Vlasta Chládková

"Financially, well, considering that it was a relatively cheap even for that time." "You mean, studying in Prague?" "Like studying in Prague in college. In those days a dorm was 50 crowns a month. I paid 30 crowns a month for a tram ticket and it cost me 10 crowns to get to Prague. Lunch in the canteen was 2.60, and so was dinner, and I actually had breakfast out of that dinner because it was enough. I brought some food from home, some food when I went home on weekends, so I actually got by quite well. So I didn't really need any extra money. Later on, from about second or third year onwards, I gave private lessons." "In Russian or English?" "In English, so I had 10 crowns an hour at that time. I only gave those lessons twice a week, but it was 20 crowns and that was quite a lot then. So if I needed a little something, a book or something like that, I could afford that and of course I had some money from my parents, but I don't remember how much they gave me then."

"I also have some personal memories of that, even though I was not even ten years old at the time. About a year before that, there were people who convinced the residents of Šiškovice to join the cooperative, to start a cooperative. I have a memory of two such tall men, I would say, in long coats with hats on their heads, constantly coming to my father and pestering him. Persuading him. And he really didn't want to join the coop at first, at first, but eventually he was persuaded, because the situation of those who really refused, stubbornly refused, was very, very difficult. Because in those days, as a rule, the state set such a ration that they had to pay out - grain and animal products, meat - that they were never able to meet it. It was just done so deliberately to make it impossible to meet. So they had some leverage over those people, and often those people ended up in jail. That was a really difficult situation, so those people, if they wanted to live a little bit, somehow, usually succumbed to it."