The Wingham Advance-Times, 1973-04-19, Page 26nit Forest residents
pini, between some
Old twine place inter -
t February in a
lifetime vacation in
cheek Hecker and his
y1 Ot" Mount Forest.
My Wife, nor I, nor the
l of the 95 other tourists
WhO tithe lnitour trip with us
._*die Ven be remotely classified
communist. As a matter
l'a
br tar the majority: of the
W4410 were staunch capita-
," Said Mr. Hecker,
zdt4urs was the first tour
nxpany to come to an agree-
"MOO
gree-' t with the Cuban government
?carding organized tours from
unada.
"ch a of the conditions of the
agreement demanded_ by the Uni-
tours company was that the
vacation be totally apolitical and
that no .attempt would be made
by the Curran government to
deluge the Canadian tourists with
Communist propaganda," said
Mr. Hecker.
Mr. Hecker said that immedi-
ately upon arriving in Havana,
the' touring party was rushed to
the relatively remote tourist area
called Varadero Beach where
they spent the first five days at a
"very nice resort" where, with
the exception of one storm, they
found the climate and the beach
very pleasant.
"We did Suffer inconveniences
at Varadero. For example, we
were provided. with three meals a
day with nothing to eat between
meals," said Mr. Hecker. "We
found as the week progressed
that the Cubans were short of •
many things—food being one.
General merchandise, clothes,
and other comforts of life were
also in short supply. ,
` We, found" very few
restaurants ` in the towns, pri-
rrarily because there was rela-
tively' little food to distribute to
the people*. The food that was
available was rationed and, be -
counters in the store contained
merchandise and very little
ehandise at that. The •rest of
space was fillets with signs
political nature. .
"I found it very frustrate
that the m:� ier •nhlem I
with my ,Canadian Tire store
the lack of adequate space to
play all the rnervitatidise I
in stock. It's certainly frustra
to, walk through enormous st.
in Havana where there's unl'
ed amounts of space but
little merchandise."
Mr. Hecker said that member
of the staff at Varader9 had bee
carefully selected, by the Cu
government and all were staun
Communists with such titles as
Hero or Martyr of the Revolution.
"For that reason, I feel we re-
ceived a tinted view of Cuban life
during our stay at Varadero."
Many of the things the, Commu-
nist staff members told them,
said Mr. Hecker, turned out to be
untrue. "We were told that any-
one wishing to leave Cuba could
with no difficulty and that Castro
was very happy to be rid of
people who were insurgents.
"However, one day in Havana
we joined a 100 -foot long line in a
store to buy some pizza and dis-
covered the woman standing
behind us was an American who'
had been trying to get out of Cuba
for the last three years.
"Apparently, she had . been
born in the United States but had
nfoved to Cuba and married a
Cuban. She was on a 'list' of
people wanting to travel to the
United States but she had.little
hope of taking the trip.
"We were apparently watched
while we were talking to this
woman in the lineup because
several of the local leaders of the
Communist party approached us
in the.line; moved us rapidly to
the front of the line, thereby sep-
arating us from the woman; and
en watched as we left the
tore." •
Mr. Hecker added that when
they had reached the head of the
hne. they 'were each given one
pi
° • of pizza, and although he
aid offered to buy a second piece,
couldtl't because even the
pizza was rationed.
"we were in a completely con -
Bed environment during' our
tire stay in Cuba."
Mr. Hecker explained that as
Varadero was relatively remote
ey inet, veryfeW outsiders with
t 4 x :11 cloy
gages ivbo-were staying3at• a
earby hotel called the Interna-\
onal. •
'In general, Varadero was a lot
fun: There was a beautiful 11-
e long, white: sand beach. The
ter was great and the, staff
were very friendly. The food
In
lacked something and there was
the no hot water during our entire
of a stay there because of a lack of
ng in fuel. Other than that we had a
ha' good time and it was certainly re -
is faxing."
des- They were provided with enter -
have tainment every night by "excel-
ling lent Cuban bands and most of the
ores Canadians danced to the wee
unit- hours," said"Mr. Hecker. "One of
very our group became very friendly
with some of the Russians who
s were staying nearby and one day,
was challenged to a vodka -drink -
ban ing contest.
ch "He and one of the ;Russians.
th
cause the didn't have Cuban s
ration books, we could not pur-
chase anything ,from the local•
retail stores.
