{"id":307,"date":"2020-07-09T21:43:00","date_gmt":"2020-07-09T20:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/darkskydigital.co.uk\/clients\/av\/?p=307"},"modified":"2020-12-06T22:02:52","modified_gmt":"2020-12-06T22:02:52","slug":"your-memoirs-leaving-for-poland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/darkskydigital.co.uk\/clients\/av\/flash-memoir-project\/your-memoirs-leaving-for-poland\/","title":{"rendered":"Your Memoirs \u2013 \u201cLeaving for Poland\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The blue Mini had several dents and rusted bumpers. It cost \u00a360. I\u2019d saved the money from my job teaching English to foreigners in London.\u00a0 My boyfriend worked in a vodka factory and used to come home tipsy, drinking from accidentally broken bottles in the machinery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We packed the mini with all our belonging.  I brought a cardboard box full of LPs including \u2018Blonde on Blonde\u2019. No-one in the flat could remember who it belonged to.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Why are you taking them? he asked. \u2018I haven\u2019t got a record player there.\u2019 I thought we might find one somewhere.\u00a0 Omer had one bag and a warm coat.\u00a0 We also packed cooking utensils like a garlic crusher.\u00a0 And spices.\u00a0 You couldn\u2019t buy them in Poland.\u00a0 We pushed in sleeping bags that smelled of damp and sweat.\u00a0 I packed some photos as well as my brushes and paints.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I didn\u2019t have any warm winter clothes but and my boots were burgundy suede, knee high and heeled. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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With a map of Europe we would set off from the flat above the mini-cab office and head for Harwich.  Would we really find our way with this? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our flat mates who were members of the Young Communist Party waved us off.  They seemed subdued as if they felt this was a huge mistake.  I thought it was funny that I, the one member of the flat who was not a communist, was going to live in a communist country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Are you sure about this?\u2019 asked Maggie. I was always very stubborn and unwilling to admit I had second thoughts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018We\u2019ll get on better there,\u2019 I said but I wondered. He could be volatile. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It took us three days to drive to the Polish border, sleeping on the ground in parking lay-bys. We bought visas to get through East Germany and drove as quickly as possible.  I have no memory of eating anything but we probably had bread and cheese.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we crossed the border a Polish policeman stopped us and kicked the car.\u00a0 He seemed angry that such a beat-up wreck could have arrived from the West.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Submitted by Pauline Hughes, 73, North Shields<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The blue Mini had several dents and rusted bumpers. It cost \u00a360. I\u2019d saved the money from my job teaching English to foreigners in London.\u00a0 My boyfriend worked in a vodka factory and used to come home tipsy, drinking from accidentally broken bottles in the machinery. We packed the mini with all our belonging.  I … Continue reading Your Memoirs \u2013 \u201cLeaving for Poland\u201d<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[73,74],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/darkskydigital.co.uk\/clients\/av\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/darkskydigital.co.uk\/clients\/av\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/darkskydigital.co.uk\/clients\/av\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darkskydigital.co.uk\/clients\/av\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darkskydigital.co.uk\/clients\/av\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/darkskydigital.co.uk\/clients\/av\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":310,"href":"https:\/\/darkskydigital.co.uk\/clients\/av\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307\/revisions\/310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/darkskydigital.co.uk\/clients\/av\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darkskydigital.co.uk\/clients\/av\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darkskydigital.co.uk\/clients\/av\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}