Danuta Śmiałowska

"I was waiting near the theater as my husband came and said – “What do you fancy eating? What do you want – pork chop or something else?”. I answered – „ Don’t make a fun of me!” – It’s not time for this when you feel so hungry. Then he showed me a load of money. Not thinking anymore, we found the first little restaurant on Floriańska street. We came in and the old lady was sewing or doing something like that. There was a canary in the cage and some fresh rolls on the counter and some other things… We reached for the food straight away. That’s how the order was: we asked for two scrambled eggs, two eggs each, fresh rolls, butter for both and two glasses of vodka! We completely got drunk with this vodka! We were able to buy cigarettes as well and firsts few issues of Odrodzenie magazine! We had to read a bit what was in the news! On the whole – the World came back to normal".

"Mr. and Mrs. Łopaczyńscy were good friends of my parents. They couldn’t have children so they used to ‘borrow’ me for the holiday. My parents would always choose laying on the beach at the seaside which never interested me. So many things happened in Leotopol at the same time! First of all – horses were there and I am absolutely crazy about horses so it was enough for me to be there. Beside that the place, had such a special atmosphere and the local colours! Everything was like the gold old times. An old noble butler was still there – I can’t remember his name – and he was the last butler there. I remember a women worked as a equerry. She owned a bunch of keys and was the one who administrated the kitchen. The keys hung down attached to her belt and she kept her eye on everything! We all were in the habit of making tea together on the terrace on the garden side. Adults had coffee, we had cucumbers – it was a speciality of the Vilnius region – fresh cucumbers with honey… honeycomb. It was extreme fun and pleasure, a local delicacy. The cucumbers were just plucked. They were so fresh and good with the honeycomb, delicious! What else happened there – we could ride horses. The place was near the border and the Border Protection Corps stationed there. We made friends with the young colonel, his wife and son so they often came around to see us or to have tea with us. The colonel used to take me and a priest from the village on patrol. We rode horses through the forests, we knew the secret password… That was really a pleasant experience. We also had harvest a festival that was celebrated very sumptuously in the park. Tables were full of food, barrels with a tar were served as torches and lit up the whole park. Buckets with vodka and special cups to scoop it were everywhere! The best thing ever was when people were coming back from the field, carrying crops and singing at the same time. They sang in the Belorussian language. In general, they used Belorussian so even Russian was a familiar language for me. Even though I’ve never learned it, I could speak Russian. If you asked them about their nationality, everyone would answer in one way – “local inhabitant”. Not Polish, not Belorussian – just „local inhabitant”. Those “locals” always gave me a special wreath in the harvest festival. Even though I wasn’t there they would bring it for a ‘little lady” – as they called me. As I spent so much time in the stables I was very popular with the carters. Over and over again, some of them used to come to see a Mr Łopaczynski and they asked him – “If the little lady feels like going dancing, will you let her go Mr Łopaczyśki?”. Mr Łopaczyński always agreed and I, as a little lady always had a will to go, so dances in Leontopol had no end! I used to wear a snow-white dress that I found full of dark marks with the shape on handprints after every party. They were finger-marks of my dear hardworking friends from the stables. What else I can say about Leontopol…. It was a dream land for me. Simply the most beautiful place in the World".