English (EN)

The pickup and the desire to travel the world ...

The pickup and the desire to travel the world ...

The pickup and the desire to travel the world ...
  • Published on: 19 July 2021

I was born in the early ‘80s and my childhood years were the last years of communism for Romania. I experienced communism both from the perspective of deprivation, and also from that of the joys that children find out in everything around them. One of the major joys of my childhood were the vinyl discs. The Russian record player with two large speakers had an important place in my family’s living room. It was placed next to the tape recorder and we, the children, were not allowed to use them. Both were open at our parents’ parties only, when foreign music flowed from the speakers, and our parents and their friends danced on less known sounds. But the great joy began on the school holidays, when the record player was moved from the living room to the room that I shared with my brother. The record player was placed on our desk and the two speakers were put on both sides and that’s how a surround system was formed! The vinyl discs were also brought in and we, the children, were finally instructed how to use the wonder device. How many stories and how much music haven’t I discovered in these holidays? How many dreams of crossing the world in the balloon, on camels, on magic carpets? How many dreams of becoming a singer? I wasn’t too feminine as a little girl and that was because my parents took us on the mountains, I was playing outside all day long, so there wasn’t too much time for ribbons and ruffles. As a result, I wasn’t so fond of extremely feminine stars. Although I didn’t like Angela Similea [a Romanian singer from the era -Ed.] particularly, neither her presence, nor her music, she had a song that remained fixed to my mind as a child, and I think I can still murmur it today. “My house” was the song with which the holiday began and ended. No matter how many ruffles Angela Similea had on her dress on the vinyl cover.

A.B., Brasov

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