At the beginning, the factory I worked in imposed a strict eight-hour schedule. You were not allowed to be late. Saturday was a working day too. Sometimes even Sunday. On Saturdays someone came and let us know that "tomorrow you come to work". People worked on the New Year's Eve or on Easter or Christmas. Holidays did not matter.

However, everyone had a job those times. There were talks on workers' compulsory lunch at the factory canteen. The youth had it and their jobs were assured. If they did not want to work, authorities took them from home and had them work in factories.

Because of the strict schedule, I had to take my daughter to the kindergarten early in the morning and she had to wait on the stairs until it opened. It was very difficult to wait for her because the kindergarten's schedule ended before my wife or I finished our working day. Thus, children stayed with the charwoman or the keeper. (I.I., 92)

I was HER witness in a divorce action and had to tell HE would came home drunk, sworn her and beat her. If you were beaten you won the divorce.

I was pregnant in the eighth month. I had a big womb and expected to move the panel of judges and get off cheap. When the trial began, they got me out suddenly and I was told to wait until they called me in. I was anxious because I didn't know what was happening in the room. In the end I was called in and headed for the woman judge. She was hidden behind a big desk of carved dirty wood, lifted on a 30-centimeter platform. She seemed to deliberately talk in a low voice or perhaps the acoustics were very bad. Anyway, I got closer to the platform and leant one hand against the edge of the desk. The woman judge's voice changed, became harsh and urged me to take my hand off the furniture and pace six steps back. I withdrew mumbling frightened excuses, counting the steps loudly at the same time. I followed the instructions to listen carefully to the questions, to ask for further explanations in case I didn't understand, to look only at the woman judge and to answer only 'yes' or 'no'. It was difficult because the first question was: "What do you know about this couple and how do you get on with them?" I started with something like I witnessed?or I did see how?, but she cut in suddenly and asked me if he used to beat her and I was embarrassed to answer that he molested her once. The woman judge resumed the question and I immediately answered 'yes'. Then she asked me if there was something more I wanted to add and I replied he used to drink a lot. She asked me how often he got drunk and I answered: "Very often". "Every day?", she said. "Not really", I replied. "Then how often?", she said. "Well", I answered, "he would get drunk"?

The dialogue ended to the contempt of the panel made up of the woman judge and clerk. I was permitted to sit and then I thought obsessively that nothing could make me forget the shame I endured. I was wrong. She paid for it a few years later, to the shame of my friend who was even more humiliated as a witness to my divorce action. You were nobody if you got a divorce or if you gave testimony. (125)