назад в СССР!

[peacetraveler22]

I'll never know or experience life during Soviet times, but during some of my visits to Russia I feel like I'm transported back to that era, or even another century. The road trip is coming to an end, with the final stop today in Yaroslavl. Along the way, I explored many small towns and spent an entire day and night in a village, talking to the locals in their homes, eating freshly prepared meals, and sleeping alone in an old house in the forest! But that will be the topic of another post. Yesterday in Soligalich, I entered a small meat shop and discovered this woman. I don't know for certain, but this blue uniform looks very Soviet, especially the hat. However, the most interesting thing in the provincial shops was...can you guess from the photo? :)

The object below! I became so confused when the shop owner started moving the balls, and thought she was offering to play some type of game. Then, my Russian travel companion informed me this is the shop's "calculator" or cash register, to add up the total cost of your purchase. How does it work? I still don't understand, but I was always bad at math. :)



The woman in the cheese shop next store was wearing this same blue outfit, but she is progressive! She had a normal adding machine, and even modern day scales to weigh the cheese.



I think it's always good to preserve your culture, including some old customs. But, yes, I was shocked to enter many small shops in Russian provinces and see no cash register, but this wooden contraption to calculate sales. Not just one or two shops, but a lot. Is it normal for a "modern" country? I think not. But maybe older people are so tied to tradition that they don't even want to purchase a basic calculator, which I assume is inexpensive in Russia. Progress in thought, technology, infrastructure...all signs of a healthy nation and culture in my view.

So many other things to write about, but I have no time on the road. :( On this trip, I've  met a lot of friendly Russians, and experienced no hostility based on the fact that I'm American. I'm very happy about both of these things! More to come soon...

Comments

[perycalypsis.livejournal.com]

Every point of sale in Russia must accept payments via bank (credit/debit) cards.
Do you have an experience of cashless payments or ATM in Russia?
Foreigners sometime complain that ATMs and bank terminals do not accept their cards.

[peacetraveler22.livejournal.com]

Do you have a toilet in your house, or only outside?

[peacetraveler22.livejournal.com]

Yes, I have used ATM's in Russia with no problem. But you always need to let your bank know ahead of time that you are traveling overseas, otherwise the card will be rejected because most U.S. banks have fraud protections in place. Unsophisticated travelers don't know this, and encounter problems sometimes. However, one of my credit cards doesn't work in some places here because it does not have a chip.

[justadreamer.livejournal.com]

Вот вы там отсталые! )

Поедете обратно, обязательно захватите с собой счёты — покажете землякам! ))

[zhanorus.livejournal.com]

Туалет на дворе был много лет назад. Меня послали работать в деревню после института. Потом я вернулся в современность. А прошлое и многие люди живут параллельно.
Наши города и деревни это смесь современности и, часто, начала прошлого столетия. Есть деревни, где все как в городе. Это часто на юге страны.
В деревнях на севере и в центре страны разруха.

Поэтому могу вам с гордостью :) :) сказать, что в Москве у меня теплый туалет, как и у меня на маленькой родине в Волгограде.

Re: Все путешественники делают это

[g-kar.livejournal.com]

Nice story

[g-kar.livejournal.com]

It's not ingherently Russian, most countries had these 50-60 years ago :)

[g-kar.livejournal.com]

Oh! Now I'm surprised.
Was that some kind of special shop for tourists?

Here in Moscow abacuses completely disappeared back in 1991-1992, as soon as most shops started to care about sales (and ultra-cheap calculators from Japan/China became available).

[qi-tronic.livejournal.com]

This thing on the left of the abacus, behind a glass barrier.
It looks to me as a side view to a typical modern cash register with a dark grey compartment for money underneath it.

Something like this:
ivest. kz/downloads/bz/20121024213236140_big_.jpg

You see the same type of machine on a second photo but from above.
It's not a calculator :))

[qi-tronic.livejournal.com]

American way is full of turns and loops.
For example, for 50 years they said that fatty meat is bad for health but not they officially said that it was not true.
They used to buy a lot of processed ready-to-use food but now turn their heads back to farmer's markets.

www. motherjones. com/tom-philpott/2015/02/has-big-food-passed-its-sell-date

Quickly pick up something "progressive" is not always good.
We here should follow long-established traditions because they have proved themselves as healthy and safe for the population :)

[tori-latvia.livejournal.com]

I make use it!!! :)
Счёты это были, счёты. :)
It`s very fast, to use it, actually. Just you need anybody who will tell, HOW.

[tori-latvia.livejournal.com]

That will nice souvenire ))

Re: Все путешественники делают это

[andrey-kaminsky.livejournal.com]

Это отрывок из книги. Книга действительно неплоха.

[peacetraveler22.livejournal.com]

Good to have choices - city or village life! :)

[peacetraveler22.livejournal.com]

No, it wasn't a tourist shop. I doubt Soligalich sees many foreign guests. :))

[peacetraveler22.livejournal.com]

Russia is only for the strong. I realized that now more than ever during this trip!

[peacetraveler22.livejournal.com]

Practice makes perfect! In all things in life. :)

[beloborodoff.livejournal.com]

Long time ago. But this is nit the point. If you think rural Russian people so dumb they no not know what is calculator (which can be bought for 5 dollars almost everywhere). You vision of Russia is biased.

[peacetraveler22.livejournal.com]

I did not say they were dumb, don't put words in my mouth. I only said that I don't understand why they don't use the calculator, that's all. About villagers, I spent an entire day and night with them this week in the village Ostashevo in Chuhlomskoy district of Kostroma.

[genka8.livejournal.com]

Wow, an abacus! I had no idea people still use those. My mom was an accountant, and she could work the contraption very efficiently. She could even do multiplications and divisions on it. I don't know how to use abacus, but we learn a slide rule in high school. We were not permitted to bring calculators to the math classes.
But you know what is the most surprising? My search for "abacus" on ebay resulted in 11000 hits!

[a000796.livejournal.com]

It's traditional style for simple rural life. Actually t should be outside for sanitation reasons - to keep close environment clean. And it's 100% environment friendly :)))

[a000796.livejournal.com]

Only the public ones, still a national shame. It's getting better though with economic stabilization

[notabler.livejournal.com]

I had a challenge once in my life: to learn how to use this evil device "счёты". I managed it and I think it was once from the biggest achievements of my life ))) By the way: we used to compete with real masters and old fashioned bookkeepers with those almost always won against modern electronic calculators. It was a lot of fun. But the bookkeeper's children used them for a ride, even better use.

[a000796.livejournal.com]

Did you get the point of this joke? Do you know both meanings of "обсчёт" word?

[beloborodoff.livejournal.com]

I think in this case this woman is kind of nostalgic to old times. She likes to use this device, may be sound of it.