Spinoff: Cutting in Line

ElTam

Wed, Mar 19 2014, 10:26 pm

Quote:

That scene seemed to me at the time to capture the diminished expectations that accompanied life in the USSR while simultaneously evoking the constant overstimulation we're faced with in a consumerist society.

When I was living in Europe, we had a friend from then East Germany who was able to get a visa and come out for a short visit. She literally broke down crying in the grocery store. We forget how lucky we are.

Last edited by ElTam on Thu, Mar 20 2014, 11:11 am; edited 1 time in total

m in Israel

Thu, Mar 20 2014, 5:32 am

ElTam wrote:

Quote:

My grandmother was very involved in helping Russian immigrants acclimate to life in American in the 80's when the first waves of immigrants were starting to be allowed out. One of the things she would do was to take them on their first trip to a grocery store to help them learn how to shop. She once brought someone into a store who looked around and started to get all upset. When she asked what was wrong he said that he always thought all the terrible things he heard about life in the U.S. was propaganda, but now he sees it is true. My grandmother asked what he was talking about and he replied "Look at all this food on the shelves!! Can it really be that the people are so poor here that no one has money to buy the food?" He couldn't envision any other reason for the large supply of food without anyone clamoring to take it.