"On several occasions we did
wait in relativelyh.
lo;pg lines�to uy h
foodata restaurant.'When wgot he
to' the beginning of the line we _
found that the food was being
rationed out to the people who tro waited. en
Mr. Hecker Said that as a re-
tailer
he ,was shocked: at the ap-
�e and the'general mer- th
chandise
retail
• rt >.litt1 .yh 'di »ar
and se'in any of the stores. ne one .store that' was tio
Viably owned by Woolworth's
oaf - (r e s prior to the revoiu- of
tion: hut= had . been nationalized.
"About 10
.. per cent of the wa
started drinking vodka and, of
course, the Russian drank the
Canadian right into the ground.
The Canadian was sick for 48
hours.
"The Russians were unbelie-
vably impressed with a Polaroid
camera one of the Canadians
had. The Canadian had taken a
picture of a Russian. and then
shown them the picture. When
they saw the picture instanta-
neously developed by the Pola-
roid camera they were fasci-
nated. They had never seen or
heard of anything like that.
"One of the Russians tried des-.
perately to trade his camera for
the Polaroid camera. The Cana-
dian tried to explain to him that
the Polaroid camera wouldn't do
him much enn4 without the
special Polaroid film but the Rus-
sian didn't quite understand and,
at the end of that session, the
Canadian left a very frustrated
and unhappy Russian."
The He kers found the atmos-
phere of the. tour changed be-
tween Varadero and Havana.
"When we returned to Havana
the environment changed. Vara-
dero was totally relaxed because
it was remote and the Canadians
werecontrolled in that there was
very little they could do at Vara-
• dero that would `cause anyone
harm. s-
.
. "However, as soon as we ar-
rived in Havana, we were wat-
ched. One girl was arrested for
taking pictures in the street. I
found Havana very depressing
and certainly bleak, probably be-
cause of the total lack of signs.
The main street of Havana had
none of the :color of main streets
in any of the North American
cities, although, prior to the revo-
lution, I understand it had ;as
.f?:gt. •a#ld as:many. neon
signs as any street in the United
States.
"The only signs on the street
now were political signsYexclaizn-
ing the virtues of the Communist
regime.
Everybody in Cuba is an" em -
SCHOOLS ABOUND—One of the aspects of Cuban life that impressed Mr. Hecker during
his recent trip to Cuba was the high concentration of schools in Cuba. He remarked that
you couldn't move a block without running into one of the government controlled schools.
(Photo by Jack Hecker)
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ployee of the governil+,t
cause the government owl
the businesses. "Everybody[
ceives a salary set by the goys.
meat. They go on vaeatiel l to
ernm►ent controlled resorts,
buy their food from govern
controlled stores with &A�-
ment controlled ration bc,
"Mgney is not partiicularly .a
probl of the common pf e in
Cuba in that the majority oaf tl
earn more money than they can
possibly, spend because of °:tole
rationing. They have the my
to buy things, but are limited to,
"for example, meat once every
nine days andua certain amounts of
clothing every year.
"The Communist party, .;a
major extent, controls the. iratign,-
ing of luxuries. For example,, the
Communist party decides:.*lel
someone should go on vacat r ;
and then makes available the
means to go on vacation*., The
Communist party owns all` the
resorts in Cuba. If soineohe
wants to go on vacation be ,can
either achieve his desire by
working hard and being 'in, We
good graces of the local Corrin u-
nist chief or he can pay for the
vacation out of his own pa ket'
which is fairly expensive. -
"The message in Cuba is if you
want to live a comfortable life,
relative to the Cuban standardaf
living, you have to be a member
of the Communist party." `•
Mr. Hecker was . very lin-
pressed with the. number of
schools and nurseries in Cuba.
"It seemed we could hardly go a
block without passing a schooi�, or
a playground and the .play-
grounds were certainly far better
equipped than any I've seen in
Canada, and far larger.
"Apparently, the Cuban gov-
ernment has put a real emphasis
on the young in Cuba and Pm
sure it's paying dividends td the
. Cuban government in terMs of
support from the youth.. -
"I • think the large numb" .of
Cuban nurseries- can be y ex
plained, in part, by the fact: ;that.
there are very few Cuban house •
-
wives. The majority of :the
women with .children work in fac-
tories IIt! daay-ca
nurseries are re iii:'eda.
care of their °,ohi1*en. .
During their stay �
visited.
cigar factory �i
introduced to Local .
monist and of the .plate:
visited were; eweat ►p0,,
Canadian standards.
