Vladimír Pech

"I lived the year 1968 as a student. Or an apprentice. We had an internship in Čekanice in Tábor, we built there because I apprenticed to be a bricklayer, so we built the halls there. Basically, I never fell asleep on the job. And on the 21st. I fell asleep for the first time in August. I don't know why, but I just fell asleep. I went to work on the second train, and since it was August, it was the so-called school train. And it was empty during the holidays, there was no one there. I he was basically alone in the carriage. And in Soběslav the train had been standing for quite a long time, and by coincidence - we had never met - we met in the carriage here with our neighbour, Pepík Doležalů, we also went to class together. And he told me: Man, we were occupied by the Russians, they say!' I said: 'I don't know, I didn't have the radio on here. Probably the war or something like that.' It was quiet on that train, we got to Tábor, and I only got to the construction site there. And we had a radio in the mobile crane. So he had it on, so the whole construction was around the radio. There was no more work, everyone asked: 'What's going on, what's going on?' When we left work that day, it was still relatively calm in Tábor. But already full trains were starting to leave Prague, Prague citizens were fleeing Prague."