Eva Polanská

"Scout law was the law for us! And we strictly obeyed it. That is why I later could not really accept some of the young people since they didn't obey it as we had. For us it was... There was no way anybody could break the law. Even though the vow itself only took a short while I think it directly strengthened our characters. I always wished children would attend the Scout because it would help them find the right balance in their life. We used to know a boy who was entirely ousted from his family and after he spent some time with us in Polanka he completely recovered. Later he would work as a janitor in a girl's school.

"I remember that we fought against the boys in the following way: they set out to steal our flag from the main tent at night and we set out to do the same to them. They didn't manage to get it but we stole theirs because the boys were lazy and they slept. We simply ambushed them and took the flag. It was kind of a night expedition. I also remember one more game we used to play at night. Everybody had a knife, not a big dagger or anything like that, just a pocket knife. During the night game we went along a hillside pathway completely in the dark and everybody had to go to a certain spot and stab the knife in it. That way you could see how far that person had come. We had our principles – to speak the truth... It was quite adventurous. I remember that a lot of kids learned to not be afraid and they got tougher, so to speak. It was nice."

"Another camp I remember was on the Sázava River, in Zahrádky. We had taken our vows as girl scouts there. Previously the boys who had built the encampment were camping there. I remember that we would have a whole railway car full of construction material, canvases and 'kochmašiny', as we used to call it. Well, we had to transport all that material and since my father was a train conductor, he arranged a railway car to be connected to a freight train which stopped in Kácov for us and we threw all those things down from the hill to the banks of the Sázava River, where we were supposed to camp. There were others waiting at the river and they threw the material into the river and let it float right to Zahrádka (it used to be called 'Zahrádka'). It was very romantic there. We even built a bridge across the river leading into the woods. I also know that some people would pass the 'Three eagle feathers' test there. However, I never passed it since I was not capable of staying silent for a minute."