I would often
say to myself that, if I would ever afford beautiful and bright colors, my
clothes would be happy hues, something the communist economy never offered to their
trapped and impoverished “customers.”
Our school
and work uniforms were dark grey, navy, black, ink blue, various shades of brown,
and white shirts. Nothing fancy, just basic. Shoes were black, white, and brown
with thick brown or black hose. Pants were discouraged in women unless they
were working in factories. I wore black pants in winter as a child, to keep
warm. Photographs show high waters when the same pair was worn two years in a
row.
Finally I
came to America and my eyes were overwhelmed with beautiful colors. Even though
I could not afford anything, the fact that such beautiful fabrics, clothes, and
colors existed, it made my heart dance with joy.
Years later,
I discovered Lilly Pulitzer with its array of greens, blues, pinks, beiges, and
white. It had not yet morphed into the mixture of designs and dazzling colors
of today - they stand out at airports among the sea of black clothes as if
everyone is going to a funeral.
Strangely,
in the last four years, since the forced Covid lockdowns, everything around us
began to change in the direction of the drab life we lived under communism.
Everything became utilitarian, small, crowded, plain, and uniform.
It started
with the selection of clothes, towels, in department store offerings and in car
colors. They all looked the same as if they had used the same designers and
manufacturers – a lot of greys, blacks, beiges, browns, navy, olive greens, and
white. A few colors here and there but nothing like it had been.
Cars became
indistinguishable on the road, the same shades of grey, silver, black, beige,
and white. I had a hard time finding a new car in red or a beautiful blue. It
took me a year and a half to find my red SUV.
Then I
noticed that all fast food restaurants started changing their outdoor appearance
as if a Bauhaus conference had taken place and all have decided that they would
go with the same drab and depressing interior and exterior décor – shades of
grey, brown, black, and beige.
The big arches
were gone, the big windows were gone, and so were the playgrounds which my children
loved even though the food was never great. It was a part of Americana that
disappeared and was replaced by Bauhaus drabness. Colors that made the buildings
look happy and inviting, disappeared. Some even looked like a prison from the exterior.
The only holdouts were the Mexican food restaurants which remained the same
colorful and happy places.
The fast
food and regular restaurants now look inside and out like the utilitarian Bauhaus
architecture, not inviting, cozy places where you go not just for the food but
for an atmosphere and a pleasant experience that pleases the visual senses.
Bauhaus,
founded by Walter Gropius became a movement in early 20th century Germany,
featuring “straightforward and functional designs with simple geometric shapes,
clean lines, and minimal embellishment, using basic materials like steel,
concrete, and glass.”
This type of
architecture was the basis of our lives in communism – simple and utilitarian,
nothing fancy for the proletarian masses. Reinforced concrete high-rise
apartments withstood a strong earthquake of 7.2 on Richter scale. It did not demolish
such ugly buildings but broke pieces of it, dangling them like loose teeth.
Next time
you go out to a fast-food restaurant, notice the simplicity and drabness of
color, the smaller windows, or the windows that had been taken out and replaced
by grey walls. And they all look alike, drab, ugly, uninviting, and prison-like.
Who wants to eat in such an unhappy place? Perhaps that is the idea, driving the
masses back to their own homes, ordering food and staying indoors, better
controlled.
