19. A SPIRITUAL CRISIS TRIGGERED BY DENOMINATIONAL DISHONESTY

Though I don't remember the exact date, the ear was 19 82 when a close friend of mine, Ernesto Cardoso Jr, came to our town to visit his son and  stopped by my workplace to chat. He was a very well informed person regarding church issues and told me something that made me curious.  We were members of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, still living in Brazil at that time.

He said that our church in the United States did something outrageous to Dr Desmond Ford.I actually didn't know at that time Who Dr Ford was, so Ernesto  educated me on the matter because he was very well acquainted with some theological issues that were affecting our church in the United States. Apparently, Dr Ford head addressed some controversial issues that have been discussed many times during the church history and have a chance to present them to a group of 100 representatives from the church to be evaluated. The outcome had been a rejection  of Ford's positions, but many people were saying that he had been treated unfairly by the church administrators. That situation was creating a split in the church and many pastors were actually resigning. 

I had a BA degree in Theology (class off 1972)  but Although  I was not a pastor I was very much interested In theological issues and participated actively in our local church. Based on what Ernesto  told me, i decided to obtain more information on the issue in order to learn more about who Ford was and what was the issue that was afflicting the church so badly. I soon learned that Ford had been given a paid leave of absence off 6 months to prepare theological documents that would be submitted to a group of 100 pastors,  theologians and administrators of the church for critical   evaluation - which that happened In August of 1980 a place called Glacier View Ranch in California. Ford's positions were rejected and he lost his employment. Soon he would publish all his research in a book format, "Daniel 8:14. The Day of Atonement and the Investigative Judgement." 

i quickly acquired the book and started reading avidly. After reading a few pages i was astonished! The information I was learning had never been revealed during my sixteen years in an Adventist School including four years as a Theology student. As I kept reading, my reoccurring question was. " can this be true?" but there it was, dr Ford was listing facts in biblical proofs that could not be refuted. "how come that as church members we were never told these things?" the more I was learning the more I was wondering if there was a possibility that the Adventist Church had been dishonest and hiding serious information from it's members and the clergy as well.I could hardly believe-that the church that I had loved for so many years could do such a thing, but the facts that I was contemplating could not be denied. It was all on the table, and now I had to deal with it! "All on the table" - so I thought, not aware that it was not actually "all" but rather just the beginning.

I kept Reading and learning more - and becoming increasingly alarmed. The problems that I encountered were many and very serious like for example Ellen White's blatant plagiarism, her declarations of" I was shown" regarding texts that she had just copy it secretly from other books  and even the creation of a new so-called doctrine about 1844 and the investigative judgment. The latter was actually a heresy because it directly contradicted what is clearly thought in in the book of Hebrews. And the there was the false teaching about the "Shut Door" that she said to see in vision directly from God; this lie was finally abandoned by the Church after seven years - thus confirming that Ellen White had actually lied,.  It all made me feel deceived on purpose by the church that I used to love. There are many other very problematic issues related to Ellen White and the Church's behavior that I could list here, but my purpose is not the repetition of what can be found in many books available to those interested.

Among many other books, I read Walter Rea's "The White Lie." Ronald Numbers' "Ellen White: Prophetess of Health," and Geoffrey Paxton's "The Shaking of Adventism." All the things that I was learning building up a strong question in my mind, " how can a religious organization lie to its members and clergy In such a blatant and disgusting and dishonest manner?"

In those days we were living in my wife's hometown, Jacareí,. I was participating actively in this church and was actually at an ordain Elder, teaching Sabbath School weekly and preaching occasionally. My in-laws were also members of the same church and among all members they were certainly the most affluent with a history of making large contributions to the church, maintaining a privileged position and holding certain powers in that congregation. At a certain point my father-in-law noticed that I was reading Desmond Ford's book and he started to condemn me for that. Since he was not a well-informed person I have no idea where and how he obtained any information about Dr Ford but the fact is that he actually started a true crusade against me trying to destitute me from any position or any function in the church. The conflict escalated to a point that we moved our membership to another church that was about 10 km farther in another town where a former colleague of Mine in school was the pastor and i felt protected from the in-law's attacks. However my father-in-law had tentacles and kept the crusade against me. Luckily enough my wife understood all the points that I was learning and agreed with me and was persuaded that we were on the right track. 

At that time the family M Church conflict had become unbearable so we decided to look for another church of another denomination. We found a very warm and welcoming Baptist Church-and started attending It on a regular basis. The pastor, Charles (Bud) McCord) was an American missionary of about  my age that was Very friendly - one of the best preachers that I ever met.I knew that at that point my father in law was pressuring the church to this fellowship me for apostasy so before that happened I asked for disfellowshipment myself. For another three years we had a very positive experience with the Baptists. And, above all, we had peace in our new church - let alone the freedom to think.

