Back in the USSR, we had a living room curtain that cost 1,000 roubles. That was what my father made in 9 months before taxes. There are other Soviet people on the blog, and they’ll confirm that it was an insane amount to pay for a curtain. We lived on the first floor, and this ugly-ass expensive bitch was completely transparent. And window shades were not an existing concept.
At the same time, we were so poor that I would spend the whole day in my school uniform because there was nothing to change into. My shoes were always 2-3 sizes too small, and I still remember how much it hurt. Still, it could have been worse. My little cousin (a boy), the only son of a math teacher and a dentist, had to wear hand-me-down underwear from his female cousins, the poor dude. Imagine changing for phys ed with other boys while sporting pink panties with butterflies. Ain’t socialism great?*
In any case, my point is that poor people have the strangest priorities, and you won’t understand unless you’ve experienced it.
*The cousin is now a trader in the Cayman Islands and making a packet. IQ is decisive unless you are held back by socialism.
Clarissa's Blog 
Even here. Can’t count the number of people I knew growing up who were constantly taking out payday loans to make the rent, but whose kids had *all* the flashy expensive toys.
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People convince themselves that necessities include top-of-the-line gadgets and a subscription to the Disney channel.
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My parents would say… “and that’s why they’re poor”.
The distinction was kind of lost on me when I was a kid (we weren’t exactly well-off, ourselves). But I get it now. Priorities. My parents did that to send us to private schools.
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When I was in college in the 1970s, I was part of a small team of students who ran a club for little girls in a high-rise low-income housing project in what we used to call the “inner city.” All the people living in the project were on public assistance. But the little girls who came to our club always had lots more cash in their pockets than any of the “privileged” college students who were running the program.
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“window shades were not an existing concept”
Did you have…. (not sure of an English word)…. in Polish called firanki? in the USSR? Those are usually between the curtain the window and are usually white mesh with a pattern. If you’re inside you can see through them easily but if you’re outside you can’t really see in…
I checked wikipedia and no russian or Ukrainian (or English) entry, in German they’re called Store (Gardine) and in French voilage…
Absolute standard in Polish and very useful (also for keeping bugs out in summer).
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Store_(Gardine)
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Yes, we call them gardiny. There are heavy curtains (shtory) and these lacy things (gardiny). But the one my mother got for 1000 roubles didn’t allow for anything additional. It was a pale blue, see-through tulle number. Very frothy and floaty.
I had no idea Gardine was a German word. One fewer term to memorize!
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“pale blue, see-through tulle number. Very frothy and floaty”
None of that sounds remotely soviet…. how was it acquired? black market?
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Yes, this was completely black market. I vaguely remember that it was brought in from Germany.
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