SOME STEPS IN THE PAST: AN ATTEMPT AT AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY
by Mikhail Yeselson
PART II. HERE
10. MY COUSIN SAID...
I think that the main event in the life of soviet women was standing in the lines. It occupied most of their free time. There were lines for food and clothes, lines for getting documents and apartments, even lines for attending to life and death.
When I was a child, I stood with my mother in lines to buy me toys. When I was a schoolgirl, I stood in lines for my textbooks and notebooks, pen and pencils. When I grew up, I stood in food lines for all the family provisions.
Normally there were only women in the lines. One day a man appeared in the line in which I stood. Maybe his mother was sick and he wanted to cook clear chicken broth for her (Russian Jews believe that the clear chicken broth is the magic cure for all illnesses.) I pitied this man and married him. After that, I began to stand in lines for his shirts and socks.
I also met my best friend in the line. When we reached the counter, only one pair of gloves remained on it. She gave me these gloves (by the way, there was my size, not hers.)
At once, a baby was born in our line. Of course, it was a girl.
We had no time for reading, listening to music or watching TV. Instead all of that we stood in our endless lines.
I wonder how you can live in this country. Where do you hear all the news and gossip? Where do you meet your husbands and friends? At last, where are your babies born?
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Mikhail Yeselson, 1996