Letters From A Student In Communist Poland

Miroslawa was a citizen and student of Poland during the rule of a military dictatorship. 1984 was the year after my graduation from college at UNC-Chapel Hill. An avid shortwave radio listener, I wrote to a Bulgarian periodical that transmitted a message during Radio Sofia's English language broadcast. The Bulgarian state radio summoned listeners to mail their addresses so that penpals might be found for readers of Bulgaria Heute (Bulgaria Today). I was among those who responded to the transmission. Miroslawa (Mirka) was my only Polish penpal/friend among the hundreds of people who sent letters and cards that I received from eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, Cuba, Angola, and the Middle East. She was a vibrant youth whose passions were new wave and rock music, horses, and maps. We shared letters, records, cards, calendars, and an exchange of cultures and ideas. My ebook includes a number of her letters. They were written in an era before the staleness of e-mail became a part of everyday life. For the most part, the joy and anxiousness of waiting on an anticipated letter from a friend, via postal mail, is a thing of the past. This is a sad feature of progress and the advancement of the digital age.