Life in Communist Albania was very different, compared to the life today. I was born back in those harsh times. I sat and explained to my son how back then, everyone was poor, except for the leaders. I also explained to him how even though we did not have lots of materials, me, along with my friends, still managed to create fun games, using only what we had and our imagination. While she is explaining the story to me, meanwhile I just sit back and try to visualize the story…

Even though the schools had harsh punishments, squeezed more than 30 students into one small classrooms, and the conditions were horrible, I loved my time in school. I always had a desire to learn, and I loved playing games with my friends from school. However, my favorite days were field trips, and my favorite field trip out of all these, was when I went hiking in Mt. Dajti, not because it was the most fun, but the scariest and the most unforgettable, at the same time.

It was November of 1981, and it was finally the day she was waiting. The day that we would hike Mt. Dajti. “I even crossed out the days that passed in the calendar, and circled the date that we were gonna go hiking; I was that excited,” I told my son. At first, everything seemed normal, but then… When I went away from the group with my friends, I realized we were lost in the forest. “I did not even know how, we just stayed away from the group for a couple of minutes and they just left.” We stayed in the forest for quite some time, searching for help, but all of our attempts were in vain. After about two hours of not finding a way in the forest, and not knowing where the others were, we finally decided that they should go back to Tirana away from the group and go home, because there was no use in hiking, because we would get lost and not even find the way back. On the way back to Tirana, some teachers caught us, and then sent us back to class, and called all of our parents. My parents were not very happy with me, and they sent me immediately back home. When at home, I had to explain everything to my parents, and even though I told them the truth, ultimately they grounded me for one week.

I still remembers that day as if it was yesterday. I also told my son that kids of his generation will never experience things like that, due to them just playing with our electronics, and never interacting with friends. Meanwhile, while my son was lying on his bed, I thought about my own childhood, and told myself, “Maybe it was not that bad back in the day.”