"We Sip �+�t+ildd, two
that were sato jz by' °the
Cuban :gvernMetit. Wats the
mansion owned by Dupont which
had beep Wilt, .in the 1920 at
cost of one mt a
oto}1 ! and'
had been converted into a restau-
rant. It was situated on an •,nor,
mous plot of land with ;a. gel
course and, a man-made stream
on it. •ti u
'Heming*ay'a house was
located in .a suburb of Havana
and the Cuban guide emphasized
that the• Hemingway house bad
not been nationalized but had.
been 'donated' •by 'i•Ieningway's
,widow immediately after, the
revolution- to the Cuban govern,
ment, ' •
f "He said that Mrs. Hemingway
had been given the right by
Castro to return there at any time
and stay in the guest house beside
the main building. For some
reason, she never returned."
One evening they were taken to
the Tropicana nightclub in
Havana which . is. ' an out -door
nightclub with'a show that "put to
shame any extravaganza I've
seen in Las Vegas;" said Mr..,
Hecker.
"The Canadian group was
placed at the back of the night
club. The front was reserved f or.
the `workers'.
"In retrospect, I found the trip
fascinating. The meals they pro-
vided us with were lousy (cheese
and jam , for breakfast main
course) but I think excellent by
Cuban standards. •
"They provided us with meat at.
least every other day whereas the
average Cuban is allowed meat
once every nine days:
"We missed hot water at Vara-
dero but spent a lot of dime in the
ocean. The entertainment and
COOKING
WP
1ehldfng.
tours are,
iu ' wit*
:"Cuba y a Hifi
niat
paltry. It tz: you' on:all ,
ate. 'cam refer to then»
selves as ' mpaniero ur-,
stn a val lest of
Comrade,°
We there, particularly in the
to eak., Cubans live a
meagre existence relative to
Canada. It remme very
much of Wit Berlin, a city 1
visited several yea: ago when t
was on a; business trip to West:
Main,,.
Mr. Hecker concluded by .sly-
inghewould never want to' live in
Cuba. "Yoh certainly develop a •
respect for, Canada " and appre-
ciate what you have w . you,
visit countries like Cuba,". •
•
r Pais 1
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recipes mostly and --pioneer that
you are at heart—nothing will
please you more than to be the
first in your crowd to discover a
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You don't care much for spices,
which is quaint because you rule
most of them with your sign. i3ut
you use them very carefully—and
that makes. sense. •
A pertinent item in your astro-
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Peaches Flambee
ripe peaches,
one per person
water, as necessary
sugar, as necessary
Kirsch, as necessary
red food coloring
arrowroot, or cornstarch
1. Peel the peaches by dropping
them into boiling water for a few
minutes and • then plunge them
into cold water. The skin will slip
off very easily.
2. Make a syrup with the water
and sugar—or yoga might try
using a commercial corn syrup if
you don't want to go to the
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syrup, to your own taste.
3. Heat the syrup to almost boil-
• ing and ,then pop' in the peaches
• and poach gently until they are
o tender but still firm.
- 4. Place_ each peach in an -
vidual dish or glass, and set asi
to cool.
5 Reduce :the syrup --or, if there
is too much liquid, pour some off.
6, Add<'a few °drops of thefood
coloring to make it an attractive
pink. You Might also want to add
a littlemore Kirsch to flavor it•to,
your own taste.
7. Now add the arrowroot (or
cornstarch, which I' don't like as
well) -to thicken the syrup.
8. fake one teaspoonful of arrow-
root and mix it with a very little
water (or fruit juice of your
choice)• to make a paste. Add this
• to the boiling syrup, stirring it in
carefully. Do NOT dump it in or it
will become lumpy.
9. Stir• and boil to thicken.
10. Cool a little and spoon it over
the peaches to make a glaze.
When you are ready •to serve,
warm a spoon and pour in some
Kirsch. Light the Kirsch and
pour the flaming liqueur over the
peaches.
c I have seen some of my friends
set the peaches on a puree of
fresh strawberries—and this is
rather attractive.
This recipe obviously serves as
many people as you need to -1
peach per person.
!n
NEVER DIES ---In a country where all connections to the American businesses of pre -
revolution days were so severely erased upon Castro's rise to power, Mr. Hecker found it
strange during his recent trip to Cuba that a sign promoting. American cigarettes could
still prevail upon an old stone wall 14 years after therevolution, (Photo by Jack Hecker) -
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1
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Area Code 519 527-1910
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Area Code - 519 -.527-1911