I believe that it was in 1983 when I wrote to Dr Ford telling him my experience and he became spiritually very supportive knowing that I was going through a very difficult crisis. We exchanged many letters and every letter from him was uplifting and supportive. In November of 1989 we immigrated to the US and settled in the city of Riverside in California. After  a few days  of our arrival Dr  Ford informed me that he would soon come on a    weekend to preach at the Seventh Day Baptist Church and we could finally meet in person.And so it was, I attended his meetings on a weekend in February and we started attending that very warm and welcoming Church where we would stay for about four years. For my surprise, among the members of that Church I found several former Adventists, including the Pastor, Gabriel Bejjani, who was also a former Adventist pastor. then, learning that Smuts van Rooyen was pastoring a 7-Day Adventist Church in town we decided to move to his church since his ministry was in the line of doctor Ford's views. In years past while you're still in Brazil I had translated several articles written by Smuts and distributed them   among some of my friends. In December of 1993 I applied for a teaching position at La Sierra academy where I taught Bible classes for 1 year and a half while finishing my doctorate in psychology. I left this job at the end of the 1995 school year to start my clinical work as a Clinical Psychologist.

Having an experience as traumatic as I had with the seventh-day Adventist Church is not an easy issue to deal with. For a person like me, who was deeply rooted in the church for such a long time, it was very difficult to disconnect from the system and in the process there is a lot of emotional pain. It takes many years to reorganize the approach to religion again.  But even though it's a hard experience it is possible to regain a sense of freedom from the control exerted by a religious system. At the end of the day i lost completely my interest in organized religion and now I participate in three groups* that meet weekly via Zoom and that are uplifting , but I haven't gone to a physical Church since the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic. I surely miss the socialization that happens in church meetings, but, again, there is no perfect package for anything. I am very content with the current condition.Now I can interact with different people from several different parts of the world on a weekly basis, which is a different kind of socialization , but one that can be very Dynamic and rewarding as well.

* The three groups mentioned above are, 1. The E-14 Sabbath School in Australia, 2, The Faith and Reason Sabbath School at Sligo Church, and 3. The ATSS - Adventist Today Sabbath Seminar. All via Zoom.

18: TRANSITION BETWEEN CULTURES

Until here the narration has been done using my Dad as the narrator. From now on, for practical purposes, I myself will be the narrator.

One can only imagine the difficulties faced by our family regarding the transition from a well rooted European culture to a Brazilian culture. The trip to Brazil in July of 1951 on a cargo ship took about two weeks, first arriving in Rio de Janeiro and then after a couple of days departing to the Port of Santos (in São Paulo State). That was that ship's last trip and she was then retired. After clearing customs we departed to the City of Sao Paulo where a couple of Czech friends helped us to temporarily be placed.

\Dad had obtained an immigration visa to Brazil based on him supposedly being a farmer, thus he was considering doing farming. He even went to the State of Parana where one of his Czech friends lived, in order to check some properties. But that was not actually what he wanted to do since he was much more interested in engaging in some kind of business. Thus we stayed in São Paulo where he would have many more opportunities. After a few failed trials, he finally started a small business importing some goods from Italy, mainly lithograph prints. After a while he was supplying tens of stores with his products to customers that framed the prints with fancy frames.

Not long after our arrival to Brazil, my three older brothers were sent to a Seventh-Day Adventist boarding school, and in 1954 we actually moved to the vicinity of that institution, the Colégio Adventista Brasileiro, aka CAB). My parents were not Adventists but, when still in Europe, Dad had contact with a person that gave him positive information about the education provided by that Denomination. Our new home was about half a kilometer from the main entrance of that school. In 1957 I started first grade,, the beginning of a journey that would keep me for 16 years as a student in that school.

My older brother, Gustav (1934-2019), finished college (School of Theology) in (I believe) 1957 and became a pastor - a career that he would abandon after a couple of years when he decided to start a business in the city of Fortaleza, in the State of Ceara, where his wife Teresa was from. Alex (1936-2024) finished High School in 1959 and in August of 1960 he immigrated to the US and settled in Southern California where he lived until his retirement. Ivan (1939- ) finished college (School of Theology) in 1964 but instead of going into ministry he also moved to Southern California in 1965.

I have great memories of my years in that school where I made many good friends and received a very good education provided by dedicated teachers, many of them “not easy to please” since they were strict and we needed to be “highly accountable” with our academic performance and behavior as well. In 1967 I decided to add music to my education and opted for playing the Cello. The principal Cellist of the São Paulo Municipal Symphonic Orchestra was my teacher;. Luckily he lived about one kilometer from our home, and by his preference, he came to our home once a week to teach me. Another strict teacher, but I made quick progress. His name was Flabio Russo, a talented musician that had moved from Argentina, where he played in the orchestra at the famous Teatro Colón  in Buenos Aires. Music became one of my great interests in those years, and I had the opportunity to play in a string quartet, an Octet, and a small orchestra in school. But after finishing college (School of Theology with a minor in Education) I practically abandoned my musical activities.

This is a picture of our Octet,

We, the children, adjusted very easily and quickly to the Brazilian culture. Brazilians are easy to interact with and usually very friendly, though difficult to Clearly define what Brazilian culture is Since the population is composed of peoples from all around the world - one example isThat there are more Lebanese people in Brazil than in Lebanon. In 2023 the population was close to 215 million, with basically all countries in the world being represented by a significant number of their people.

In 1972 I graduated from college and was ready to start my first job. My degree was in theology With a minor in education, however, I did not intend to be a pastor but rather a religion teacher. I got a job at a small Seventh-day Adventist school in the State of Espírito Santo that was ca. 1,200 kilometers from where I lived, in São Paulo. Thus, in January of 1973 I married Neide de Souza and we moved to our first home. The school was financially very tight and has difficulty to pay the staff wages on time.  It was discovered later on that the treasurer was embezzling money. There were about 200 boarding students but due to the lack of funds, many of them worked at the school in exchange for their tuition. 

