Anna Luzarová

“It began after the war, that we’d have to leave our home. Then the so-called Croatian question was discussed in Jevišovka. Some bigwigs from Croatia came to our village and said we’d be allowed to stay in our homes, that they wouldn’t deport us. Except then 1948 came, and all of us had to go. It was kind of all... We were sitting in school, the windows were open, and so we heard as they called out: ‘So and so will report to the elementary school, number that and that,’ and then they gave each of them the decision, where they were to move to. It was such a sad period.”

“Girls had three white starched skirts down below, covered by a beautiful top skirt made of ‘tibet’ cloth. This was topped by an apron, which could be variously coloured. Then there were the sleeves, ‘opljeće’, those were pretty, embroidered; then the bodice, comely, pink with green, laced at the front. The ‘kuolarin’ rested on top of this, hanging from the neck, nicely embroidered, and then a ribbon on top of that. The skirt was divided by a band. That’s what the dress looked like, very pretty. Young girls would also wear wreaths of artificial flowers, and so it sparkled in all kinds of ways. They also wore high black boots, ‘faldovačky’, I remember that Auntie Vranešicová had a kind of golden heel. The boys had red trousers with blue embroidery. Then they also had sleeves, a vest, a ribbon, and a hat. It was pretty.”

“Every Friday almost every home in Frélichov cooked bean soup with noodles. But not all water made a good base for it. We had a well, and it was good from our water. Jure Lavička also came to us for water. ‘So, Jure, what are you cooking?’ ‘Well, beans and noodles. And I’m here for some water...’ The way you cooked it was that you cooked beans, then you made these wide noodles, stiff ones, and those were cooked separately. When they were ready, you took them out and put them in cold water, so they wouldn’t be hot. Then you cut up an onion, which you fried on lard, with some pepper [either sweet or hot red pepper, probably powder, but unclear which - trans.]. Then, first you place the noodles in the plate, the soup has to be nearly boiling because the noodles are cold, you pour the soup over it and sprinkle it with onion. We love that, our children do too, even my husband, who’s Czech. We cook it on Fridays. Our son would also eat it every Friday. That’s our Croatian food.”