shop assistant had his own obligations and then where to get that beer, (if he had only known?). Now, they were there extremely angry and wanted to see him sell the last bottle. This happened in full campaign, and they remembered what they were promised: who first controls and benefits afterwards. People acted accordingly. This tactful composed man comes along; and I was near him - ?Look, other people appeared as well!? Some had recognized him: ?It is comrade ?? ?Well, what if he is? He has to maintain order!? He waves calmly, he does not argue with anybody and goes into the store. ?What is going on?? ?Well, this quantity of beer was brought an they do not want to sell it, they want to keep it for them?. ?Please give me the papers?, he said and we walked into the next room. He gives his bag to the warehouseman who fills it with beer. We went out and told those standing in a line: ?Please, keep calm, I am going to take care of this?. He goes home and comes back, strangely with the same bag. After a few minutes, he leaves with his bag still full. And he did this two or three times and solved the problem. Next, he told me: ?My boy, you are going to handle this. These are the facts. One has to be on top of things all the time. I know my rules, my business and, shortly, h explained the mechanism to me. (114)

Although I was just a child, I remember perfectly the horror of the interminable, awfully suffocating queues, to which we, the children, often participated.

At the queues for butter, for instance, we had to be there because, otherwise, mother could buy only a packet, and with us there, she got three. It may seem funny to you, but most of the times, we were ?borrowed? by the neighbors and friends present at the respective queue, so that they could take more packets of butter as well. The same happened with other things like cheese, milk, etc.

I remember these things with amusement, but our parents experienced them with pain.  They had to torture the children, watching them get squeezed by people, so that she could lay breakfast on the table for the following week. (until they brought that packet of butter or cheese at the supermarket).

Many times, instead of playing in the parks by our block of flats, we had to play near the stores because the car with products could arrive any time. When this thing happened, we would run to our houses and let our parents know, mainly mothers. As most of us lived in blocks of flats, it was easier to shout from own there that the car had arrived and thus we announced all the neighbors. In maximum five minutes, everybody was there, their bags in their hands, ready to run towards the respective store, where we got there before them and  ?saved a place for them in the line?. The problem was that it did not matter whether there were children, old men; everybody was dashing, as if blind, for fear they might be left without that product. (14)