My childhood was split up between 2 completely different environments. One was Krakow, a fairly big city in which you could to some extent revel in anonymity. Until, obviously, you found yourself in a situation when knowing someone was quite handy, like applying for a job or needing urgent treatment.
The other was my dad's home village, a small place where everyone knew everything about everyone else to the point that you had to fake ignorance just to have a conversation. "Is this Antek's daughter?" my aunt's distant neighbour would ask pointing at me and referring to my uncle and my 10 years senior cousin. "No, Ginek's" my aunt would reply, and that would give her and the said neighbour an opportunity to run through my family tree and current geographical locations of my various family members. Again.
