And all our friends who had children in the army, sick mothers, and so on, would call us to remind us of the meat tins. So, two generations of men lived in the army on meat tins, which you know the type, they had nothing written on them, they were only metal tins. No label. Pork tins. (R.-B., D. R.-B., 137, 138)

HOUSE WITH COURTYARD

            All in all, it was better to live in a house with courtyard, because there as long as you had wood, you would squeeze in on room, smoke outside, so you stayed warm, so to say. In ?86, poor Aurica managed to find a gas stove that we bought from Popescu, that they had from God knows where. Because one usually did not ask where from, because God forbid, it was better you did not know than to wake up on day with the ones from Securitate invading you with all sorts of questions, because on could hear a lot of things while queuing.  We would warm up with the stove, both with the wood stove and the gas stove, when we had gas, since we queued for gas as well. Aurica would queue for gas, as she went there with our neighbors, for a chat with the girls, the container in one hand. But she would buy especially lamp gas, because her container lasted only one day in the stove and sometimes not even one! So the only one left was I with my trolley, poor Tanase, and me, ?cause they had a gas stove themselves. He had it from his cousin who was a truck driver and went to Turkey regularly and he would bring, like everybody else, some of this, some of that just to get by. Each of us had to scratch out a living, because otherwise would we be speaking now? So we took an official ratio of wood, you know how it goes, we took a little more from somewhere else, but just a little because there was no money ? and then there was the trolley, the queue and our neighbor Tanase.

It was better to live in a house with courtyard! In those times, we had grown potatoes and creeping beans and onion and everything. I know you did not ask me, but my opinion is that, even now it is better to live in a house with a courtyard, since the money is never enough and people need to get along. And anyway, I had the courage to move along. What o you want me to tell you, it is better to live in a house with a courtyard even though you have three small rooms on the hall and the back tool/wood shed. In ?81, when I was still working, we installed a toilet in the house, as it is necessary with age. And then, all of us had one and Aurica insisted, poor her, I told you that she died in ?92, didn?t I? She would kill me with examples of the type ? the neighbor from opposite our house had a wall rug with The Kidnapping from Seraglio that she had from Costanta, I do not know who had I do not know what? So I saved some money and installed the indoor toilet. (V. M., 8)

HUNGER

Endemic phenomenon caused by the ?scientific nourishment? proposed, and the precarious nutrition imposed, by the Government. Good quality food was destined to the export trade and the communist nomenclature, who bought their supplies from special shops, inaccessible to the common people. At higher political levels, aliments were home delivered in big freezers. (51)