In the fifth grade I enrolled in the math circles at the Pioneer Palace of Leningrad, which was on Nevsky Avenue. We lived on the outskirts and the parents were afraid to let the 11-year-old child alone.
But the father said, “Let it be better to ride around the city than to talk in the courtyard.”
My mom told me, "Be careful: the center is full of hooligan, thieves and... The prostitutes!”
Of course, I had an idea of who the prostitutes were, but I didn’t really understand why they needed me, so I didn’t give much importance to my mom’s words. And in vain!
Near the entrance to the Pioneer Palace, I was surrounded by a crowd of girls of about my age. They began to hold my hands and demand, “Let’s go with us!”
I said, “These are the prostitutes! Mom was right!“He escaped from them and fled.

Ten years later, when I met my future wife, she told me:
“I wanted to sign up for the Pioneer Palace Dance Circle. As long as they were registered, mostly girls, the girl was accepted there only if she brought a partner. So the girls tried to tempt the boys who went into the other circles to accept them.”

I told her that story.
“We could have met ten years earlier.” I noticed my bride.
I said, “It is unlikely! If I knew it wasn’t a prostitutes, but a dance circle, I’d run even faster!”