Amintiri din copilărie și vremuri sărace

What does “pe vremea mea” mean in Romanian?

Pe vremea mea (“in my time,” or “back in my day”) is a common Romanian opener for nostalgic storytelling. Older Romanians use it to mark the difference between life before and after the 1989 fall of Ceaușescu’s regime: scarcity, queuing for sugar, ardei umpluți (stuffed peppers) made from whatever was in season, and birthdays where the gift was the anticipation rather than an object.

This clip carries that voice: a speaker remembers her mother’s stuffed peppers and frames the memory with pe vremea mea. The phrase often carries a slightly defensive note: the speaker is asserting that her time mattered, that the meal was real, even when money was tight.