The house we got was a disaster. It was a very old and ugly construction that for some reason didn’t even have a bathroom - but one was added before we moved in. The (one) bedroom was narrow and we had difficulty even moving in it. The kitchen and living room were also very small. There was an addition to the house made of wood that I elected to be my office.  Later on I realized that there were termites underneath that soon discovered my books and started to  enlarge their nest trying to include some of my books into their construction. And then, there were the windows… Well, there were no actual windows in the house but only wooden shutters that had to be closed when it rained or when it was windy - thus leaving us in the dark.  It was very hot in that area, which made everything worse.  At night we would like to leave the “windows” open to mitigate the heat a little bit, but then there were those gigantic cockroaches flying around that would end up landing inside the house… There was no vegetation around the house, just pure dirt, so I got a few plants and started doing some gardening - only to realize that, when I planted something, during that very night the big ants called “sauva’ would eat everything to the ground. 

Our first home...

The school had classes up to 8th grade and I was supposed to teach religion classes. However, a few days before the starting of the school year the Math teacher quit and there was nobody that could teach those classes. I was the only one who had taken Science courses in High School, so I was asked to take over. The School obtained a special authorization for me and I was on. With only a few days to get ready I started teaching Math instead of Religion. So simple, uh? …  🙄

I enjoyed teaching in that school despite the inhospitable conditions, The students were amicable and responded well to my teaching. However, the Director soon became belligerent because during faculty meetings I occasionally voiced some ideas that differed from his, and he could not tolerate that. His managerial style was authoritarian and he felt being more of a dictator than an open-minded administrator. Thus, in April of that same year he one day told me, “If you don’t support ALL my positions during the meetings, I will fire you!” So I conferred with my father and made arrangements to work in his business - which he always wanted me to do! Therefore, I submitted my resignation immediately, telling the Dictator that he would not have to fire me, that I was leaving by the end of May, a full month before the end of the school semester.  If he didn’t care about me, I didn’t care about his school either.

We moved back to São Paulo and I became Dad’s partner in charge of developing a clock factory of wall clocks and grandfather clocks - all made of carved wood. The clock movements were imported from Germany and the cases were made in our factory. It was a success, and soon we had 42 employees. But in 1979 the Brazilian government  stopped issuing import licenses for clock movements, to protect one Brazilian manufacturer that was making movements, though the quality was so deplorable that we would not use their products. This was the end of our business, and I decided to move to my wife’s hometown where I first took a job and later on started a business selling Purina products in my store. That city, Jacarei, was about 50 miles from São Paulo, and about two hours from my parents home.

At that time we had two children , Jane and Fabio, born in July 1975 and September 1976 respectively, and in 1980 another daughter, Lais, landed in our camp.  In January of 1983 we moved into our new house that was built on a  900 m2 that I had bought, the house being totally paid for. Life was good, but unfortunately a tension was building between us and my in-laws due to friction about religious issues. The situation became unbearable, so at the end of 1989 we decided to move to California in the US. And we did it! I will elaborate more on this religious and family crisis in a further chapter.

Moving to America was a quick and sudden adventure. We made that decision on November 19, 1989 and 10 days later i was landing in Los Angeles. Those 10 days were very busy since we were selling practically everything that we had except our house, but we made it. I was able to sell my business to my store manager. My wife and my children stayed there for another 3 weeks to make some final Arrangements in terms of selling our Goods and get ready for the big trip, the most important change in our lives. Due to my concerns with the political stability in Brazil i had always kept passports with valid visas to the US just in case that we needed to leave the country, and that was very helpful at that time because we were able to leave Immediately with no concern. The idea of always having passports ready to be used was certainly related to my parents experience in Europe because it's taught us to always be prepared for emergencies in which we need to make a sudden move.

Once in the US, I started by working on my own doing painting jobs and refinishing furniture, always getting a new job by word of the mouth. We became members of the 7th Day Baptist Church in Riverside, where we made very good friends.  Since I had a degree in Theology, they applied for our immigration, and in 1993 we went to Paris, France, to get Green Cards (they are actually pink…) I would be employed as their Minister of Missions using my multi-languages abilities (Portuguese, Spanish). After a while I took a Bible teaching position at the La Sierra Academy , 

During those early years in America I finished my doctoral degree in Psychology, and in May of 1995 started working at a Mental Health clinic running treatment groups for domestic violence perpetrators ordered by the Court to take the treatment for one full year - or “else” (i. E., jail). That job was the best learning experience I ever had, in which I learned more about human behavior than I could possibly have learned in any academic environment. This was my job for 12 years, in which I graduated 1,851 people. After that I transitioned to Geriatric Psychology, working exclusively in Skilled Nursing Facilities as a Medicare provider until December of 2020 when I retire at age 70.

I can say I was basically forced into retirement due to my poor vision since I developed macular degeneration. This condition prevents one from reading or doing several things that require Central Vision.My peripheral vision is intact but I can no longer read and writing becomes very difficult. Therefore, I Take advantage of the many Technological resources available in our days, using audio help as much as I can. - including the latest portions of this writings after chapter 16.

