On our way. Budapest Transport Limited, 1978.
My parents and I are on public transport heading to a free community event in 1970’s Budapest. These commonly held friendly public gatherings were either state-sector funded or put on by one of Hungary’s several state-owned corporations. Always with a very small budget: cheap soda and white bread with pork-fat spread and onion topping, kites emerging from the backs of cars traded within the Communist Economic Community. Some children were then able to fly them. 70’s top-of-the-pops bands blurting from low-tech loudspeakers – the likes of Boney-M as well as Hungarian ABBA-imitators. At other times open public relations meetings with a well-known writer, sports and fun day – spoon-and-egg race, run-in-the-sack, skipping rope and eat-a-pancake races, cheap waffle with cream topping, and children’s day.
This occasion too is a children’s day for the families and employees of the Hungexpo corporation – the international trading firm
...working on Hungarian exportables on demand abroad. My grandad served as the firm’s director for years, hence the invitation. We are on an overheated blue city bus on the way to Budapest’s industrial area, mostly concrete and asphalt slightly melting in the hot sun. Once at the complex, surrounded by pre-war administrative buildings, I enroll in a chalk-drawing competition in the area probably serving as the company car park. A keen artist at the time, am doing my best to visually recreate some scene vividly playing in my four-year-old imagination: a grass-snake basking on top of the yellow dump of weeds; a large shepherd dog chasing a dachshund; a native American warrior exiting a tepee and calling to a fellow tribesman standing guard; a sheriff of the American Wild West, standing on the porch, with a revolver and a knife hanging from his belt.
The organisers, all female...
...provide us with chalk in different colours, which must have come from the admin’s monthly shopping list. The sun is not beating down on the asphalt, either because it was still morning or because the plot protects the 4-5 year-olds with tall trees and four-storey buildings. I am quite convinced that my artwork stood out in the crowd of pre-schoolers, either due to my enthusiasm or due to the budding skills I had developed in kindergarten. The creative process is done in 20 minutes, and may have drawn attention to its end-product either because went slightly beyond stick-people or because I was able to keep the colouring between the lines.
It was not customary in pre-consumerist Hungary to give out prizes or awards at such events. Except for winners and runners up in competitive sport, dance, or classical music, not much heed was given to disappointed, lesser skilled children or teenagers. It is all happening this time though: the organiser lady is speaking into the microphone, next to her stand tables with presents all over them. I am the winner of the chalk-competition! For the first time in my life – and for the last as far as my childhood is concerned – I emerge victorious from a group of pre-schoolers, all wearing shorts and plain T-shirts cheaply imported from the People’s Republic of Poland or Czechoslovakia. The first prize is either a story book or a set of colouring pencils.
My parents begin to feel something is amiss when my raffle ticket is picked for the third time. I cannot remember any of the prizes but can still recall the disappointing twist when mum and dad decide to leave immediately, abruptly bringing my unending triumphs to an end, and taking me back home on the even hotter bus 55.
Back in the concrete block...
In the simply furnished living room of our grey 10-storey concrete apartment block, they explain to me that my grandad was the then retired Hungexpo’s director and a trusted comrade on the board of Hungary’s communist party for years prior to his retirement, which explains my exceptional streak of victory that day.
I am fully convinced that Mr Földes Sr. would not have approved of that practice and had no knowledge of it. Yet, it is perfect illustration of the extent of favouritism and the practice of mutual favours in the public administrations of communist era Eastern Europe.