rybnik: But we didn't have the bands, etc as they apparently have now in Wrocław. This is something new.
Not really, there were marching bands playing and there were songs and music transmitted through the speakers. :-)
Here are few fragments translated from the May Day story from a small town of Przasnysz, http://www.chem.uw.edu.pl/people/AMyslinski/rozne/liceum/wprl/wprl.htm .
Take a look at the historical photos there. :-)
On the eve of the May Day the teams from the local cable radio station moved into the main streets, where the parade would proceed, and extended the cables connecting the grandstand area with distant places. Big speakers were hoisted up the poles, each of the great beauty of a tin bucket with a ventilation grille in the bottom and a mysterious box underneath. To this box wires were connected, and after a while, the roar of revolutionary songs could be heard, broadcasted from a mobile studio or just from Program I of Polish Radio.
“Hej junacy, my chłopcy, dziewczęta/
Do roboty, do roboty./
Jedno hasło jak rozkaz pamiętaj./
Do roboty, do roboty...”
"Hey brigade, we the boys and girls,/
To the work, to the work./
Remember this one motto, as your order./
To the work, to the work."
….
The attraction of this round-out were trucks converted into mobile shops, filled with goods undreamed of by ordinary mortals during normal days. You could buy there "ordinary sausage" (kiełbasa zwyczajna), Wedel's chocolate products - even wieners and lemons! In addition, the standard junk available every day in the shops was there too - sweets, biscuits, cakes. Sometimes the beer from the Ciechanow brewery was available - sour and cloudy, dispensed via shiny brass taps from barrels.
…
Finally, when the time came, the parade started. At the head - band and banners, after that notables, and behind them - in the order dictated by the some unclear hierarchy - children and young people grouped by schools and classes, and workers from local plants. Activists forcibly pushed flags and banner poles into unwilling hands. Those selected tried the most unusual methods to wriggle out of the task. The banner in your hand was a stain on you. Besides, you had to carry it to the end of the march and that made it impossible to sneak out of the parade and run home.
…
"And now, here walk seamstresses of Kurpiowska Cooperative! The seamstresses have made 123% of the assigned norm! Long live seamstresses of Kurpiowska Cooperative - long live!!"
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