After living in Riverside, CA for 33 years, in March of 2023 we moved to Reno, NV where our daughter Lais lives with her family - and we enjoy it here very much.

(All rights reserved according to the Law)

17. RESTARTING LIFE AGAIN, BUT IN A NEW COUNTRY

 As a young male I started my family when I had already worked in my dad’s business for a while and had already a partnership in the business. Dad was a talented gunsmith and there was room for growth. Our shotguns were of quality, and we had a large clientele. Then WWII hit us, and as I told before, I had to flee to Belgium, where I had to restart our life - including creating a new business. Then after was we returned home and I restarted our business; it was the same business but after all those year of war, we lost basically everything and had to restart. When things were getting better, the damn Communists took the country in their hands and we had to flee again, leaving everything and everyone behind. After three years in FRance, there we were now in  Brazil, a country I knew nothing about, had a significant language barrier, and needed to “restart” our life again. Yes, again!!!

Our trip on a ship was fine, though everyone except my wife became “sea-sick.” At least during that trip I had some time  to relax and to et mentally ready for what I needed to do next.  We first arrived in Rio de Janeiro, where the ship stayed for two days.  We had to take Georges to a doctor because he had been very sick during the trip and needed medical attention.  Which worked out fine, and we were eager to make it to out final destination, São Paulo City.

On 7/19/1951 we finally made it to the Port of Santos, our final destination in Sao Paulo State.  We had some initial problems at the immigration, because the agent didn’t want to allow us into the country.  I needed some additional personal documents which were in the baggage still in the ship.  Our final destination was stated as the city of Londrina, and the man said that there was no such city in Brazil, and that we had to go back.  After a long time discussing and talking, he finally remembered that Londrina was a city in Brazil and allowed us to get in.

There was a Czech in Brazil who I knew, Mr. Otahal, and he was waiting for us at our arrival in Santos.  There were another two people, Mr. Remechik and other one whose name I forgot, who along with Mr. Otahal helped us at the beginning until we could settle down in the new country.  There was a problem at the immigration when we arrived but it was finally resolved and we were able to go to Sao Paulo city, which was about a couple of hours from Santos by car.  We took a cab for that trip, and of course I was ripped off right there when the driver realized that I had no clear understanding of the exchange rate.  Actually, that trip cost me $1,300.00 (in Brazilian currency at that time, the Cruzeiro)!

Mr. Remechik had a friend who was a manager of one of the nicest hotels in Sao Paulo, the Lord Hotel, so he arranged that we would stay in that hotel at first. They thought that we were rich, but the fact is that the appearance of our luggage was not that great.  We had 10 old suitcases and many of our belongings were in some old wooden cases.  People were looking at us with a despising look, and actually there were some difficulties at the hotel because they didn’t want to accept us - probably due to the appearance of our luggage.  But Mr. Otahal invited us to stay at his home for as long as we needed.  He was 65 at that time and a very gentle and kind person, who had a younger second wife.  We stayed with them for a while.

Now was the time to look for work.  What should I do?  What were the possibilities and opportunities in that country?  Someone told me that there was a Czech somewhere in the inland South who wanted to start a new business and needed a partner.  So I took a trip to his place to check it out.  I first went to Londrina (State of Paraná) after being for probably 12 hours in a bus.  From there I had to take another bus to the destination city, which I though was close.  But after some five hours, already in the dark, we were going through a place where there was a big fire on both sides of the road.  Those fires were intended to burn bushes and the big trees in order to clean the area so that new coffee trees could be planted.  The smoke was very thick and one couldn’t see more than probably 2 meters ahead.  I was supposed to go to a town (or village) called Cambé (note: in another part of the tape it is stated as “Angulo” , not Cambé).  Suddenly the bus driver stopped in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of that smoke and told me that I had arrived.  I got out of the bus and was confused because I couldn’t see anything.  But soon someone appeared at the bus stop and told me that I was very close, just a few blocks from downtown.  

I finally made it to the home of Mr. Novico, the person I was looking for.  I knocked on the door, late at night, and his wife answered.  She told me that he was not home and would come back only a couple of weeks later.  So suddenly I found myself  in Cambé, which was a very small village, but I had no place to stay.  I looked for a hotel, but there was no hotel in town!  I was told that if I went to a certain place I could find a room to spend the night.  I went to that place, which was a kind of a big bar where people went at night to get together.  Most came riding a horse, and they actually came on their horses into the facility, had some drinks and left.  There were many farms in that region and horses were the main transportation for those people.

The place was not nice because there were so many people smoking and drinking inside.  But I finally got a place to spend the night and had a good sleep.  In the morning when I woke up I went out and what a nice day I could see outside.  The sun was so bright and nature was very alive.  As I was looking in the sky I saw a big group of parrots flying and making such a big noise that it seemed like they were complaining because the fire had burned everything and possibly their nests and preferred trees too.

I had nothing else to do in that place, so I went back to Londrina as soon as I could, where Mr. Remechik lived.  He actually offered me a partnership in his company, but I didn’t like the business he had.  I noticed that he was taking advantage of his clients and exploiting them and I was sure I couldn’t do that.  That type of business was not for me, so I made my way back to Sao Paulo as soon as I could. 

