"I did accommodations. At that time, it worked like this. When a guest came, he gave me a legitimation. I wrote all his details from the legitimation in the hotel book. That means name, date and place of birth, and place of residence. I think there was an occupation at the time. The date of arrival and the date of departure. If people came from foreign countries, there were two hotel books. One was for guests who came from socialist countries or people's democratic countries, i.e. friendly countries. There was a separate hotel book for guests from capitalist countries. They were these oblong passbooks. On the first slip, which was perforated so that it could be torn off, all the information from the people was written. For example, when tourists came from the East, we would tear out the original and bring them to the Public Safety Police Department every night. We put that under the door there so they could keep track of who was coming in from those countries. And the tickets from the accommodation book of people from the west were torn out and sent to the passport and visa department in České Budějovice. And from time to time, they would come and check the hotel books. And it also happened from time to time that the passport and visa department came to check and checked our accommodation books."
"It is true that today it is the other way around. Back then, there were a lot of people who would buy, eat and I don't know what, but there were few goods. Everything was terribly limited because the manager couldn't make his own decisions. Until 1960, after nationalisation, all the pubs were under the municipal services. In 1960, the district in Týn nad Vltavou was abolished, we moved to České Budějovice. In the district of České Budějovice, a department of commerce was established under the municipal services, under which all pubs and hotels fell. We were officially called Restaurants and Canteens - an enterprise of the ONV. We had a company headquarters in České Budějovice. All the pubs and hotels here in Budějovice fell under České Budějovice, and the pubs and hotels in Hluboká nad Vltavou and Týn nad Vltavou fell under them. If we wanted to do something, we couldn't do anything without the permission of the headquarters. Everything had to be requested. All goods. There were funds for everything. The supplier was the one appointed by the company directorate."
"It was right in the first grade when we started school. That was '52. The teacher warned us that if we found leaflets somewhere in the countryside, or if we found a balloon, we were to report it immediately to the school. We were also told that there were various mischief makers or spies in our school and that we might also meet a spy. I got somewhat scared. I was so scared that when I left school... It happened that in that first grade, I had to go alone because the classmate from our village who used to come with me was sick. As I was walking, I kept looking around, and as soon as I saw a person opposite me in the distance, I suddenly got scared if it was a spy. I calmed down only when I realized that the person coming was someone from the village who was definitely not a spy. So I calmed down, but it wasn't worth the fear at the time."
Jaroslava Svobodová (née Králová) was born on 28 March 1946 as the fourth of five daughters to Karel and Marie Králová (née Rodová). She spent her entire childhood in the small village of Smolečské Březí in the Písek district. She came from a very poor background. When Jaroslava Svobodová was 10 years old, her father died very unexpectedly. Marie Králová never remarried, and after the death of her husband, she, her grandmother and sisters took care of the small farm on their own. In 1960, she entered the Secondary School of Economics in Písek. Immediately after graduating in 1964, she began working as a hotel housekeeper at the Hotel Zlatá loď in Týn nad Vltavou, where she worked until 1989. During the 26 years, she went from being a helper to the main operator of the hotel restaurant. During her time at the hotel, she became very well-versed in the operation of restaurants, hotels and associated professions. She accurately and in detail describes the planned socialist economy of the time. In the early 1990s, she rented a canteen in a nearby factory, which she operated until her retirement in 1999. She never joined the Communist Party and was not interested in politics. At the end of the 1960s, thanks to her husband, Václav Svoboda, she became acquainted with the Baráčník movement, where she is still very involved today (2023). For a long time, she held the position of syndic, and now she is mainly involved in the field of education. At the time of filming (2023), she lived in Týn nad Vltavou.
Daughters of Jaroslava Svobodová, Pavlína and Martina (from the left) in the Baráčník costume, celebration of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Baráčník in Týn nad Vltavou, 1977
Daughters of Jaroslava Svobodová, Pavlína and Martina (from the left) in the Baráčník costume, celebration of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Baráčník in Týn nad Vltavou, 1977
Autorský tým: Valentýna Ambrožová, Ester Jobbágyová, Marie Harbáčková, Petra Porodová, Nela Holíková, Matyáš Maršík, Stella Šochová a Benjamin Sobota pod pedagogickým vedením - Mgr. Magdalena Pasovská
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