Zdeněk Krůpa

“It absorbed him completely... He had to keep thinking about it. And so I told him: ‘Dad, we can’t keep doing this.’ That was in ’57, when they were openly talking of destroying us. When it was clear. But the Communists approach was like this: first, they set to undermining the village community. Put the small people against the farmers, and those against the larger ones. And they were successful with that. They’d just say: ‘The farmers have cattle, they have fields.’ But I told the chairman [ofthe local national committee - trans.]: ‘Those are operating materials. Can a co-op function without machines, cattle?’ But they misused it. I told the chairman: ‘Look, Mr Chairman, I attend funerals, and I’ve never seen them ever put a cow into someone’s grave, or a pig or a hen. So what’re you saying that farmers... Everyone was basically just a temporary administrator of their farm. And it mattered in what condition they passed it on to those who came next.’”

“Dad had these stocky stallions, chestnuts. And they had amazing manes. When they were grazing, I learnt to climb higher up along the mane until I saw the strap, so I pulled it, he raised his head, and I ended up on his back. And one time Dad said to Mum – she told me about it later on: ‘How did that lad get on to the horse when I didn’t sit him up there?’ The horses grazed behind the barn, and he went to look around the corner and saw that I had climbed on to the horse. I loved horses, I did until the end. But I also had some nice stocky chestnuts on the farm. And then I had to let them go. The worst was that I had to let the last horses go when I retired. I had to give my last horses away... That was pretty bad, but oh well... Then Zdeňa had two again. I always say that when the last horse leaves the stable, I’ll die.”