I had just turned nine years old when the wall fell. Of course our parents received money for us. I can only vaguely remember queuing up, somewhere on Alexanderplatz, but that might have been in a completely different context. My mother told me and my little sister: “You can spend half on whatever you want.” We had to save the other half for travelling. I don’t know if that ever happened. But 50 mark was heavenly for us, of course! We went to Wertheim (a department store) on the Kurfürstendamm, probably straightaway on the 11th, on the Saturday. There I bought glitter pencils, fineliners and writing paper in the stationery department. I was in a frenzy and my mother had to slow me down: “Don’t spend everything at once. Save some for things you really want.” And so a few days later I went at Leopoldplatz to Karstadt with my friend Anna. I can’t remember exactly how we got there, I guess on the underground. We went by ourselves, which was pretty cool at that age. There a got myself a Cherry Merry Muffin doll in the toy department. Smaller than a Barbie doll, so with normal child-like proportions. They had long black hair and smelt of apple. Something else that didn’t yet exist in the East – chemically produced fragrances. I loved it so much. Anna chose the one with the strawberry smell. It cost 25 mark and, even though I had no clear idea of money, I knew at the checkout that I was spending my last bit of money on this doll. It was my first ‘purchase’. It came in a plastic box. Brand new: plastic, smell… It was amazing. I didn’t play with ‘Apple Amy’ for long, as I was actually already too old for it. But I had to make up for lost time.
»My mother told me and my little sister: “You can spend half on whatever you want.” «