In Sao Paulo I met several Czechs. There was actually a Czech club where they all got together on the weekends.  The president of the club was Mr. Honsneiman, a very nice person who I became friends with. I didn’t become member of that group because most of what they did there was drinking beer and smoking all the time and I didn’t intend to socialize with people who had those habits.  Mr. Honsneiman had a nice and profitable factory where he produced mirrors and some other glass products.  His wife was very sick and died soon, and he died probably  five years later.  I also met Mr.  Strakosh, who was a very amicable person.  He helped me to find a home to rent and also a commercial building where I intended to start a car shop.  He also helped me to find some mechanics among the Czechs and I started my business with all the employees being Czechs. They were good professionals, but before delivering the cars back to the client they would drive the car for a day or so for personal use.  They often were driving without a driver’s license and ended up having problems with the police, getting traffic tickets.  Mr Strakosh gave me a good hand, but I knew I would not keep a closer friendship with him.  His talking was almost only about women and how he was conquering them all.  My wife didn’t like him because of his personal attitudes, and asked me to no longer invite him to our home.

At that time we lived about 40 minutes by bus from the place where the shop was.  The main problem was that the busses already came packed from the initial terminal and sometimes I had to wait up to two hours before I could get into a bus to go home.  The home was at a nice place and the rent was not too high, but the business was not making enough money and our situation was not good at that time.  My work was very stressful because of the many mistakes that the mechanics made as they tried to fix the cars, and we ended up with too many complaints and also invoices that were not paid.  So I started looking for another type of work, and after a while I got rid of the shop and started another business.  I started a small import business, buying all sort of lithograph pictures from Italy.  There were many stores in Sao Paulo selling framed pictures, and I started supplying the pictures.  Which became a good business for me because I didn’t need any employees as I could do it all myself.

It was probably in 1952 when I attempted another business.  There was a guy who had been my brother Gustav’s friend, named Yech (???) and he was living in the city of Campinas, which is ca.  2 hours from Sao Paulo.  He told me that he had experience making a certain type of cookies and that we could start a business together. He would be in charge of the production and I would sell.  He persuaded me and we actually moved to Campinas where we lived in a hotel.  But it didn’t work because neither he knew how to make the cookies nor was able to sell them.  It was actually a factory for waffles which I bought for US$10,000.00.  But my friend didn’t know how to make the waffles  crispy, which is a must with this type of product and soon we were out of business.  Then we dissolved the partnership and he moved to the USA, where unfortunately he passed away three days after arriving there - he had a heart attack while in the bathroom.  I wanted to sell the business but could not find a buyer.  I needed to sell it badly because what I invested in those machines was actually my last money.  but one day a gentleman came asking me about the machines and bought them by  the same exact amount of money I had paid for.  That was a great relief!

It was then that Georges got a strange type of cough called “cokeluche”  and we were told that if he was taken in an open airplane flight and stayed at a certain altitude for about two hours, it would help.  So we found a pilot who did this kind of flights and our older son Gustav went with Georges.  It actually helped and the cough disappeared almost instantly.

I had another business in mind, which unfortunately didn’t work either.  After we had returned to Czechoslovakia after the war, I decided that I wanted to manufacture a type of small pistol which used fake bullets.  It would be used only for the noise it made. Thus I ordered the tools to make some of the parts, and I got some heavy pieces (ca.  100 kg probably) which would be used to make the body of the pistol.  When we fled from our country I left it all behind but later on a friend shipped it to me to France where I actually has many parts made before we left to Brazil.  It was a nice pistol and it could have been a great business - if the type of bullets required were available in Brazil.  Only then I realized that those fake bullets were not available in Brazil; which made all my equipment unusable. 

After a couple of years I was able to buy a home close to the school where our three older children were studying.  It was a Seventh-day Adventist boarding school, where they had actually been boarding for the past two years.  It was a big property (3,300 square meters) and it became our only home until the end.  This happened in 1954.  Later on, probably around 1968 we were able to buy a lot by the beach and build a house there.  My wife enjoyed the beach very much.  Even before having that home, every year in January she would spend at least two weeks in a hotel in Santos.  I never stayed for the whole time because of my work, but I certainly would go on the weekends.  We used to go to the same hotel every year, the Praia Hotel.  The owner, Mr. Aires da Motta, would give us a better daily rate for being faithful customers every year. 

Living close to the CAB (Colégio Adventista Brasileiro), later on renamed to IAE (Instituto Adventista de Ensino), made it much easier because now the children could live at home instead of boarding.  There were worship services in the church every Saturday morning and in the beginning I started attending the church but those people didn’t speak much about the Bible there, they rather spoke more about money.  I was not lucky, I guess, because every time I went there the sermon was on an issue that I didn’t like.  One time the preacher talked about homosexualism, dedicating too much time to this theme.  I remember the last time I went to that church.  It was election time and suddenly the pastor interrupted the service and introduced a person that was in the audience who happened to be a politician running for some office. The pastor said that he was not an Adventist but he was certainly a good friend of the Adventists.  And the gentleman gave a short speech about his intents as a candidate, asking people to vote for him.  At that time I was so disappointed that I stopped going to those meetings.  Since then I just stayed at home on Saturdays, keeping the day my way.  I read the Bible and enjoyed nature in my backyard.  But I am glad all the children became Adventists and stayed that way.  It was certainly good for them.

