Jiří Ryba

"I went on a date from a restricted area. There was a party in a park in Plana near Mariánské Lázně, I jumped the fence and arranged a date there. I wore sweatpants, which is a terrible act, to get rid of the uniform and wear civilian clothes. And I walked about a kilometer into town for a date. I was already at the house where I was supposed to have my date. And all of a sudden, right across from me - this is a bad coincidence - my superior, the company sergeant major, was walking under a lamp. He asked what I was doing there. I said I was here on a date with a girl. Of course, I was immediately sentenced to three days in jail. I was so bold, or maybe I was in love, that I went out on a date even from that jail. That stunk. If I'd been caught, it would have been a matter for the prosecutor and the court. It all worked out fine, it was just a move to the line."

"The change happened when my older brother and I were finishing compulsory schooling. Because we were good learners, my dad wanted us not to work with our hands like he did, craft is hard work. He saved the new political situation by his own wise decision. He knew that we wouldn't be able to go to college as the offspring of a tradesman. He instructed himself and said he would do it for us, and became a worker in a brickyard. He went to do harder work than painting. And my brother actually got into grammar school, I got into glass school, my sister got into teaching school."