Bittersweet tastes of life in the Polish People’s Republic: Bolesławiec and its residents in those years. Today we present one of the winning entries, a story by Wiktoria Parkita from Zespół Szkół in Osiecznica.

Grandpa Władek spun out his story for a long time, and I absorbed his words like a dry sponge absorbs water. He reminisced about both the worries and the small joys of everyday life. He mentioned that every day, in his Syrena manufactured at the factory in Żerań, he first drove Grandma to her shift at the hospital, and then rushed to work himself. He passed the dairy, “Ampułki,” which “Gazeta Robotnicza” wrote about extensively, following its development step by step, as well as the numerous smaller or larger queues in front of the shops.

From his memories it emerged that the longest queues were always for shoes and in front of the Talar family’s meat shop. Although sometimes, as he said, it was not known what the queue was for. Because people had to queue for literally everything. From toilet paper, as well as meat, to washing machines and televisions. I slowly began to realize how unimaginably strange and different from today the times they had to navigate were. Finally, I exclaimed:

– How absurd it was! These queues are downright unreal, Grandpa!

– Unreal, sweetheart? After some time, a new profession even emerged – he said mysteriously.

– Really? What kind? – I managed to ask.

– It was a “queue stand-in,” who relieved tired citizens and spent his life standing in queues – he said, bursting out laughing.

In the story Wiktoria heard from her grandfather, she visits a now-forgotten 1980s Bolesławiec. She mentions Kubiak’s bakery and the fact that delicious whipped-cream tubes were served near the former Waryński Park, at the end of Leningradzka Street, today Helena and Wincenty Tyrankiewiczów Street.

The hit of those years was two playfully shaped elephants. Charming wire figures covered with soil and planted with flowers. They came to the city as part of cooperation with Nowy Sącz. From her grandfather’s story, the girl learns about the Venus cinema on Świerczewskiego Street, today’s Zgorzelecka Street (the ZSUiH building), and about the Central restaurant. Grandpa described how the city was expanding. Buildings made of prefabricated concrete panels were regarded by the residents of Bolesławiec as a sign of modern architectural thinking and, for many of them, were a dream place to live.

The first-place winners in the respective age categories were:

  • Zofia Sulik third grade, Primary School No. 1 in Bolesławiec (supervisor Iwona Majewska)
  • Natalia Czurejno fifth grade, Primary School in Wykroty (supervisor Monika Tomkiewicz)
  • Wiktoria Parkita seventh grade, Zespół Szkół in Osiecznica (supervisor Barbara Piękny)
  • Karolina Guzowska third year of secondary school, I Liceum Ogólnokształcące in Bolesławiec (supervisor Ewa Ołenicz-Bernacka)

all the stories can be read on the website of Powiatowe Centrum Edukacji i Kształcenia Kadr in Bolesławiec.