Marta Stehlíková

"We had to play at various festivities of party members. There were big receptions and membership meetings at district level. When a government delegation visited Znojmo, it was under the patronage not only of the Znojmo district, but also of the District Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, which organized everything. [The committee] managed the assembly if there was a government delegation or a foreign visit. Everybody was curious about agriculture in Znojmo, everybody wanted to get to know Znojmo region. There were conferences and peace celebrations where we played. Prime Minister Korčák also came to the cooperative farm Mír Práče. At that time, it was famous, the best cooperative farm in the Czech Republic led by Mr. Švrček, whom I respected because he was a hard worker. [The concerts] took place under those circumstances in those places, in a beautiful cultural house with all the service, with a big reception. We played there for free, of course."

"Those people who played somewhere now settled in Znojmo for work: Dáša Gromychová was from Znojmo and played in Znojemčan [band], but her husband came from Zlín and used to play in two cimbalom bands there, Zdenek Puček came from Kyjov region, Honza Vajčner played at Milták's [band] and came from Strážnice. It was in all of them. They said they would bring their songs to Znojmo and spread folklore there. Or they would introduce people to folklore. It's not that easy. First we wanted to focus on Podluží region. Then, when we got costumes from Horňácko, the guys tried to play folklore music from Horňácko [the area around Velká and Věličkou, trans.], but it's based on something else there. There are wonderful male choruses. I've always been a fan of Wallachia. Because of the fact that so many people from Wallachia moved to Nový Šaldorf, so I pushed through to have Wallachian costumes made. It was at the time when Nový Šaldorf got separated from Znojmo. So now the feast is celebrated in Wallachian costumes and with the customs that used to happen before. Even though it is half Moravian Slovakia, half Wallachia."

"I was eighteen years old. On that day, the twenty-first, I was picking cucumbers with my mum behind the ash trees, that is, at the end behind the cellars. We had been picking from four o'clock in the morning, because it was so hot. It was a kind of a hill. And suddenly, from the bottom of that hill, our housemate, Anička Holzbauerová, was running. She's still alive, [she was] the one who dreamed of the cherries from Wallachia. And she shouted: 'Girls, the Russians have occupied us.' We all stood still, we were all in a daze. I couldn't imagine what it was like to be occupied. My parents could, because they lived through the war. So we stood there and one of us said, 'Well, girls, we have to pick the cucumbers, they would rot here.' I was going to meet my student love from secondary school that day. It was a beautiful, crazy love, we met at hop-picking. That day he was supposed to come. So I was waiting for him, and he didn't come. He'd been studying in Brno for a year, and he didn't let me know. I don't even think that post offices and TV worked. That was the terrible thing. It was so sad. We used to go to discos at least once a week, but not that time. I haven´t heard from my boyfriend since then. So in that year 1968 I lost my love and we have never seen each other again."