from “Communist Monte Cristo” Question: “In 1956, who awaited Father Christmas most eagerly?” Answer: “Comrade Stalin. He already put his boots out in October.” Budapest joke, 1956
The state police came for Great Granddad only in April, and just when he’d made such a nice adjustment to the people’s republic and its tattered legitimacy! He rose at five, went to work by six, didn’t shoot his mouth off, and didn’t read the papers. His lifestyle reminded him of the First World War and his innocent, youthful years, and the long-familiar routine of work-dinner-sleep made his head buzz pleasantly. He even arranged for his son’s family to move in with him. His son Gyuszi must have made up his mind, possibly while he was still back in the Soviet Union, that nothing would come between him and his good cheer. Certainly, in 1957 no one except for him would have thought that it was worth fathering a child for this valley of tears, but Gyuszi did, because his wife Eta was expecting their third child.