Weird things growing up

A few years ago my husband and I were talking to some friends and they were telling us about this weird custom they heard about where the mothers keep a part of the child's cord after the child is given birth. If you are Romanian you know what's coming...I had to admit! In Romania, we do it too...and when the child turns seven years old, he/she gets to open it. Why? I have no idea?! This is a custom just as weird as saving the wedding cake topper in the United States and eating it after one year. Well, we don't eat the cord after seven years (ha,ha) but we just mess around with it on our birthdays. I am attaching a picture of me when I turned seven. As you can see, the entire process created quite a stir...

Growing up without watching TV

Dear friend,

You probably spend your day figuring out how to make your kids watch less TV or even how to make yourself spend less hours staring at this animated box and instead read a book or go for a walk. My parents did not have that problem. We did own a TV--bulky, black and white, with a faux wood box--but as Romanians we had only one channel and the broadcast was very limited to the evening news during the week and a possible movie or cartoon during the weekend. The majority of them were Romanian made. Here is a sample of Romanian made cartoons with Mihaela. 

yes...very entertaining...but you know what? We loved them. We loved them all and now we rejoice in remembering them. I think all together there were about 20-25 cartoons that I watched growing up....as in 20-25 altogether! That is how we let our imaginations go wild and we ran around all day may that be summer or winter or fall. As kids we loved all the seasons, because each season brought another kind of entertainment...but back to the TV shows! The evening news that would come on at 7PM and were called "Telejurnal" were all about Ceausescu...we knew nothing about what was going on outside the Romanian borders. Romania was what you call a "closed country": you could not leave the country, hear news or music from abroad, or even see how some people from abroad looked like. (hence first time my mom and I saw a black, asian, indian or african person respectively we were in awe of how different they looked like!) Isn't that sad now? Well, it was, but we were happy...we were happy with what we had and we made the best out of it.

 

Yours,

Veronica

When it all happened

Dear friend,

I hope this finds you well.

Since grey "had" to be my favorite color growing up I am allowing myself now to write these letters in pink--may that be a form of rebellion or expression?! Although you will feel like I am writing about a lot of unknown things at once (see why grey had to be my favorite color) rest assured, time will allow me to tell you all the stories.

I will start with one that made the change. December 22nd, 1989. The day of the Romanian Revolution. I lived it.

As it was already winter break I found myself playing with the dolls at my friend Oana's house. I was six years old. From the streets we heard people call "turn on your TV's!!!" "listen to the radio!!!" , and those were calls full of panic and uncertainty. It was December 21st, at 3:00PM. Don't get me wrong for being surprised when somebody said to turn on the TV in the middle of the day...what was there to see? The only broadcasting the communists would allow was at 7:00 PM for the news program featuring...guess who...the president. So we did turn on the TV and thanks to youtube you can see now what I watched that day. Basically Ceausescu was at one of his glorious appearances where people were forced to worship him and out of the crowd rebellious shouts started: "you killed innocent children," "freedom," "freedom,""you are Romanians too." I will never forget the tyrant's face that day. All confused and uncertain. And then it all started...the army started shooting at the people in the streets, the dictator and his wife fled the capital, the entire country and the entire world were in awe of the turmoil created.

It was December 22nd 1989 that changed my life and my destine. Mine and of million others of Romanians....but more to come.

Yours,

Veronica