"I had the advantage that I was chosen to go to those exhibitions - nuclear technology was exhibited quite a lot. I don't know, four times a year we went to exhibitions somewhere in Budapest, Bucharest, Moscow and there we exhibited what we did in Thinking and I managed it. I remember an incident. We exhibited in Leipzig and our devices were quite interesting and two Americans came there - up to me and they knew Russian. I didn't know much, but I understood them, so I answered them. And just so you know how it worked. So I talked to them and they left. And in about four months, a gentleman came to the institute looking for who was in Leipzig, and then it came out that he was interested in what the Americans were doing there - it was our state police, and I had to write a report that they were there."
"I have to say, they set us free in the year 1945, so we guys were all excited, because we heard here and there what newspapers like the Young Announcer and Fast Arrows and things like that were, and we were all excited. In Pacov, they founded the Junák Association, Junaks. Of course, I signed up for it. It was interesting. We went on trips and every week (there were meetings). At first it was divided into groups and those groups then formed a division. Four groups. I logged in and I was there. And perhaps it was interesting that each of the boys had a nickname, their names were Karel and Bohouš, but they were nicknamed: Buližník and Rudoch and Bílá Vrána. Those were their nicknames, so we talked to each other: Rudoch, what do you reckon and so on... That was interesting and I also went to scout camps. It was always in the summer; we went to nature for a fortnight. Otherwise, we usually made trips once a month around Pacov, where I lived."
František Tomšíček was born on February 5, 1933 in Malý Bor in Pošumaví. Since birth he lived with his parents in Pacov. His sister was born in 1939. The family lived in the courthouse, where there was also a tax office and where his parents were employed. He spent most of his primary schooling during the German occupation. Immediately after the war, he became a member of the renewed Junák and considers the four-year period he spent in it to be the most important in his life. After training as an electromechanic, he graduated from an industrial high school and, after basic military service, joined the research institute for nuclear technology devices as a technician, where he worked until retirement. He joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia during the war and remained a member until 1989. He considers the occupation of our country by the Warsaw Pact troops in 1968 a great disappointment. He perceives today’s times inconsistently, lacking decency and respect. He is married and has two daughters.
