Lately, I was speaking to a former Yerevan resident who does not live in Yerevan since long ago. He did not only come from Yerevan but was also raised in Ajapnyak, me as well. Moreover, he was attending the same school No. 122, although several years before me. If we did not have topics to talk about with that man completely, it was already enough for evolving an interesting conversation. For example, we were watching films at the same “Aragats” cinema (where now cars are sold).
Queues were in place for good films, for example, “Black Poppy” or “The Phantom” and there was not enough space for all the ones who wanted to see the film in the cinema. And forasmuch as we – Armenia’s residents do not like to stand in a queue, mildly said, a huge crowd was accumulating in front of the box office. But it was solely in the case when the administrator of the cinema was absent. That man was disabled – his hands were shorter than the ordinary and he always put a coat on his shoulders. But with his active movements and shoutings he was able to make all the people line up in a proper queue. “Tumanyan Park” existed still in my school years, it was a rather rough area not taken care of, where my friends were going to smoke (I did not smoke). Now that park is well-kept and I like to sit with a notebook or a book on its tidily cut lawn during “summer season”. In the years of my early childhood (1960s) there was an agricultural market in the frontal part of the same park, very close to our home. 10 rubles were needed for buying food for a few days.
I remember very well my parents always highlighted that by “the old money” it would be 100 rubles – denomination in the Soviet Union had taken place in 1961. When they try to give a “political” shade to the memories, then they assuredly shout – “how good it was back then” or, more rarely, “how bad it was.” Usually, people are inclined towards making comparisons with the present and come to a conclusion as if back then it was better than today – “the life was merry and happy, people were kind, dignity existed, respect towards the older people, and now…” But I try not to label neither the past nor the present. I leave the evaluating viewpoints to “politicized mass” and I simply want to remind them of the past, who lived throughout those times and tell the people who were born later. Why telling all this is necessary? For our culture, with the full sense of the word, to be preserved. For me, my children or grandchildren not to think that everything has started from them.
ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
