The bathroom was equipped with a small tub, a sink, a commode with a pull chain from the ceiling water tank, and a tiny window with exterior slats of concrete, and a lovely view of the world through prison-like bars. They were so heavy that, when we had a strong earthquake in 1977, one of the concrete bars broke and was dangling from the reinforced wires like a loose tooth. Last time I visited in 2015, the bar was still there, dangling loose.
The police state we lived under charged the “classless” society lower prices than the true cost to keep the proletariat happy and especially the country folks whose farms and modest homes were confiscated by the forced party cooperatives.
If some renters were behind their water, electric, rent, and gas bills, the total was divided by the number of apartments and everyone paid equal shares. The rest also paid for those who were behind. Eventually they were made to pay it back from their paychecks. Nobody was on welfare. You had to work if you wanted to eat. No matter how much electricity, gas, or water each apartment consumed, the total was calculated and equally divided for each apartment.
My mom and dad’s apartment was an improvement from living in the same tiny apartment with another family of four who stole our food. Prior to that, mom and dad rented a bedroom from an old lady who lived at the edge of town, so far out that the party had not decided to demolish her little place yet in their haste for modernization.
Dad hated the communists and was not shy about making his feelings and thoughts known about all the parasitical propagandists employed in each factory by the dozen. They also hated my dad with so much passion and often hired goons to beat him up to silence him. One such beating caused him massive health issues and he died paralyzed, helpless, and untreated in one of Ceausescu’s horrible “free“ hospitals. He died on May 13, 1989, a few months short of seeing the demise of his foe, Ceausescu, on Christmas 1989.