The Basque Country has changed dramatically since the time my father left for a new life in the United States.  Not only politically, with the death of Franco, the activity of ETA, and the rise of the Basque Autonomous Community, but socially, as well, as the Basque people have taken their culture into the 21st century with the big green recycling tubs, punk music, and wifi.  How would it be for a 6-year-old, accustomed to life in the United States, to just be uprooted and replanted in the Basque Country of the 70s, with Franco still ruling and Guardia Civil on every corner?

That is just the life Mark Bieter describes in his blog posting My Life Under Franco, capturing life the way only a 6 year old can (well, or a grown man remembering life when he was 6).  From the ever-pervasive Ducados to the terror of a kid starting school when no one knows his language, or vice versa, Mark does a nice job of drawing you into the life he experienced those many years ago.