The boys cleaned the snow on the streets around Romanian Television. Ethnologists and folklorists, some of them famous, sweated shoveling and the owners made faces at them from their houses.

We were also forced to be present at pillar 34 whenever the road to the airport had to be populated with radiant faces who welcomed or saw off the guests of the party. It was bad when it would rain, and it winter even worse. (111)

For instance, in winter, when the streets got covered with snow, citizens had to clean the front of their house, of their block of flats, of the factory they worked in etc. Subordinate to the City Hall, I had to clean the streets of the city center with special machines, from Piata Unirii (Unirii Square) to Piata Romana (Roman Square). If you disobeyed such orders, I think you were sent to jail. As if you had been called up! You couldn't say no. Your family suffered because of this too. Sometimes we were called to work overtime. Once I worked night and day 54 or 56 hours running, that my wife didn't know anything about me. One winter with heavy snow I was taken to clean the streets and, because of a shortage of staff, I was among the few who stayed, though when you were hired you signed a contract according to which you went to work if you were needed, no matter you had a wedding party or a baptism. But that time there was such a heavy snow that my colleagues got stuck and could not come to work. (O.S., 41)

PEACE (AND QUIET)

First and foremost, I keep good memories of that time, honest? For me it was a golden period, and I don?t mean it figuratively. The ?medicine? were a sort of candies, in the form of golden bars (they were wrapped in golden paper). Chinese chocolate was very good and mom used to hide from me the Cuban candies?

Second, it was nice because I could stay out playing as long as I wanted. Well, not forever, cause at some point mom panicked and called me in, but I wasn?t afraid. For instance, I?d go on visits with my parents, and we came back home at 3 or 4 in the morning, and we were not afraid to be on the streets at those hours, not as we are now, afraid that someone might come and bang us in the head and kill us or rape us or whatever. When I was a kid I used to go a lot to the Herastrau Park, the Tineretului Park, or to the Carol (formerly Libertatii) Park. I remember there were gorgeous swings in the Carol Park. There is none left now, of course? (S. C., 5)