TC: I see you brought me your photo album. I want to ask about your experience when you went to Hungary. Could you tell me a little bit about that and share that memory...
More »TC: I see you brought me your photo album. I want to ask about your experience when you went to Hungary. Could you tell me a little bit about that and share that memory with me?
BB: Okay, I went to Hungary when I was 26 years old. The Hungary was still under Communist domination, by the Soviet Union. I went to Hungary with my grandmother, who had left in 1907 when she came to this country, to Ellis Island.
TC: Is this a picture of your grandmother right here?
BB: My grandmother’s here. She’s with her first cousin. She left in 1907 and he was only five years old. So, she saw him as an old man, when she went back in 1978.
TC: Do you recall some of your feelings before you went?
BB: It was a little bit scary. I had heard a lot about the Soviet Union and Communist rule, in the Eastern Block, and here I was going, and it was my first trip outside of the country.
TC: What was it like when you arrived? Can you remember?
BB: There was a big band, because the Shah of Iran was also arriving at the time we arrived. There was a band, and there were soldiers. They took us off an airplane and put us on a bus and drove us around to Passport Control, where we presented our passports and visas. And before me was a Yugoslavic gentleman, about the same age as I was. And I think the Passport Controller thought I was with him, because he gave me a difficult time. He asked where I was born and I pointed to my Visa and Passport, and I said, “ Pennsylvania, USA”. He said “ What city were you born in?”. I said, “ Darby.” Then my grandmother spoke up. She said, she talked to him in Hungarian. Then the Passport Controller said I was fortunate to have a grandmother who spoke so well after all these years.
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