Božena Smáhová

* 1930

  • “We started on Saturday afternoon and we walked through the Sloupečník valley to somewhere behind the village of Petrovice. We walked in groups and we had various tasks, like placing marks on the path and following them. Near Petrovice we gathered some branches from trees, put a blanket over them, covered ourselves with the second blanket and spent the night his way. There were no sleeping bags at that time. In the morning we made tea and we continued our trek to Suchý. There were no lodges in Suchý back then. There was just the village and the pond. We were allowed to swim there. Eva Dvořáková, nicknamed Klíčnice, was supposed to cook a soup in a kettle for all of us. I don’t know what she used for it. But she wanted to finish it quickly so that she could join us in the water. She thus placed twigs and brushwood around the kettle in order to make it boil faster. Everything that was around the kettle fell right into the soup. The soup thus tasted very funny, but we didn’t mind at all. It was a great trip.”

  • “Every morning we were raising the troop’s flag – because we were not allowed to use the state flag – and every morning one camp participant would be assigned a motto which he was to ponder on during the day and then discuss it during the lowering of the flag in the evening. I remember that my motto was: Every cloud has a silver lining, which I liked immensely.”

  • “We had a great maxim for our relation to other people: at least one good deed a day. Carrying heavy bags for old people was something obvious for us. Who does it today? Who offers help to an old person now? If you see somebody lying on the ground, you just walk around him. The solidarity among people is not what it used to be. We felt it that way, and we respected and held dear this kind of relationship to other people. Speaking of this, I would like to recall one man, Oto from Němčice. He was a keen Scout, the leader of the troop in Němčice. He always emphasized that while Pioneers wanted to have friendly relations only with socialist countries, Junák members wanted to be friends with all people. This was a huge difference, and we have always felt it this way, and I still do. What I absolutely cannot grasp is the disdain for the Roma people – lot of them live around here, and I have always thought of them just as ordinary people and never in any other way. I don’t understand anti-Semitism, which is probably because I have experienced the war and I know very well how many people from Blansko have vanished. We have been ingrained with this loving relation to other people.”

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    Blansko, 20.08.2012

    (audio)
    délka: 49:32
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu A Century of Boy Scouts
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Experience great time in Scouting just as I did

  Božena Smáhová was born July 30, 1930 in Blansko. Growing up with her sister in a loving family she had wonderful childhood. Her father was a barrister, and the family thus did not have to face any financial problems. Her parents were supporters of the Sokol organization, and Božena therefore had to attend the training sessions twice a week. When she was eleven, she began studying at the grammar school in Brno where she had to commute every day. She was commuting with a group of young people who told her about Junák, the organization of Scouts. In 1946 she began attending the meetings of the troop Lišky (Foxes). They were meeting weekly in a local restaurant, and later in her father‘s office. Apart from the meetings they were also going on trips in the vicinity every Sunday. Božena took part in two summer camps. The first was held in the Rakovnické Valley near Jedovnice. Great part of the camp was spent on its construction. The second camp took place in Slovakia, in the Vrátná Valley. and this time the campground had been already built by another troop. Vrátná Valley was patrolled by soldiers at that time, because members of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists were roaming the nearby forests. The Scouts had to terminate their camp earlier because of that. When Junák became banned for the second time, Božena joined a swimming club. She returned to Scouting only in 1968, when she participated on its restoration in Blansko. She became the unit leader, but she did not volunteer to lead a troop due to her work - at that time she was employed as a teacher of German and Czech at the local grammar school. When Scouting was banned again in 1970, she had to join the Pioneer organization. She was afraid she would lose her job if she refused. She was active in Pioneer for two years and when participating on their activities, she could observe that not many leaders were really interested in educating the children. Scouting has taught her a lot: the right morals, the correct conduct in nature, appreciation of other people‘s property and respect for people. She was using the Scout methods of teaching in her professional life as well, which helped her to establish closer contact with her students. Her message to all Scouts is: Experience great time in Scouting just as I did.