Ladislav Míka

“And then just tanks kept arriving. It was sometimes fun for us. When something was happening by the town hall we sometimes lay down on the ground because the soldiers started shooting. And later, sometime in the afternoon because we had to work in the factory, we and crowds of people that were as big as the ones during the May Day parade were directing traffic in Šaldovo Square. The tanks were coming from below, they were no longer passing the town hall, they had already demolished the building, they were going through Šalďák and down to the Moskva cinema and to Rochlice. They were coming on the new concrete road that the tanks destroyed. There were people there then there was a gap, and someone shouted: ‘Let us send these to Jablonec!‘ And the entire waving crowd changed its position and let them go towards the Sokol gymnasium. And the tanks went to Jablonec instead of Prague. It was that kind of fun… And I remember we let them go to Husova Street to send them toward the Jizera Mountains. And the tanks were rushing onto the radio, and there were those who were presenting, I think Havel and these people." - "Havel and Tříska." - "With Tříska, yeah. And now they were like, 'Jesus Christ, the tanks are coming!' They thought they were coming to get them, but that was the one that we wanted to send to the Jizera Mountains. So, then they said they could not be allowed up to Husova Street. That is how the traffic was directed in Šalďák. Until someone came and dispersed it. But it worked for a while, we had fun."

“The mountain climber there had ten-man teams and they would build maybe three. There were guys from Jičín, from Vansdorf but they were mountain climbers. I also was with them several times. When they were short of someone, they asked me. And during their meetings when a race ended and for example, the best team had someone who was ruining it for them, they were pulling him on the rope. (It is difficult) in a group of ten to build a team when nobody messes it up and sometimes someone else messed it up. (You know) how it works when skiing when you suddenly do not have energy. So, they would always arrange it, this one could take part instead of that one and that is why Karel Trousílek, a trainer from the mountaineering team, came up with the idea of doing a pre-nomination race."