I've been thinking about writing on such topic for a couple of months, and thanks to amazing @rambo and @missy for they to create another one Blog Homework task with the ability to share something about the people there.
Can you recognize that little girl near the piano? I was born in 1991, the year of ending the Soviet era and the very beginning of Ukrainian independence. My father is a musician; he can play lots of instruments but his main ones are contrabass and violin. My mother is a seamstress by education, however, during my childhood and youth she would change the jobs rather often and end her choice on working as an accountant. I remember a lot things from my early childhood, such as the colour of my baby carriage, my child songs in a fictitious language, my first attempts to draw and imitate a letter writing, my first day in the kindergarten and me showing my age ("Two and a half") with my fingers (the finger for "half" was half-folded)... I even remember one of my first days of life and mother carrying me on her hands through the maternity hospital, and white sheets, and the light, and a nurse passing by... Last years I'm trying to restore as many as I can (there are some personal reasons), and of course my mother usually doesn't believe in my ability to remember some facts from the very young age (or, in some cases, she might have forgotten about them by herself...), and as for my father, there is strictly opposite attitude towards it, as he remembers a lot from his childhood as well. Actually, me and my father have much more in common than me and my mother, and that touches everything: character, writing style, mimics, appearance, lots of preferences and tastes... We know what will rise our mood quite nice, and I can guess what he was going to do or to buy and doing it for him long before he shares his plans or wishes. And I love my mother and want to take care of her and know her more like a friend, not just like a relative with boring domestic topics to discuss or rare jokes to share. I want to embody my own meaning of family and be sincere with my closest relatives, know their mistakes and experiences and be able to discuss what they are really worry about...and to be mutually opened and honest.
But the topic is not about that :-)
Here is me in 1996, age still 4 (I was born in winter, and this photo dated with 07\04\1996). I am sitting on my father's hands, and there is a friend of him near us. The 90's for such countries as Russia and Ukraine has the same nostalgic meaning as the 70's or 80's for someone else. But let me just forget for a while about the idealizing of sweet old times: it's a decade of great and rapid changes, the breaking of old traditions, hunger, inflation, unemployment, a weak assortment of goods... but still having strong nation which copes with the changes; Ukrainians have only gained the independence and are trying to keep up with the times, hoping to become the new people entering the new millennium. And, of course, I would mention the fact that the Ukrainian language, one of the most beautiful languages in the world, has learned many difficulties; one could hear the Ukrainian speech mainly in villages, capital or western cities of my country, and old people often use to speak the so-called surzhik (the variant of dialect when the related languages - Russian and Ukrainian in this case - are mixed). The situation is much better now, of course...at least for a bit. Well. In the photo you may see a carpet on the wall; for someone it may be a common thing, but such "room designs" have remained nowadays mainly in villages or granny's houses. You know, 90's period is a kind of mixing the Soviet heritage and innovations from abroad. And although lots of the Soviet \ post-Soviet common flats may seem a bit tedious, casual, small (even if there are several rooms) and so on, but a huge amount of things produced in those times (furniture, kitchen stuff, clothing etc.) have been made to "serve" for a really long time. Lots of such stuff is still in use, as the quality sometimes prove to mean more than a strict up-to-date design. As for the carpets, they could have been both on the floor and on the wall, and there might be a very little percent of children today knowing that the wall carpets were perfect things for the abstract imagination, especially if you need to sleep and you don't want to :-) There are lots of phrases like "to eat mushrooms and to watch the carpet", which describe the 90's children's adaptation to the usual things around and to find some profits of it.
By the way, as for sewing and so on: my mother made lots of my nice child clothes for me by her hands, not only because of her profession or the lack of choice I've already mentioned, but, of course, because she had a living doll, a daughter who was able to be dressed by her mother's talented skills. On the photo above I wear a costume made by her; last days of me visiting the kindergarten pass away slowly, the costume's colour is light light green, it's kinda warm and sunny (as my wrinkling up shows), and the little flying insects, curious and tired, think that I'm a perfect "landing area" for them... Huh, we used to "gather" lots of them on such days when I wore that costume (later my Mum "joined me" in her personal clothing with the same fabric). Actually... The clothing choice did took place, but the goods represented were rather expensive, or too common, or...or it was a common deal. Children see the bright new wonderful things and want them, and their parents insist on buying something cheaper and more usual, and their arguments sound like "This sweater isn't so beautiful, but it it definitely warm, I've used to wear such one when being in your age" and so on. And, of course, the choice problem often coped with the lack of money.
Unfortunatelly (or not), I have just a little childhood apropriate photos available to find quickly. But let me just end my visual line with the picture from one of my sets I've made just for fun anf for sharing a nostalgia mood; there is a peg-top from my childhood, and I still love it very much. And now I'ml slowly coming to the end of my post.
Children of the 90's used to play on the streets and in the yards much more often; they knew lots of games and could create a new one; they loved Tetris and Tamagochi (which often "played" the "part" of a real pet which couldn't appear in the family because of parents' ban)... Sparing our childhood in the street, we were quite more active and adventurous; we searched for old treasures just everywhere, climbed the trees, swimmed in the quarry pits, ate the unripe apricots, build the huts, enjoyed the new pop- and rap-music from abroad which seemed so outlandish for us (rock music also tool place, but it was good for only some children, of course); some of us spent their vacations in summer camps, other ones had relatives who worked on plants and were able to get a ticket for the whole family to go resting on the seaside. Soon we'll see the first computers and mobile phones, and some of us who will be lucky to have something like that will be cool guys :-) Children were much more involved in joint activities, they were making various things of everything that was at hand. Collection of recyclables was more active: the receptions of glass, scrap metal and paper were almost everywhere, and that was very helpful thing for us to earn our own money and buy something cool or delicious. We watched videotapes and rewinded the audiocassettes using pens; the photo film was still in use and popular, moreover, er shared the mystic legend about the "red tape" from abroad that able to capture the man without clothing! Our Christmas, New Year and Birthday celebrations seemed to be the real fairy-tales. We knew what it meant to smoke a "bread straw" (salty or sweet thin sticks of bread), we adore Kinder Surprise (which had the most interesting toy collections those years with their popularity remained even today). Huh, we had chewing candies wrapping like cigarettes, moreover, some boys who tried their first real cigarettes were able to buy one or two of them without the seller's negative answer! And...I just can't help mentioning it. If in your childhood you've tried vodka when thought it was a glass of water, you're one of us :-)
Of course I understand that lots of things from my post also took place in other countries, and of course there are lots of things worth to mention as well. But I'm a bit confused also about the fact that my post turned out to be rather huge, so...enough. I love my childhood years as well as I love the 90's, and I love turning back to those times of insouciance, adventures, bright impressions and unique experiences in my deep dreams. I hope you, my dear reader, also love the childhood of yours and able to find the bright light there...even if it seems to be too dark (or grey).
Thank you for coming to the end of my story.
P.S. We were virtually the last generation able to write and read fully without using any of the smiley (except the small drawings rarely made in the letters' endings), and the dot at the end didn't mean only rude or too serious intonation for us, yay!
