| Len's cousin
Explaining capitalism to a Communist official
The same master, the one that was a fine man, he used to love to sit with us. We never were afraid of him, you see. Like, we used to make a fire and sit. Don't forget, it was always cold in there, and we had a fire, and a seat [?] and warm, and we used to tell each other stories. We used to go in the morning to the restaurant — there was a restaurant [where] we used to go in the morning to eat breakfast before going to work — and we used to get a little bit of cereal and a little slice of bread.
And the bread we didn't eat. We used to take it in our pocket, and we used to have it for break time. Let's say at 10 o'clock we used to have... there they call it "smoking time," because there is no coffee there anyhow, so you can't say "coffee time." So, we used to have a break time, and everybody used to pull out this piece of bread from the pocket, and in the same pocket was tobacco, and change, everything was in the pocket. And it was unwrapped. We had no paper to wrap, nothing. It was good. It was in the same pocket, you know.
And everybody used to pull out, and by the time we pulled it out, it was frozen solid. So, we used to take a piece of wood, and make a little speech [sic] and make toast. Out of the bread, you know, toast it on the fire. And everybody used to gloat over the piece of bread and how in his own town — you know, this big, famous bakery used to sell the pastry and this little bread was representing the pastry we used to eat at home. Then we used to tell... And he used to laugh to hear the stories, that guy, you know.
And one day, I remember, it was one fellow from our fellows, who was from Warsaw. He was a big fellow, a big-city fellow, and he tried to explain to that master how the capitalist system worked in Poland. And he told him, "Look, you need a pair of pants, and you go into the store. And you say you want a pair of pants. He wants 20 dollars for it." Now, if you go to the guy and tell him if you'll give you a good price, you might buy two pair, he would give you two for 18 dollars. You go tell him that you need a dozen, he might give it to you wholesale for 15 dollars. If you are a very shrewd operator, you might come and say 'Hey, fellow, your people are going around without work anyway. What could you give me as an offer for a whole carload of pants?' you could get it for 10 dollars."
And you know, I'll never forget the look on this guy's face. The fellow jumped up, and said, "Say, fellows, that's enough. That's a bunch of capitalist propaganda. How much is a pair of pants," he says. "What do you mean. Every time you say, it goes down in price. Haven't you got a price for a pair?" He wouldn't believe us, you know. He couldn't believe that if we buy two pair, it costs cheaper than one pair. Because in Russia there was no such thing. They don't sell you two pair. Or you only get one pair. And he wouldn't believe it.
But that guy, that guy was good. Everybody was loving that guy. He was good, you know.
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