"Well, in 1990, we initiated Scouting activities in Kralupy in a very interesting way, I even dare to say, in a unique way for this country. It worked like this: At that time we had a pioneer tourist club with Petr Svoboda in Kloučková School. A group leader told us that some two guys were recruiting kids for the Scout at the school and if we knew about it. We had no idea about any recruitment going on. So I quickly went home, called all the former heads of all the sections and all the former officers of the Scout in '68-70' and nobody knew about it. So I looked deeper into the issue and tried to find out what was going on. But what were we supposed to do with the kids? They were leaving the Pioneer en masse and joining the Scout instead. Therefore we organized a meeting with the kids. About 50 new children came to the meeting and we began looking for those who were behind the recruitment. That was such a strange time back then. Anybody could come and start recruiting these kids into whatever organization he made up. We finally found out who it was. It was the brother of one of the girls from my troop and his friend. So we invited the two young men to come here to the apartment. And I said: 'Gentlemen, I've heard that you are recruiting kids to the Scout'. He said, 'Yes'.
I said, 'And what will you do with these kids'? 'Well, we'll go out and have bone fires and barbecues'. We stayed with the two guys for about half an hour and listened. I even asked them, 'And would you take me into the troop as well'? And he said: 'Yes, if you want to'. Then I couldn't hold on any longer. I told them, 'I'm a former Scout leader, this guy is a former Scout leader. You haven't got a clue about Scouting. How did you dare to go and recruit children for Scouting'?
And they said: 'Well, it's simple really. We are in the Green Party, and the Scouts will become a part of the Green party'.
So we explained to them what Scouting was really about and that it didn't have anything to do with politics. We also informed the school authorities of the false recruiters and advised them to take precautions. I think that those two young men were not really able to understand that the Scout is apolitical. But that was the first and the last time I saw them. Well, but what about the kids? We had a lot of children, so we started to prepare the camp. I have to say that the first scout camp was a complete disaster. Because most of those children, who tried so vehemently to join the Scout knew nothing about it, of course. Their idea of Scouting was that they would be in a tent and read books on Scouting and tramping all day long. They apparently expected that there would be somebody to clean, cook and do everything else for them in the camp. We had trouble getting them to do some warm-up exercises in the morning and the problems continued for all day long."
"In 1970, it was actually the last few camps."
"And the camp was for three weeks?"
"For a month… in the last week we had two visits. We were visited by Míla Žáčková who just came to take a look at us and who was terribly moved, because she was saluted by the girls whom I had lined up in front of her. The girls took to her in five minutes. And then we had another visit, but I don't recall her name anymore. She was the district leader of the Pioneer in Mělník. She came to visit us, I too had the girls line up in front of her but she refused to appear before the camp because she was a Pioneer, not a Scout. So in her case everything was clear from the beginning. But she spent about three hours in the camp and when she was leaving she promised me that since the camp is alright and we were not doing anything subversive there, she would support the continuation of the camp, maybe under a different name, but she would give the camp her endorsement. Later this had far-reaching consequences, because of course she didn't keep her word and they wanted to put me in jail for organizing the camp."
"The funny part was that when we arrived at the place, we found that there was no wood there. It was already six o'clock in the afternoon and the wood was still not there. Now the problem was that we would never manage to get the tents ready till the evening. So we built a large hangar which was to become the dining room and everyone was supposed to set up their beds there. Only the tents for the camp leaders were erected. These tents were 2x3 meters and the undercoat had already been there so all we had to do was to put the rest together. Now, suddenly, they brought the wood after six o'clock. We had the dimensions of the camp site measured and everyone knew where they would sleep, where they would place their tent. So everyone immediately rushed to build their tent as soon as possible because they did not want to sleep in the hangar. Two girls actually managed to build their tent. I came to check if they may sleep there. I allowed it and a little later, they asked me if a third girl – a friend of them – could sleep in that tent with them. She didn't want to sleep in that hangar. I did hesitate for quite a while, deciding whether or not I should allow it. The other camp leaders tried to talk me into it and I finally said yes. The shock came around midnight when the patrol came to wake me up telling me that the hangar had collapsed. I immediately ran there with a flashlight and we checked every kid, one by one, if they were alive. And that mast which was holding the roof of the hangar fell exactly on the spot where that girl was supposed to sleep on that night. I was so happy that I had finally allowed her to sleep as the third one in the tent. I felt that God has to love me very much for he had me made the right decision. For the rest of the night, we basically slept under the open sky in our sleeping bags. In the course of the next few days, we found out that the hangar didn't collapse by itself. I had been well built. It was torn down by two soldiers on basic military service that walked by. They thought it was a good joke."
Jindřiška „Xˇanda“ Šatavová was born on April 15, 1942. She joined the Scouts at the age of 26, during the so-called „Prague Spring“ of 1968. That was when she became a group leader and completed a mentoring course. In 1970, she „had to“ take over the leadership of the whole troop. This brought her many priceless experiences. After the Scouts were banned for a third time, she and her husband organized kids under the umbrella of a tourist organization. After the revolution, she returned under the auspices of the Scout and helped reconstitute Scouting in Kralupy. She worked as a district information officer and today, she still works as an archivist for the Scouts.
Markéta Hanušová, Natálie Blažková, Adéla Janůrková, Filip Bulva, Štěpán Sakala
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