Today we have a very special treat. I have asked my dear and beautiful friend, Ilze, to write down some memories of hers of what it was like for her to grow up in the former Soviet Union. She has done a beautiful job, I devoured her story and smiled all the way through. Enjoy!
When Agnese invited me to write a guest post
for her blog on the subject “How was it to grow up in former USSR” my first thaught was: “it was
good.”
Seriously. It wasn't any different as growing
up in Alaska, Rio or Samoa. Because if your parents love you and are decent
people and there's no war in your country -- it's always good. And I had all of
that – loving decent parents and a country who was in a cold war with the West,
but cold war did not qualified as a real war so – sorry to dissapoint you but growing
up in former USSR was good. Despite those terrible sandals Agnese already
mentioned in the one of posts on
the subject. I had those sandals in white and red, but not in beautiful red.
The colour was more like brown/red. Perfect colour for a little girl, right? Don't you just envy us?
But to me there were issues way more important
than ugly coloured sandals.
Firls of all, I wanted a little sister just as
much as Lisa Simpson wants a pony. No luck here, but I don't think I could
blame comunists on this one.
And .. bananas. My second issue. Actually,
there was no issue, as there were no bananas. See, all the fruit you could get
were seasonal. And 99 % local. (I know it sounds hip and cool and very trendy
now, with all those eco friendly fresh veggies from a local farmers market but back then... I was not thrilled, --
let's put it in this way.)
Summer was a blast – all kinds of berries,
cucumbers, tomatoes, plums in the autum as well as apples and pears, apples and pears also during winter, but in springtime
we started to look forward to the
first cucumbers (yes, if you are a little kid in USSR, cucumbers and tomatoes
are worth mentioning.) Sometimes during the winter we could get some oranges or
tangerines, but only sometimes. Very rearly, actually. Like a few sad
tangerines for New Years.
But there was one fruit you could mostly see in pictures.
Bananas. There were years without
a single banana. I'm not joking. And I loved bananas more than all the cucumbers
and apples, and pears and plums and berries in the world put togethere.
Bananas was a really big deal. Really big. It was such a big deal, that
there were a soviet cartoon called “Three bananas”. If I remmember the plot correctly, evil dragon was guarding those three bananas and brave young dude went in a
fight with evil dragon in order to rescue
bananas who indeed had some sort of a magical power...
But sometimes real miracles happend and once I did get a banana. A single
banana, but I was happy. That's the word. Happy. As it was a real event, I decided not to eat it (I could have done that in a few seconds) but
to keep it for a while (I was a kid with a strong willpower. But only regarding
bananas.) I knew that bananas and sun are a match made in heaven. So, I hanged
my banana on the kitchen window,
so it could get as much sun as it
wanted. In the aftenoon I'd hang my banana in my room's window, because, that was were the sun was the best
in the aftenoons. I think my banana was making the trip back and forth from
kitchen to my room for about a week. After that I was very short on willpower
and decided that enough is enough and ... ate my sunbathed banana. I ate it slowly, really savouring every
single bite of it.
http://www.thecookingadventuresofchefpaz.com/category/green-bananas/ |
Some time later a miracle happened again, and
I got about five or six bananas. Bananas (insert a happy face here)! Green
bananas (insert a not so happy face here)... So, I had to wait.
I
don't know where this idea came
from, but there was a myth that
bananas got yellow much more faster if you wrap them up in a newspaper and keep
in some dark place. I've got newspappers, I've got dark places... unfortunaltely,
this time willpower had left me. I took real care of those underriped bananas,
I cared for them almost as much as other kids care for little chickens, but I
could not see any change in a colur. A week passed by, few more days. Bananas
still were green as grass. I started slowly, I tried just a half of the green
banana. Not so tasty. But it was still a banana. So, long story short – I ate
four green bananas (not all at once of course), and only one became a little
yellow. Emphasis on “a little”.
My last story would qualifay me as a agent for
FBI, if only they would have an appropriate depratment on investigating fruits.
See, one day me and my best friend had enough
of playing doll hauses and all that girly stuff, so we went for a walk around
our neibourghood. And there it was. Lying on the concrete. A banana peel. And a
few steps further – another one! Do you have any idea what it means? Yes, that
there are bananas somewhere in the city! Some shop is selling bananas!!! Oh my
God, we should hurry up and find that store!!! So at first, we went to the
store which was on the same street we found those peels. Actually, there were
no shop on that street, so we went for nearest shop. Zero! We went to the next
shop. Zero. So, we searched all the shops in our neghbourhood. Nothing.We went
to the two shops outside our neighborhood (we were allowed to walk only in our
neighbourhood, so we could get into a much trouble for being brave and
courious, and determined.) No luck there as well. Up to this day we don't know
where these banana peels came from, but the idea that there are a bananas in
our city was inspiring in itself, because it ment that there is a tiny
possibility that they may sell
bananas again some other day.
Of course, it did not happened “some other
day”.
You know whats weird? Now I can get a bananas
whenever I want as much I want. Of course, that's not wierd. What is weird,
that I'd choose strawberries over bananas now.
Local strawberries in the season.
3 comments:
I TRULLY enjoyed reading Ilze's post and mainly because I had a similar obsession/story with bananas:) In my case though, I do remember vividly my very first banana I ate. It was a green banana, it tasted horrible but in my mind it was the still the most divine taste because I had no idea how it was supposed to taste... I thought that was it. At least Ilze knew about bananas enjoying the sun:)
Keep the stories coming!! LOVE them!
I don't know where you guys got bananas because I didn't know they existed until I was about ... 7-8. I got one. I tasted it and I remember thinking "hmm... this is not what I expected". I don't think I tasted another one until I was about 14...
I agree with you Feli - Ilze's stories are awesome!
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