[Telecolor 3007]

I was borned at the end of 1982. At my parental granparents I had Japanesee electronics and a Telecolor 3007 color tv. Even color tv was someting in Romania back in the '80's (we had color television only in 1983, because of "Hello, hello, comrades, stay calm in your pleices"). Turnatabels (record-players) or pick-up-uri (picupuri) - how we call them in Romanian where more common then reel to reel tape recorders or cassette recorders.
Not even in the '90's technology wasn't very avaible for the Romanian - small incomes and hyperinflation (up to 1998). Second-hand save used in almost all domains: electronics, transportation (both public and private), home aplainces. But in 2000 there where old people in Bucharest that still dind't had a tv!
I had a color television at my home only on 12-12-2000. The rest of my relatives from Bucharest had color television up till then. Most people hand't had a V.C.R. C.D.'s became more common after 1997-1998 and beaten the cassette only after 2000.

In the are where I live almost all people had a telephone. Only a girl mate dind't had, throu all that the telephone exchange was less then 500 yards away from her. There where 3 telephone exchanges (4 after mid '90's) in my area. Est (Dimitrov) 1 and 2 where in the same buidling. There was Iancu less an mile away. At Iancu they've intalled an digital telephone exchange somewhere after 1995 (there where only 2 phone books for Bucharest and Ilfov county in the '90's: in 1992 and in 1998... so some information are hard to find). We had the 1st urban digital telephone exchange in Bucharest only in 1992 (numbers begining with 312). In november? of 1992 there was the exchange from 6 digits numbers to 7 digits numbers. All numbers where added an 6 in front (so my number begun with 642 after that... 66 becamed 666 and numbers with 666 still exist!) - except in the Souht-West and East side of the city, where in the front of the old number was added an 7 (for eg 71 becamed 771).
Getting a telephone was a hard job. Except for
- Bucharest
- Voluntari (Volunteers) (back then a commune, now a city), Ilfov county (the county that sorrounds Bucharest)
- City of Buftea, Ilfov county
- Commune of Corbeanca (some where after mid-'90's)
- and Prahova County (the county North of llfov County)
- + the sea-side cities and villages
telephone line where a common thing only in county "capitals" and in some other cityes in the county.
Ha-ha, in the country-side in Prahova county I had a telephone in 1997-1998, when they replaced the old manual telephone exchange (installed I think in the '80's) - which had quyte a lot of subscribers in the road area, but some people in Bucharest had a telephone line only in 2000-2002.
When I finshed 8th grade (in 1997) there still where the 2 old rotary dial pay phones (only for urban calls). The telphone exchange was near the school and less then 500-600 yards away from me. Now me and my former school have a ladline from Iancu telephone exachange.
In the '90's there where some blue pay phones, coined operated, but with push button and L.C.D display. These could be used for both urban and interurban calls. But theren't where many (and I don't have a picture of one!), since they where connected only to digital telephone exchanges. I didin't use one in Bucharest. I only used them in Cosntanţa (the city) when I was with my mother and sister on summer hollydays and I called my maternal granparents in Bucharest (both of my parents where borned here).
Now we have only card operated pay phones. No wonder allmost no one is using them...

Sheesh, I think now that now allmost all people can have the thing they've wanted, but they aren't using them too much. We can have now an landline, but we don't have too many people to call on a fix phone. We can have tv's and radios, but allmost nothing to watch or to listen (the news are depressing me and allmost all radio stations are brodacasting the same tunes). I dreamed of the 16:9 format and now I descovered that I'm too used with the old 4:3 format (I still have an 4:3 monitor and I ain't going to get me an 16:9 one). Neither a new tv. My 2000 "Sony" still works and will be used for another 5 years I hope. I've still had seen some people that have C.R.T. tv sets. Some people don't want to own a tv set any longer!
Back in the '90's there where fewer cars in Romania. The street and roads where allmost all in poor condition. Now they are in better condition, but there are to many cars, too less parking lots and the gas is expensive (about 4 dollars per gallon! - and 600-700 dollars wage (sallary) is a good one around here)).