One day I made up my mind and the next day I was gone
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Ladislav Tabery was born on 13 September 1948 as the eldest of three sons. His mother Miluše Taberyová worked with Spoje in České Budějovice and his father Stanislav Tabery worked as a turner. Ladislav Tabery spent almost his entire childhood in the workshop where his father built racing motorcycles and was constantly inventing various technical improvements. He took after his father’s technical and manual skills. In 1963, he entered the communications school in Tábor and graduated in 1969. He worked at Závody průmyslové automatizace (ZPA) from 1974 to 1983, spending most of this time away from home on remote sites. After the death of his father in 1985, he decided to leave Czechoslovakia and seek his fortune elsewhere. He emigrated via Yugoslavia, crossing the state border in Nova Gorica. He spent a year in various internment camps in Italy, waiting for his emigrant visa to be processed. In 1986, he flew to the USA where he lived until 2021. He describes difficult beginnings in the USA, where he worked at the lowest positions, learning English. His technical talent allowed him to work his way up quite quickly in the USA. He has been coming to the Czech Republic regularly since 1990. At the time of filming (2023) he lived in České Budějovice.
