She
remembered my dad on this day, gathering the children to take them to church.
My grandmother Elizabeta was deeply religious, she fasted every Lent, and his
sister Leana was a cantor in her village church. Emilia went to ask her dad if
she could go, and her dad replied, “only if you are going to wear your pioneer
uniform and red scarf.”
Emilia’s dad
was a communist activist at the factory where he “worked.” His job was to
indoctrinate the workers who were not yet convinced to fully support the
communists, and to rat out those like my dad who were totally against the
communist party and its dictator.
Her dad had
a soothing voice, sounded convincing in his erroneous arguments and judgment,
and had a towering presence that we kids feared. In exchange for his “work,”
the party gave him a salary and extra rations of food for his family of four. His
apartment was the same size as ours, but they always had food and sometimes things
we had not seen or eaten in years.
Milica’s mom
was a skilled seamstress and made extra money which allowed them to buy things and
provisions on the underground illegal market. We girls, the five of us, would
sometimes have treats at Emilia’s apartment if her mom felt generous that day
to share with us whatever she was cooking. It was not often, but it was
something to look forward to.
My dad
disliked Milica’s father because he was a snitch and a communist stooge. I did
not realize that Milica resented her dad’s activities when she found out later
in life. When he died, she said, she threw out all his books and propaganda
materials, i.e. The Communist Manifesto and other Karl Marx works, Lenin, Frederick
Engels, and Stalin pamphlets and books. I wish she had preserved them for
posterity, to teach those that come about the evils of communism. She said, half-jokingly,
I could have sold them for good money today.
When I told
Milica about my former students and about 50% of Americans who think communism
is preferable to capitalism, she was shocked. She was saddened that America, to
whom most of the world look up to for trends, advice, and inspiration, is going
to be communist. She said, “Then we are all going to be communists again and
they are going to confiscate our private property. Are they crazy? Do they not realize how badly we
lived for decades and how we barely survived?”
