You paid for a TV in monthly installments. The color TVs only became available in the last few years before the Revolution, and you needed to be on a special list. Again you had to queue up a lot to get to buy a color TV set. You had to pay cash, all the money at once. It must have been in 1984-85 when I bought a color TV from a shop, and I paid a staggering ROL 14,000. At first, before the Revolution, you could only find Romanian TV sets, especially the Cromatic type. The TV program was slashed to barely 2 hours in the evening, from 8 to 10. Just before the revolution the whole thing became unbearable; all the programs were about production targets met and three times surpassed and public invitations to join competitions between the socialist industries across the nation. (A.-I. B., 103)

I remember my grandfather who waited for long years on an endless list to buy God knows what color TV set was available. The only types on the market were ?Elcrom?, ?Telecolor? and ?Cromatic?. The ?Cromatic? was the most expensive and the ?Elcrom? the cheapest; it cost ROL 13,000. The ?Cromatic? was really cool. They were all made in Romania, only the parts came from the world over. The Telecolor cost some ROL 14,000. (114)

There was this joke at the time about a bloke who comes back home after a day?s work, lets himself drop on the couch and turns on the radio. They were broadcasting Ceausescu speaking about he over-achieving Socialist economy. Our bloke turns off the radio and turns on the TV. To his little surprise, Ceausescu was on speaking about the Golden Age he was building for everyone in the country. Bored to death, he turns off the TV as well, at which point in comes his wife ready to plug in the iron. The bloke leaps at her, tackles her to the ground like in rugby and starts yelling ?Don?t turn in on, don?t turn it on, we?ll hear Ceausescu again !? (125)

TENT (IN THE HOUSE)

The winter between 1983??84 was the one in which we suffered the most from cold in the house. Until then, we had almost been privileged because, having gas stoves, I would heat the house when and how much I wanted, without being at the mercy of the state, that switched off ?the heating pipe? of the blocks so often, in order to save the energy.