My memories sometimes intertwine now with life in the apartment, now in the barracks. I think in the early 60s that generation of people who had survived after the war strove with all their strength for a peaceful, cosy life, and the piano, I would now call it, became a symbol of that peaceful life and of introducing the rising generation to art. After all they said so: if the child does not become a musician, at least he will play “for himself”!
I remembered our neighbours in the barracks: they “after us” also acquired a piano for their child. A grandmother from the village came to stay with them. And once in their family there was a scandal (here I am already writing Mama’s memories). The scandal went as far as divorce and the division of their modest property. But then that very visiting “silska baba” intervened (as you understand, someone’s mama, mother-in-law or mother-in-law — now it doesn’t matter). She said: “AND HOW WILL YOU DIVIDE THIS TOY?” This question so affected those who were divorcing that they decided not to divorce. So the piano served to strengthen the Soviet family, which was, by definition, “the cell of society.” And what did the cell of society do then? — They were building communism! ……. all right, I’ll go drink coffee…