A woman had bought 7-8 bags of chicken heads and claws, for some cats and dogs. Another woman asked her why she had bought so many. The lady felt that the truth would make the others insult her and she answered with dignity: ?I have guests!?

A mathematics university professor remembers that at the greengrocer?s at the corner of Edgar Quinet street and Academy street, opposite to the Department of Mathematics Building, the greengrocer had put a note above the door: ?WE HAVE CABBAGE?. Another hand added: ?A NEW VICTORY OVER CAPITALISM?.

A true story. The father, a medical doctor gave a call to his daughter, a librarian: ?Polish potatoes were delivered in Dorobanti Market!? The girl weighting 84 kilos, bought a 70 kilo bag, she got it up on the bus, got it off in Piata Victoriei (Victory Square) and she dragged it with her last powers on Calea Victoriei (the Victory Avenue), which was a presidential artery, to the Institute where she worked. (7)

It was November 1989, we had coupons for meat, as everybody had, and my ground floor neighbor came to tell me that there was beef at the food store. Because I was only one person I was entitled to one kilo of meat a month. I went there, it was a cold November sleet, and I waited standing in that queue for about three hours. Since half past four, until eight o?clock in the evening. I managed to get one of the last bags of fine beef. I went home with it, but I felt so angry and humiliated, that I minced it immediately, although I was aware it was very good for steaks. And for the next two days I fed my cat, and I was very happy that she did not feel humiliated at all. From that moment, I swore never to queue again for anything; I was only one person, I could afford to eat vegetables. (I. P., 24)

I remember why we did not queue for meat, because there was a woman who had been in the Parhon Hospital, and whom my mother had taken care of. She worked in a slaughterhouse and she came to us and sold us very good meat, all we needed was money. She took it out from the slaughterhouse by wrapping it round her belly on the skin, underneath her underclothes. Much later I found out from my mother that among other diseases, she had syphilitic heredity. (125)  

In early 80?s, my cousin was still a neurosurgeon at Arsenie, and her husband was unemployed, because the Mathematics Institute had been disbanded. A sick man came to her, and while she was talking with him, she was writing something down on a prescription, after she wrote his prescription, she gave it to him, and the man went away through those long yards. Meanwhile, she saw the prescription on the table and she realized that she had given him something else; she had given him a list, written on a prescription paper, with all the things she would have liked him to bring to her, when he came the next time, because she did not accept money, yet she knew that some good food products could be brought from the countryside. (I. P., 37)

There were some enormous queues for meat, with more than one row. I was waiting in line until I went nuts. The policemen who were supposed to keep the order came to these queues, but they were the first to get into the shops, with their empty bags. Their only concern was to fill them. (I. C. M., 163)