Some people would do strange things.  There was a time when I got in trouble because I did something wrong in my business, which was illegal.  There was a politician In the congregation I mean, he was a candidate several times but never made it to any office.  However, he had many political connections and could certainly help me to go around the problem.  We knew each other very well, as we lived in the same neighborhood and very often he would give me a ride as I was waiting at the bus stop in the morning and he was driving to his office.  The point is that I was dealing with an illegal issue at that time, and after talking to him and asking if he could help me he said he would see what he could do, and then he asked me to get on my knees to have a prayer.  And in the prayer he asked God to help us so that we could be successful in doing what we were intending to do.  I felt really bad, because I didn’t want to ask God to help me to accomplish something wrong.  (It had to do with my business, in which I sold most of the merchandise under the table, with no invoice, and  I was caught).

Those people talked a lot about money, properties, cars, and other material goods.  It seems that their mind was focused on those things most of the time including during the Sabbath Day. I wish my children will be able to teach my grandchildren not to be money-oriented, materialists.  We don’t need much in life in order to live.

(All rights reserved according to the Law)

16. BEFORE WORLD WAR II - PART 3/3

My Dad’s narrative continued:

I will tell now how and when I learned to save money and not spend it unless necessary. On a certain occasion my mother was notified that a small packet arrived and had to be claimed at the train station.  She sent me to go and get it. There was a fee to be paid, so I got some money for that and left. On my way to the station, while I was walking I found a coin probably equivalent to a US five cent coin (nickel), and just for the fun of it I threw it into the air and looked how it landed somewhere in the bushes. When I got to the station and asked for the packet I realized that the amount to pay was exactly the amount I had taken from home plus five cents! Since our family was known in that town, the clerk told me that it would be fine to take the packet and on the weekend, when my father would come to town, he could pay for what was missing. Then I told him how amazing it was that the exact amount that I was short was the amount of that change that I had found and threw away when I was coming. That was when I learned a great lesson, as the clerk looked at me and said, “Ah son, money is not to be thrown away,” and he took the packet back telling me to go back home and get more money so that I could pay for it in full. Well, it was probably a half and hour walk back to my home. Since there was no option, I had to do it, and for the rest of my life I remembered that valuable lesson, that we should not throw away any money that we find, even if it is a small change. It can be always useful. And everyone who knows me knows that I always abode by this rule: money is not supposed to be thrown away. This is an important principle that has been very helpful throughout my entire life.

I served only for six months in the army, instead of the regular 2-year term. That happened because I was assigned to a special task where I could serve as a driver using our own family car. But then during the following three years I had to go once in a while for some additional training. However, because I didn’t complete the full training on a regular basis, I was always assigned to some office, to work more on paperwork than on real military exercises. It was on one of those occasions that one day I woke up in the morning and realized that I was in jail. The problem was that the night before a group of soldiers went with their sergeant to the small town nearby to have some fun at the tavern. After drinking for a while, we went out and were involved in some disturbances in the village. I could not remember what happened, and was ashamed for having done that. It was at that time that I decided that I would never drink again, because I learned that I could even kill someone without knowing it. As punishment, during one  week I had to spend the nights in a special dorm used for those cases, although during the day I was allowed to go on with my own business. And sure, I never drank any alcoholic beverage again. I felt really ashamed of losing control of my mind to a point of having no conscience of what I was doing. 

There were always some funny things happening in the military. One of the commanders of my division didn’t want to use tap water for his personal use and hygiene. He wanted water brought from a river close to the camp. I was in charge of bringing him that water every day, but when I was not around, other guys would do it; and it had to be brought not in any container but in a special container that had to be cleaned very carefully. After a while, though, it became obvious that the commander couldn’t tell the difference between the two waters; so, instead of going to get water from the river, the soldiers brought him just tap water. This way he was happy, and we didn’t have to keep doing that annoying job.

Our family business was operated on a basis that every year someone was sent with supplies (ammunition and other accessories) to some competitions and hunting events happening on a routinely basis. I used to go every year to one of those places, where I became good friends with most of those who were participating. On one of those occasions, however, I had to attend the military exercises and couldn’t go. My brother Gustav went that year to do the job in the locality called Pistaneh. Then, the following year, when I went to that event again, I noticed that everyone was acting very unfriendly to me and nobody was buying supplies from us. I couldn’t figure it out at the beginning, but very soon I learned that the year before my brother Gustav had made fun of a very prominent person, a mayor of a town in the vicinity, and the man felt very offended by that. As a result, all people participating in the event resented the offense and took it personally, too, thus deciding to boycott our particular business by buying from a competitor instead. It took me a while to regain their friendship and get their business back. It shows how irresponsible Gustav was, putting the business in jeopardy just for the pleasure of making fun of others.

It was dealing with one of those customers that I learned how rich people sometimes can abuse others. On a certain occasion I was invited by one of those participants to visit his Castle, and the man took me to the roof of the Castle, showing me that all the land around that could be seen from there  belonged to him. Then the man expressed his dissatisfaction for having received a reminder note from our office asking for the payment of a bill that was overdue for at least ten months. Then the man told me he would never buy from us again, because he was a rich man and he paid his bills only after two years. He had also resented receiving the letter through the office of a lawyer. 

