Antonín Holub

“Václav Koten and Ota Pátek established a Boy Scout troop in Slaný. At first we didn’t have any clubhouses and we were meeting in a garden house in the Rosenkranz’s family garden. Antonín Rosenkranz, whose father was a barber, was one of the troop leaders. The troop gradually grew in members. Václav Koten began cooperating with six tramps, who built their own lodge in Kalivody by themselves. There was no lock on the door of the lodge, it was kept open all the time. They became our Scout leaders. At first I was in František Holina’s troop. There was great unemployment in Czechoslovakia in the 1930s. Holina was without work, and so was Pepa Huml. František Zíma, whose original name was Winter, learnt the furrier’s trade in his widowed mother’s shop. Later he took on the leadership of the troop of which I was a member. At that time we already had four troops, from Cub Scouts, through Rovers, to the oldest members.”

“One day we went on a trip with our Boy Scout troop, hiking through Studeněves, Řisuty, and Malíkovice. After we walked through Malíkovice, we reached a beautiful meadow with a small brook; the Křivoklát forests were spreading beyond. We liked the place so much. There were about twelve of us Boy Scouts, each of us had a quarter of a tent canvas (at that time it was customary for each camper to carry a triangle-shaped part of the tent, and four of these triangles were then joined with hooks to make one tent. - ed.’s note). We built four tents, it was no luxury, though. We slept on the ground under the tent canvas. And since we liked the place, we began going there more often. One morning, while it was still dark, we opened our tent, and there was a dog standing out there. We looked up, and we saw a gamekeeper with a rifle standing behind the dog. We got out of the tent, and the gamekeeper said: ´Well, boys, who gave you permission to camp here? Do you realize that this forest is a private property and that I’m the gamekeeper here? I can order you to leave immediately. But I won’t do it, for I can see you here. After you leave I will come back to check the place and the state you leave it in. And when you return next time, just stop by in my lodge in Malíkovice.´ I still remember his name, Mr. Staněk. At the beginning, we were going to this place near Malíkovice on Fridays, but later we began going on Saturdays, because some of us had to work Saturdays, too. We would always call on the gamekeeper in his lodge, and he was content with our conduct in the forest, he always said that we enjoyed great reputation with him. The troop was growing in numbers, then there were about twenty of us now, and when we were passing through villages, local boys were following us. In the evenings we would sit around the campfire and sing and roast sausages. Since we lit the campfires lit after dark, parents would often come to accompany their children there. Scouting was on the rise in the region of Slaný. Eight boys founded their own troop in Řisuty, under the leader ship of Karel Král, a bagmaker from Slaný.”