Jiří Šedivý

"In the army, they told me if I wanted to get a car, I could get one. I got my own car together in the workshops at the motor pool where I serviced their cars. After that, we always went to the car racetrack on Saturdays and Sundays. Major Břicháč thought it was strange that there was always a shortage of petrol. He saw us fooling around with the motocrossers and go-carts. He was hiding somewhere, then he came to me and said: 'I saw with my own eyes where the petrol was disappearing, but I also saw that you could start driving the Slovak championship.' I told him that I only drove a little; Andrej drove much more. The major shook his head and said I'd go with them. That's how it started. We rode one hill, another hill and finally I beat Major Brichac and others, I was faster than them in the A1 class."

"There were two kulaks in Černíkovice, they had large farms and many hectares, and the communists evicted them. That was the first thing they did. They left the smaller farmers, but still forced them to give their farms to the JZD and become members of the cooperative. The pressure was on. The same was our case. My older brother didn't get into college after high school because we had a private farm. My brother went to work in the forest for a year, and my dad gave the whole farm to the JZD." "Why did he make that decision?" "So my brother would be accepted to college - that was a condition (...) Dad was told that otherwise they wouldn't let his son go to college. Dad gave everything to the JZD and that got my brother into college in a year. He worked at the forestry school in Suchdol in Prague. He did it and it was good. Only the youngest brother stayed with farming."