Grandma, part two

She was born in a small village on the Russian-Polish border, the youngest child of 7. Sometimes she says that people spend a lot of time with their children nowadays, unlike when she was a kid, when nobody paid much attention to them.

She remembers the first radio in their village, and the sense of wonder.

She also remembers that the village was so close to the border that her sister, who was studying elsewhere, had to apply for a special permit to visit back home with her family. After the border moved half of the family turned out to be living in Russia and half right across the border in Poland. They (the Russian half) never saw the Polish half again.

When grandma graduated from high school, she went to Leningrad to apply to the university to study physics. Don't know where she got the idea, and why. I was quite surprised when I found out about it. Anyway, she didn't get in and was offered a place in the biology program instead, which she didn't accept. She went to study economics in an engineering school. Have no idea why they teach economics in engineering schools in Russia. I suppose this is similar to the tuotantotalous programs in technical universities in Finland. She made a fairly good career for a person with a quadruple handicap (Jewish, female, born in an area that occasionally belonged to Poland and of a wrong social background - her parents owned a "leather factory" of which they were the only workers).

She is the one person I know whose health had really greatly benefited from overwork. During the war she came to work on Sunday, and suddenly soldiers came, grabbed everyone and stuck them on a train. Turned out to have been the last chance to get out of Leningrad before the siege. The train came somewhere in the middle of nowhere and grandma got placed with a family in a village that was not blessed with any of the necessities of modern life. The host family was very surprised to her that she was Jewish, because they had thought that Jews had horns and she didn't have any. Should've told them that they fell off during the train jorney. Anyway, grandma learned some agriculture, to the point that she managed to provide her two surviving sisters with something green every once in a while (they were evacuated to some nearby towns and did not have a lot of opportunities in the way of agriculture).

After the war she came back to Leningrad, continued her career, got a husband, got a kid, got a grandkid and retired. The poor thing probably thought that the grandkid would turn out better than the kid, now that she has retired and has a lot of time to participate in child-rearing. Turned out even worse, I think, from her point of view.

She tries to advertise the advantages of husbands over boyfriends: "A boyfriend does not have to be with you 24 hours a day and obey all your orders". The mind boggles. Why would a marriage certificate do that to a person, and why would I want a man who is with me 24 hours a day and obeys all my orders? "I have a computer for that," I say. Grandma looks pensive.

She doesn't have many books, almost none. She (and Grandpa, when he was alive) is the only person in the family like that. Moreover, she disapproves of the rest of us owning so many books. Never could figure out why. She likes to read, though, and she borrows a lot of books. The books she reads are usually history books and sometimes historical fiction about the parts of history she'd seen with her own eyes. Considering the history, "masochistic" is the word that springs to mind.

For a person with a fair bit of anti-intellectial inclinations she sometimes has amazing questions. Once tried to get me to explain to her how the TCP/IP works. Apparently understood the explanation, too. She loves all the new technical gadgets, not to own but to look at, at least on TV, and listen about. Sometimes she says that at her age the only thing to live for is curiosity, to find out what kind of things they'll invent the next year.

I think what the old bat really needs is a computer with Russian fonts installed as a default, and a broadband connection. Maybe I should see about it the next time I am there.