Agnes Gibboney's parents had a good life in Budapest before they fled. Her father was a skilled cabinetmaker, her mother had a very good job, and they owned a four- or five-room house of their own, which was rare in a country where the government told you to put your name on a list and wait. Then the Communist Party assigned a woman to live in it. Her mother said no, this is my house. The woman's answer: do you want me to take your house? She stayed.
In this segment of The Jenny Beth Show's Surviving Communism series, Gibboney tells Jenny Beth Martin about the day her mother came home from work to find her kitchen table pushed aside and the lodger's table in its place, and the sentence that ended the argument. The woman was protected by the Communist Party, and the family could not say a word in their own home. That, Gibboney says, is what gave her parents the incentive to get out. Jenny Beth Martin's summary: that's free housing.
Then she describes what leaving cost. Her mother had five brothers, a sister and a mother in Hungary, and she never said goodbye to any of them, because she was afraid her own mother would stop her by reporting her. They left everything behind, including a small wooden jewelry box her father had made; a cousin returned it to her about five years ago. Her grandmother died in the mid-1960s while her mother was in emergency surgery in Brazil, and they never saw each other again. Letters went back and forth, and a phone call meant writing ahead to say: go to the post office at this hour and wait. Today the first thing Gibboney does on every trip to Hungary is visit the cemeteries.
In this segment:
• A house of their own in communist Hungary, and why that was uncommon
• The Communist Party assigns a stranger to live in it
• "Do you want me to report you?"
• Why the lodger was the last straw before the family fled
• Leaving five brothers, a sister and a mother behind without a goodbye
• The wooden box her father made, returned after more than sixty years
• Letters, a phone at the post office, and a mother and daughter who never met again
Subscribe for daily analysis from Tea Party Patriots Action, and watch the full episode on The Jenny Beth Show channel.
jennybethshow.com
teapartypatriots.org
00:00 — Can I go back for a second? One suitcase, twice
00:31 — A house of their own, and why that was rare in communist Hungary
01:23 — The Communist Party puts a woman in her parents' home
01:55 — The kitchen table, and "Do you want me to report you?"
02:19 — "That's free housing"; five brothers, a sister and a mother left behind
02:47 — Her mother never said goodbye, afraid of being reported
03:09 — The wooden box her father made, returned after five decades
03:58 — Did your mom see her mother again? Letters and the post office phone
04:28 — Her grandmother's death; "I never met my maternal grandparents"
04:49 — The first thing she does on every trip to Hungary
#JennyBethShow #AgnesGibboney #CommunistHungary #SurvivingCommunism #Communism #Socialism #FreeHousing #Hungary #NothingIsFree #TeaPartyPatriotsAction