As compensation, I told my children that the present is given to godparents on Christmas Day and Shrove Tuesday. Therefore, they gave the godparents towels, knot-shaped bread and one year a living goose. (125)

To get a licence, a house, a rise in salary or anything else more easily, one had to treat those who helped you at a pub or to give them rare goods such as coffee, cigarettes or refined drinks. Foreign wrapped coffee existed at that time. Kent, Marlboro, Pall Mall, LM, BT cigarettes were difficult to be found at that time and were brought from shops, luxurious public places for those who worked abroad. (M. A., 155)

Militia took presents moderately. They took food: meat, cigarettes, butter, salami.

(M. A., 155)

Once a traffic warden suspended my driving license and somebody told me what to give him to have it back. The present included many bottles of wine, a Kent cigarette box and a coffee bag. (C.V., 129)

Apart from money, any unusual goods could be used to reward different services: coffee, foreign cigarettes (at least BT from our Bulgarian neighbors), stockings, paper cases, special pens, books, glasses, anything. Usually these objects were provided by influential persons and acquaintances or due to your job. (E.I.A., 16)

The problem was serious here. The rule was that Ceausescu alone could confirm the granting of a Bucharest ID to someone who came from the province. The condition was that he or she should be employed, otherwise it was out of the question. Or else by way of marriage. My problem was that, since I lived just outside Bucharest, I didn?t have a Bucharest ID: the idea was that if you lived in the vicinity of the city you could commute. Bucharest was a closed city: you broke in either by distribution (which you could only get if you were well connected) or if you were a Securitate agent. The criterion was obviously political in nature: you had to be a party member, to be born into a family of peasants or workmen (which meant you were not registered in a political file, which might mention some relative serving time at the canal or in prison), or to be solicited by an institution (this was the case with the Securitate Office, which Ceausescu always wanted to expand). Most people chose to marry for positions. I, for instance, if I wanted to remain in Bucharest, I could have picked one of my colleagues who had Bucharest residence, remain pregnant, and then he?d have to marry me, since in socialist terms the notion of a fatherless child was sheer nonsense; and thus I could have obtained my Bucharest ID. Many ruined their lives in this way, because marriages became unnatural, cases of mismatching. Yet, the rule was that in order for a marriage of this sort to be validated, the couple had to live together for at least 5 years. I once had a colleague who married a woman who lived outside Bucharest, and therefore did not have a Bucharest ID, and they decided to go live together in the wife?s house, just outside Bucharest. Meanwhile, the reorganization of Bucharest was initiated and they both found out one day that none of them had a Bucharest ID any more. This thing with the ID was a mess: you couldn?t move to Bucharest if you didn?t have a place to work, but you couldn?t get work in Bucharest if you didn?t have a Bucharest ID. You also needed a Bucharest address, by all means. And only few companies received you (the Common Transportation Company, or the rubber works in the southern districts of Bucharest) (O. S., 169)