Justina Koutníková

„So they taught us and began speaking nicely Czech to us and we liked it. And if it comes to a song, then a Czech one, of course. And so it was, that was the second grade. We got used spelling-books (from Czechoslovakia) and one of them was called the Mother Tongue. We also liked it, as it was full of poetry and we could already read so the teachers were explaining us nicely. But then the school burnt down, just the walls remained. So they adapted one large room for lessons. And another smaller one was for the teacher to stay in. And that was the deceased Mr. Zámostný. He spoke Czech and we especially liked him as we were singing all the time. We even didn’t like going back home.”

“There were often dancing and music, every Sunday. Nowadays there is nothing at all for half a year. There came spring, summer, and entertainment took place outside in front of school, we always put a fence there and began dancing. And as I already said, the grown-up men were walking around the village singing, it was a jolly time. As it got dark I already knew, that in a moment we will hear them singing. And when they started and marched all the streets up and down singing everywhere. (...) We celebrated Christmas and Easter a lot. And there were various games. I remember the girls dressing up and taking the little death puppet carrying it out behind the village and burning it down. That was a tradition before Easter.”