Years later I finally understood what the two men with axes were guarding. It was not the wheat harvest; it was the hidden poppies, the opium crop of those who had planted it;

Dr. Ileana Johnson Paugh ——Bio and Archives--April 1, 2026

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--First Posted on Ileana Writes

When I was a child, my friends and I would walk away from our concrete block apartments to the nearby wheat fields guarded by two scary-looking men armed with axes. The desire to find and pick red poppies in bloom was stronger than any fear these men inspired. As little girls, we did not understand why it was necessary to guard a simple field of wheat with axes.

We eventually made the connection between the seeds of wheat and the ability to turn them into flour from which our mothers would bake bread. Because flour was in short supply and rationed, we had to line up daily to purchase ready-made bread before the communist-owned store ran out.

The intense poppy red was a sharp contrast to the colors that surrounded our lives

Nobody in their right minds would have stolen wheat from the Communist Party that owned the field........

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