The scenery around our city was nice. There were some mountains, the Tatras, very close and we used to spend some time up there especially when there was snow. I remember that one time I went with some friends to those mountains. We were walking in the evening and suddenly we were in the middle of a snow storm. We finally made it to one of those small hotels and were glad to be in a warm place.  But after a few minutes we noticed that one of us was missing so we went out to look for him. The storm was heavy but fortunately we found him very close to the hotel. He collapsed when we were walking in the snow storm and was laying on the ground unconscious. We were glad that we noticed him missing because, had he stayed out there during the night, he would most certainly be dead in the morning. 

We used to go to the Tatras very often, to play hockey and also to watch the international hockey competitions taking place. Every year many teams from other European countries came to that place and we always went to watch those games. Actually, I was part of a local hockey team, and once in a while we played against some of those international teams. Of course we never won against them, but it was a great, fun experience because our team was often mentioned in the local newspapers and we felt very good about it. It certainly boosted our egos.

I had much fun traveling with my hockey team. We went several times to Germany and Poland to participate in competitions there. I remember one time in Poland I had a bad time because of the fun the audience made of me. Although I was still young, I was already partially bald and when I had the ball the adversary’s audience were yelling, “Hulla Daddy, Hulla Daddy”  as if I were the other players’ father. Calling me an old man was their satisfaction, though. Actually, in one occasion I could have scored a point but I missed it, and they yelled, “It’s sad Daddy, It’s sad Daddy.” But I had lots of fun doing all that.

I also played soccer in a team at school. During the Summer vacations, which last for about 2 months, we used to spend three to four weeks on a “soccer tour” We usually invited a couple of very good soccer players who played in a professional team, to go with us to Slovakia as we traveled from city to city and played against the local teams. We won very often because we had those professionals along with us. Those local teams liked playing against us, but very often we had to make a deal with them, which was that we would play if they kind of sponsored us. Sponsoring usually meant to give us some money so that we could make it to the next town. They had to feed us, too. We never made any money, but we had lots of fun…

Now I will tell you how I was drafted in 1939. At the time of those difficulties with Hitler I had to go and present myself to the army. But that was a tough task for me, because I had never been trained in the army prior to that, and now suddenly I had to be able to be part of the army. That was a big obstacle for me, besides all the inconvenience it caused to my personal business. But I was lucky that on my way to that recruitment place I met a friend of mine who told me that there was a way to arrange things in order to get a job as a janitor, and, sure enough, I got that work instead of bearing arms.

We always had confusion in Europe, and it was a very difficult time when in our country we had the Nazists on one side (Germany), the Fascists on the other side (Italy), and many other groups fighting everywhere.  Our country was always at a disadvantage because the population was very small compared to Germany, and, still worse, there were some three and a half million Germans living as citizens in our country. Those times were very disturbing, especially when everyone was preparing for war. We were preparing for war, too, but obviously in a different way because we didn’t have the same resources and capabilities as the Germans did. It was in those times when I had to go and work as a soldier, as I described above. At one time we went close to the border with Germany (which was so close that we walked) and there we stayed aligned in the position of fighting - but it certainly was  just a small symbolic group if compared with the German army. We stayed there for about one week, doing absolutely nothing but sometimes going at night to the woods shooting bullets into the air.

After a few days we were told that we had to go deeper into the woods and also to some mountains; but after walking for some time and each soldier carrying a backpack as heavy as 45 kilos, we were told that we should return. On our way back we stopped in a village to spend the night, and I remembered that one of our customers lived in that town, so I went to visit him. He was happy seeing me and insisted that I spent the night with them, which I did. In the morning, however, when I was looking for my division I realized that they had already left early in the morning and I missed them. So I just took a train back to Ostrava. Later on when I went back to return my uniform I was informed that I had been considered to be a defector, which was a serious violation. But after explaining what happened I was excused with no further consequences.

This concludes the comments on the times before WW!!. In the next segment I will return to our life in Brazil, with a few more interesting stories.”

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15. BEFORE WORLD WAR II - PART 2/3

Please remember that it's still my Dad, Alexandre Tichy telling his story:

“There was always something dramatic going on in my brother Gustav’s life. Funny things happened, and people laughed; but there was always someone who would be victimized by the situation. Gustav had a very intense social life, especially at night. He was once riding his motorcycle carrying a friend on the back seat, at night, and they went through a place where some thieves had set a rope across the street so that whoever was passing on a motorcycle would fall, thus being easily robbed. Which certainly happened that night, and once Gustav and his friend were down, two individuals came out of the bushes running in their direction to rob them. They shot Gustav’s friend in the stomach and started looking for his money. Gustav had fallen farther and since he always had a pistol on him, he immediately started shooting at the thieves and they had to retrieve quickly, and ran away. His friend was treated in the hospital and survived. Everything looked fine, but after a few days a detective and two police officers came to our home looking for Gustav. It was early in the morning, and he was still sleeping when they arrived. The family had a good relationship with the police because we serviced all their arms in our shop. 

