It was somehow stressing to be afraid to talk too much to strangers, even to people one knew, because one did not know how they would react.

No, I have nothing to be scared of now. Until ?89 you were afraid to talk lest someone should hear you, now you can criticize and speak as much as you want, but nobody will hear you. (M. C. J., 96)

In 79 the divorce between the intellectuals and the peasants began, meaning that we were not allowed to live at a host, we had to stay in hotels when we went in the field. Somebody tells this in a study, motivating why he had chosen Sucevita: because it had a hotel (I. P., 37)

Manual or leg-activated 'Singer' machines were still preserved in some houses. By 'Singer' I mean all kinds of old sewing machines whose brand could not be properly read sometimes. Between the 60s and 70s we were invaded by a Romanian brand of sewing machines, 'Rodica', inefficient but satisfactory to home-sewing. In the 80s electric Romanian, GDR (German Democrat Republic) and Yugoslavian machines, I think, were delivered on the market. Most women knew to sew a sheet, a curtain or to patch up clothes. Sometimes the large shops had a dress maker who would measure you to cut out the cloth meters you had just bought. A master was needed when the machine broke down. Usually you entered a co-operative society like "Clothes Progress" and asked someone to recommend you the person in charge of machine repair. They did it on the spot. (111)

The following story reveals surprising things that sometimes happened with the masters:

?There is a short story about a man who would come to repair our sewing machine. My mother was young, she was thirtyish. He came to work and, at a certain moment, he asks my mother if she didn't have a thick book to put it underneath. My mother gave him a book from a shelf at random. It happened to be "The Divine Comedy". The master was puzzled and asked her if she had read it. My mother answered no. She was a bit embarrassed. Then he started to comment on the book. This was the master who repaired the sewing machine. When he left he comforted my mother, saying that she had enough time to learn.? (I.N., 94)