Gum

Within a few years of the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, chewing gum finally began trickling into the stores of Astana (at the time called Akmola). My friends--then between 10-12 years old--said that it was quite a phenomenon. They would scrape together money and walk across town to whatever store was rumored to have a supply and buy what they could afford. When they had a piece of gum, they chewed it all day and then saved it. They also chewed it the next day, and often for four or five days. They traded different types and flavors of already chewed gum, long after it was possible to discern any type of flavor. One friend recalled an incident when their teacher confiscated all of the gum that was being chewed in class, squeezed it into one ball, and dropped it into the water-filled bucket that housed the rag used to clean the chalkboard. When the teacher left the classroom, the students rushed the front of the classroom to get to the bucket, and one lucky student emerged with the prize.