Miroslava Pěčková

"We were terribly uncomfortable when a member from the Communist Party had to go with us on every trip. It even happened to us once, it was I think when we went to Italy that there was no place for our coach. In short, we thought that it could not be true that the coach would not go. But some security guard and a cop. So we decided that if the coach didn't go, we wouldn't go anywhere either. In the end, they expanded it to include the coach. But there the official had to go with us too. And most of the time, these people did a disgrace there."

"We experienced it terribly in Radvanice. Because what the chimneys spewed into the air, that was just terrible. Dad went to work early in the morning. Then, when I went out, I saw his footprints in the red and rusty dust. Like fresh snow. If we opened the window, we had to sweep the red ugly dust from the windowsill every day. We could not use the garden at all at that time. The grass was so dirty that we couldn't even mow it. We had to grind the scythe forever, because there was iron everywhere. When you walked through the taller grass, you had black-and-red legs in half a calf. Dusty shoes. We couldn't just leave something in the garden. There was one bench. We had to wipe it when we wanted to sit down. And sometimes you couldn't go out at all. It was impossible to breathe there."

"In 1948, you were six years old. Do you remember any of that communist coup? - I remember mainly our unfortunate grandfather. They took his barber shop. That was his whole life. And now suddenly what's next? The shops changed to Sources and the Future. I remember those unhappy people. We all knew them. They were neighbours. There were a lot of merchants in Radvanice. - Do you remember some of the names associated with those companies? -Sure. There was a Duda store. Olsar was there. There was a Magera butcher's shop on Lipina on the hill. Dad's cousin was there. Then there was the restaurant U Bajgera. It is still called the same. Upstairs was the U Jaterky restaurant. Next to us was the textile Pešl. Hardware store Žingor. There was a lot of it. Everyone focused on something else."