Dušan Lupták

“I got in fight with my superior, who refused to give me new work clothes. What she gave me was old and dirty. The felt boots had spider web all over, everything was dirty and dusty, and I was supposed to wear it? We were about to go working on the field and I didn’t have what to wear! As a working class I had right to be issued a new work clothes. I was a part of the working class. When I was a sign writer, every year we were issued a new work coat, I think it was in Geodézia, the national enterprise in Prešov. However, she refused to give me new clothes and said that since I didn’t want to use the issued used clothes, I didn’t have to come back anymore. I replied: ‘And why is such guff on your billboards that the working class has power in its hands? I am telling you, that the truth is far away from that. I am the working class and what kind of power do I have? Not even being allowed to have work clothes I deserve? Why is all of it written everywhere? It is pure nonsense, what you write there!’ And that’s how it looked like in the whole communist party and the socialism. Everything was twisted; nothing of what they rammed into our heads was true. The reality was completely different.”

“I wanted to hold back, I didn’t want to tangle into anything, because I already had a bad experience from times when I had long hair. I am tall and as I only walked across the street, the policemen immediately followed me and started to bully me. They asked why I had long hair, where I worked… But I had my ID with a stamp of where I worked with me. It was just because my hair was long. Once happened, that I went for a beer to Letná and it was around ten o’clock in the morning. Of course, the policemen where there to inspect that. It was quite common that the builders used to have a shot around ten. They couldn’t drink before ten not to get drunk. They asked me: ‘Where do you work? How come, you are having a beer?! It’s only ten o’clock, it’s work time!’ I gave them my ID and said I was off duty. That’s when I made them mad! They didn’t believe me. Back then they used to go and check people in cinemas, because some were watching movies at ten in the morning. They said: ‘Show us your ID, where do you work?’ ‘At the post office.’ ‘What do you do that you are able to be here at ten?’ ‘I deliver newspaper.’ ‘Yes, and you are done already?’ ‘Yes, I am done. I finished my duty at eight in the morning.’ ‘We will check that, for sure.’ They took me to the bar, where the phone was. They called the post office and inquired if I worked there. ‘Does Dušan Lupták work at this post office?’ They had a stamp in my ID, but they didn’t believe me. They had to check it. ‘Yes, he does.’ ‘And is he off duty at this time?’ ‘Yes, he is.’ Thus, they became really mad not to have a reason to punish me. However, they didn’t let me finish my beer, as they told me to rather go away. Just because I had long hair, I wasn’t even able to drink my beer. That’s how they bullied people. It was ridiculous. Today if we told young people such things, their minds would boggle there were really times like that. But that was socialism. Who had hair, was the enemy of the socialist state. All were supposed to have the same haircut!”