Věra Halová

"And my father never went, never watched the TV news, for example. He would never, when we had to go to the May Day parade, he stared at me because we were planting potatoes on May Day. So, I went to the parade and I was happy to have a free bus ride, that there was no charge, but they were always bitter about it. But then the sixties came along and now I saw such a revolution in their minds and they started telling me about the fifties, plus they started watching the news and documentaries. And in '68 my father went with me to the May Day parade. I was completely puzzled. I couldn't understand that at all, and now I could feel the change as they both started to cheer for it."

"My parents always talked about local and somehow even national issues with our neighbours who came to visit us. And they always, for I don't know what reason anymore, started whispering, even when they were at home among their own people, they kept whispering. Or when we - I used to go to Vsetín to the group, my mother always accompanied me, and when we were waiting for the bus and someone joined us, they would talk about Zápotocký, for example, and whisper. And I always... maybe I still have it to this day, because my husband always tells me that I lower my voice when I start talking about politics. But they kept whispering. And what I remember from that whispering was not so much what they were whispering about, but always this line: 'Well, what do you want from him, after all he's a communist. You know, he's a communist, so it's obvious that he's behaving like that.'"