Josef Morkus

“When he got old and he was really over eighty, there were basically three options: either he would give the fields to the Unified Agricultural Cooperative, but then somebody from the family would have to work there. Or he could continue farming as a private farmer, as grandfather had done, or he could donate the fields to the state. They were thus forcing grandpa, who was already old and could work no more, to donate the fields to the state, which grandpa refused, because the fields were his and he would not give them to anyone. In 1957 – grandpa died in 1959, and he was eighty-eight at that time – there is a department of forestry and agriculture here in Třešť – and they wrote to Mr. Mareš – his name was Mareš – about allotting him substitute land. In order for the unified cooperative to be able to farm, they wanted to have all their fields joined together. Therefore they gave my grandpa a field behind the village, two or three kilometers away from the house where he lived. He was eighty-eight.”

“That feeling of freedom, it was actually a kind of a game. Not that there would be a real freedom, but it was playing at freedom, or at camaraderie. I have hitchhiked all over the country. And over half of Hungary. At that time it was possible to hitchhike, you would get out on a road and wave your hand, and somebody would give you a ride. Either on a tractor, or on a truck. But now, a truck… Or there were motorcycles, and helmets were not compulsory at that time, so that was a wonderful thing. But above all, to me at least, it was giving me the feeling that one day I was among people somewhere and I could hide among them or have that feeling that I was free.”