Karel Vrána

"We got mostly to the mountains, that is, to Kotel, behind Kotel, to Špindlerovka and to Harrachov. Our border guards did not guard it. Polish border guards were guarding it, they had booths up to Jinonoš and Harrachov. It was good that we used to run there, and we didn't even have passes or ID cards. They saw that we were running there and just told us: 'Don't come to Poland, you have a border here.' We had no problems."

"What was needed, he learned and coped. Thanks to my grandfather for teaching us too, because he took us to each job as it was being done. At home there was a farm, cows, goats, a calf, once every two years a pig, so we had to help in the fields, harvesting and all that. Then there was the grain. From around thirteen or fourteen years old, once we knew how to use a scythe—since there were no mechanical mowers—we would cut the grain by hand. The grain was cut and laid in rows, then gathered into bundles, which were tied into sheaves. These were then stacked into so-called ‘shocks’ to dry before being carried to the barn. After that came the so-called threshing. The sheaves were slowly fed into a threshing machine, where teeth would crush them—separating the grain, which fell down, while the straw was ejected. It all had to be cleared away. The straw was then used either as feed for the livestock or as bedding."