Jozef Sollár

“It was yet before the war. More people from the village were interested in that horse. My father said: ʻI won´t sell him, since if someone beats him, he will run back home.’ And he wouldn´t bear it, since he had that horse for twenty years. I rode that horse when we went to a fair in Lipany, where they bought him. He didn´t want to drag, so they leashed him. My dad told them: ʻI don´t want any money if the horse doesn´t drag, but try to tie the collar like this and he will. He either takes the collar off, or the carriage moves.’ However, since they roped him behind the carriage where more people sat, when they were passing the turn to Lužianky, the horse knocked the carriage and toppled it over. He already knew, he wasn´t on his way home.”

“We were the draught team. Yet at six o´clock we mined. Our breakfast was bread and black coffee. After a year we deserved a bonus for the afternoon snack. It was a tiny piece of bacon, thin as a finger. It was so hard that many times we didn´t even take it. When our passage blocked up in the height of almost 4 feet, we had to break through. I was a helper and my friend a pitman. What was blocked we had to smash through with pneumatic hammers to fit a drilling machine in. Then we took turns in drilling. When I was working and my colleague shoveled, suddenly a big rock like two bricks fell from the top and broke his leg.”