Tag: Communism

Three Types of Ice Cream

~ Veselin ~ 11 Comments

This post is part of the series about communist Bulgaria between 1979 and 1989. The first part covered a cat story.

I have two first cousins who are older than me and Hungarian. My uncle moved there in the 50s, and Hungary was not as isolated as Bulgaria.

One day, maybe around 1984 or 1985, they came to visit and we chatted, which wasn’t too easy because of mild the language barrier. The conversation was about ice cream. My cousin tried to convince me, that there are more than 50 types of ice cream in Hungary. I insisted that there were only three. By the end of the conversation, I was sure my cousin is exaggerating. 5-6 okay, but 50? No way.

In communist Bulgaria, almost all businesses were run by the government. Grocery stores didn’t sell ice cream. They didn’t have freezers at all, only coolers. So ice cream could only be purchased from private stands, where you paid for a waffle cone with a ball of ice cream on top.

Stara Zagora, a city of over 100k inhabitants at the time, had one stand I knew about that worked about half of the summer. It had one or two types of ice cream, usually one. The possible choices were white, brown, or yellow. Most of the time we would walk past the stand and it would be covered with cloth, not working.

So, what were the three?

White was vanilla. Yellow was supposed to be lemon, and brown was supposed to be chocolate. However, the country as a whole had issues with flavoring. It was very difficult to buy cocoa that tasted like cocoa, for instance. Our only source of good tasting cocoa was my Hungarian uncle. He would bring one or two packs of Nestlé when he visited, and that was it for the year. I’m sure the person who somehow assembled the ice cream at home also didn’t have a source of cocoa or lemon that tasted accordingly. Lemons and other citrus fruits were available for several days per year, in the winter.

As a result, the three types of ice cream were different in color but not that different in taste, at least according to my fading memories. I think they were all mostly vanilla. The yellow and brown were just a bit worse.

My imagination at that time couldn’t imagine another taste of ice cream, only another color. How could there be 50 types of ice cream if there were only six or seven colors? I wasn’t able to imagine more colors either.

I don’t remember when I first saw modern ice cream; it must have been years after the fall of communism. Communism withdrew slowly, and the riches of consumerist society didn’t become widely available until 1997. But at some point, I saw a Delta fridge, perhaps around 1992-3.

Oh. That’s how you get 50 types of ice cream. My cousin didn’t lie to me.

My Communist Tabby

~ Veselin ~ 21 Comments

I consider starting a new post series on my blog about my experience with the communist Bulgaria, between 1979 and 1989. The idea is inspired by a book I’m currently reading, but more about the book once I finish it.

The story today is about my first cat. She was a tabby with lots of white, not as much as the cat above but you get the idea. The year is 1987 or 1988.

My brother got her from a friend without permission, let her home, and she hid behind some furniture for hours. She was probably 4-5 months old at the time. Our parents weren’t too happy about it but played cool and let us have her. We were super happy, must’ve played with her for hours every day. She loved playing, loved chasing walnuts, and was overall a very energetic animal who seeked attention. My hands had some constant 10-20 scratches at any time as she was always sharp and ready for battles.

Our plays didn’t sit well with the neighbor from the floor below. Now that I have kids of my own, I can imagine the noise we made with the cat and all these walnuts and tennis balls. The neighbor’s response to the issue, however, was that he would yell at us, threaten us, and he tried to enter our place several times. One time, he kicked the door while my brother was on the other side, and opened a large wound on his forehead. My parents called the police. A very large officer showed up and interviewed us, then left. I still remember some very uncomfortable questions for my age, like exact words of the insults the neighbor was screaming. Also, the size of that officer was stunning for us. Obesity in communist Bulgaria was uncommon because people didn’t have all that much food. We were all thin.

There were no follow-ups, we reduced the number of rolling toys, and the neighbor banged on the door less often after that. My brother’s would healed. Cat kept finding walnuts for months after, I guess she had a secret stash in difficult to reach places.

She disappeared about a year later, apparently she got sick or poisoned during our summer break. Looking back, I suspect her diet might not have been very healthy as we didn’t have cat food. She would eat things like bread, milk, yogurt, and occasional canned fish. Wouldn’t be surprised if she suffered the health consequences for eating bread and not enough taurine. We were unaware of any of that at the time, Internet didn’t exist, and there were no vets for pets anywhere to be found either. Cat food as a concept didn’t exist either. Stores would sell essentials only – bread, milk, flower, sugar, and so on, and they would run out, so you’d have to wait on a queue or go at specific days or hours.

Having another cat after I became an adult showed me how much food a healthy cat needs and how large they can get. So poor thing, didn’t last long with us but at least, she was loved and played a lot.