This may have been the only time in my teaching career that I was actually excited to collect and read everybody's homework. Common themes in the responses were:
--I don't really know about the communist era because I was born after it ended (1989) but
--my grandparents think it was a positive time overall because everyone had jobs
--I actually talked to my parents about my homework
--there sure are a lot of big gray buildings built during that time
--we'd all be learning Russian right now if Communism were still here
--now it's much easier to travel to other countries and we appreciate that
--even if it had some advantages, I'm glad I don't live in a Communist country
When I was in high school, Communism was a joke, just another word to use when describing something we didn't like. Shortly after arriving in Slovakia I realized that Communism was no joke. Its remains are everywhere, and the current leaders of the country are mostly "former" Communists. Many Slovaks believe that Communism had advantages for their country, although most also acknowledge its disadvantages. For those of us who never had to experience such a system, I hope reading these excerpts will give you insight into what Communism was and is really like. Some things in the responses made me sad, like the one about the library, but some made me smile, and they also made me think. I hope they do the same for you.
"In my opinion the thing which affects my life mostly and not only my life but all of ours lifes is that regime was changed [in 1989] but thinking of people was not."
"Before communism we had a really nice and old library with huge windows [in Lučenec]. There were so many books and it had so much space. Inside of that library was an interesting spiral staircase. That time no other towns and cities in the region of Novohrad did not have library like my town. But when the communism came, they removed it and built a statue of one man there. This time we have a library which is very useless and ugly. We just can't say we are proud of our 'new' library."
"Summer camps are something, what have beginning in communism and I never regret that it incepted. And nice is that I'm not alone, who love camps and who is grateful for this. Camps have long tradition but always in one spirit, or with one motto...Live for fun, friends and love. Camps contain all of these important life values." 
"Other thing is that there is one biscuit from communist era which I love - Horalky. This is the best biscuit ever. I hope you love it too. I think in this era they made better biscuits than now."
"The weapon of self-destruction of communist system is Liberta. Liberta is bicycle. But no normal bicycle. It makes you free, it has magical power. Communists wanted to create something what will calm down unsatisfied rebels in peaceful way. But when people tasted the taste of liberty by Liberta, they recognized what is true freedom and what is communism."
"I could say that there is also second thing which affected me. Fashion. Extravagant in this time was striped shirt and on graduation class-photographs, they could not have this shirt, because it was not allowed. In this time, when you want to be extravagant you would wear something like in communism was normal. Now it is called retro style and you would be really cool. So I think that fashion in communism really affected us. also it had breakthrough and I am really happy that we can wear what we want and nobody looks at you, like you are an idiot."
"I remember when we had Škoda and it was super car. In those times it was like a limousine. It is interesting that engine is in the rear side of car. You can do pretty nice drifts on it. When you sit into Škoda 105 you feel like boss. This car was 
awesome."
"To tell the truth I had never seen such a reliable, nice, friendly and persistant car neither before nor after it [the Škoda 120L]. This dark green car seemed to be able to do anything. We ised to ride to town, to forests, simply everywhere. And from me as a child with lack of confidence became a strong individual. I learned to trust this mechanism. I was not afraid of machines anymore. My family and I were given new possibilities. I even started to learn how to drive and I was only twelve. I also learned how to care about it. At last we gave it a name--Elza. Unfortunately, we had to sell it some time ago but I can tell that I became completely different person than I had been before. I thank socialism for Škoda 120L."
"However, I found a good thing that was invented during that time. It is Slovak famous "good night" show for children that is called Večerníček. Večerníček is a character with resemblance of an old, kind man who has the role of an usher. He ushers the show and fairy tales are broadcasted in the show. I loved it as a kid. Before I went to bed I must have always seen it and then I could go to sleep. There was also a special soundtrack that was very catchy. Always when I heard the first sounds of it I ran straight to the living room. I sat down on the floor, in front of the TV and I was watching my favorite show. It started shortly before 7 and after that I needed to go to sleep. Večerníček is shown also nowadays. It has started in 1963. Honestly, I am not that excited to see it as I was when I was a kid but I still have some good memories about it. Especially, when I hear the soundtrack it makes me smile."
"If I just imagine the situation if there had been no comunism, Slovakia would nowadays be much more developed. But--it isn't so. Therefore we--the young people--are the ones to help the state development. I think it is a big motivation for us eventhough if there had been no comunism, we would certainly be somewhere else. I would really like to take a role in helping the slowly developing system."
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