Gustav would not come out of his bed, so the three men were invited to his room to talk to him. First they talked about some generalities, but then the detective suddenly asked Gustav about that “shooting incident” that had happened a few nights before. Gustav told them that they were assaulted, the guys were armed and shooting, so he also shot at them, and they ran away. Then the detective asked if Gustav had a permit to carry a pistol, which he obviously didn’t have. He said that, because he co-owned a shop that had a license to sell firearms, he didn’t need a permit to carry one. But it was not true, so the detective informed him that he had to confiscate the weapon because it had been used unlawfully without a permit. The pistol was actually placed on top of a dresser very close to them at that moment, but they had not noticed it. The detective asked where the pistol was, so Gustav indicated where it was, and the detective tried to grab it. Gustav warned him not to dare to touch the firearm; but the detective grabbed it anyway. Gustav reacted immediately and with no fear because he was a very big guy compared to the detective; he jumped quickly from his bed,  grabbed the short detective by his waist and neck (in the back), took him out to the street, and just threw the poor guy on the sidewalk covered with snow - and told them all not to ever come back!

That was crazy, and would certainly have grave consequences. I was kind of happy with the incident, because Gustav might finally get some punishment for his always challenging and defiant behavior. We were all wondering when he would be finally arrested and taken to jail. But nothing was happening, which was intriguing. A few weeks later, when I went to the police station to deal with some business, I asked a friend of mine who worked there about Gustav’s situation regarding that incident. But my friend didn’t know anything about it. When I told him the story, however, he started laughing and told me that most probably nothing would ever happen. The detective that was thrown on the street that day became famous for capturing a very dangerous killer some time before, and would certainly not expose himself to the ridicule of telling  others that a man wearing pajamas threw him out of the home, in the snow, when he was trying to confiscate a gun. And again, lucky Gustav escaped from the consequences of assaulting a police detective.

Gustav smoked a lot, more than 40 cigarettes a day, and the results appeared early in his life. At the age of 30 he got tuberculosis and died after a short period of illness. In a sense, he had had a lot of fun during his short life. When he went to Pištaneck, to manage our company’s branch there, one night he went to a tavern and introduced himself as Lord Parfy. Important people used to do that, and then a public announcement was made informing who had just arrived. Gustav was introduced as being Lord Parfy and was having much fun. Until suddenly another announcement was made: “Lord Parfy just arrived.” This time it was the real one, though. But everyone made fun of him, telling him that Lord Parfy was already enjoying  the party, and showed him where Gustav was seated. Of course the man was infuriated and the situation became very embarrassing. However, situations like this were very common in Gustav’s life; but, at the end of the day, Gustavalways had a lot of fun with those incidents. On that occasion he was just kicked out of the party, with the compliments of Lord Parfy!

We had two stores and sold all sorts of guns and ammunition.  But the forte was mainly hunting rifles. Every year the hunting season was very active, with people coming from several parts of the region for the competitions. My father and I ran the main store and Gustav went to take care of the branch, which he did for approximately two years. When he contracted tuberculosis the doctor’s prognosis was that he had only about two months of life. And sure enough, he died after two months. That was something very difficult for my father; he was devastated since he liked Gustav very much, but absolutely nothing could be done. 

We were four siblings. Karlicka was born in 1898, Gustav in 1900, I in 1905, and the youngest was Zdenka, born in 1906. Karlicka worked in the store with my father, while I was in school. She was a very beautiful girl, but something bad happened; she met a young guy from Prague and started a relationship with him. My father was strongly against the relationship, and she committed suicide. I was still very young and don’t remember exactly the details, but I know that she ingested something, apparently some pills in excessive quantity. The first time she was rushed to the hospital and they saved her, but after three days she did it again and at that time she passed away. It was a devastating tragedy; she was very beautiful and very liked by everyone. My father experienced extreme suffering for the loss, and for about three years he completely lost interest in any kind of activity. It affected him so badly that he even neglected his own business. He would not open any letter received in the mail during that time. And, of course, the results were not good - as it happens when the owner of a business does not care much about the business. We all reminded him constantly that although this happened there were still the three of us and he should be happy for having us. It took him a long time to recover from the loss, but little by little he got better. The loss of Gustav later on, though, made another horrible impact on him.

When I was 18 months old I got pneumonia and the doctors said that I would not make it, that there was no hope, and that I would die soon. It was then when a lady who worked for my mother told her, “Look, there is no hope, so why don’t  we try to do what my mother did?”  Then they obtained lots of a type of cheese like ricotta cheese. They just wrapped me into some sheets along with that cheese so that I started sweating a lot. After a while I started coughing very strongly and all that “stuff” ” came out of my lungs. I had just been saved by natural medicine. To date I still like cheese!

Although my health was not good when I was little, it gradually improved as I grew up. I was practicing several sports. However, when I was 20, one day I had a terrible stomachache and in the evening I had to go see a doctor. Only later on I remembered that when I arrived at the hospital, and before he even examined me, he told the nurse, “prepare him for a surgery.” The doctor was our client in the store and we were confident that he would do a good job.  The next day in the morning, when I woke up, I noticed that my belly had been cut in several different places instead of only one incision. When my father came to visit me, he asked the doctor what happened, and he replied, “Well, my diagnostic was appendicitis, but when we opened him up we realized that that was not actually his problem; then my assistant suggested that it could be something in the intestines so we operated there; but again, there was no problem in the intestines”. When my father realized that he had to pay for two surgeries, he said to the doctor, “I am glad you didn’t have five assistants with you in the room, otherwise I would have to pay for six surgeries..” My recovery from the surgery was very slow, and actually I could not recover at all. I was always feeling weak and indisposed. I was then taken to a different doctor, and this one concluded that I had tuberculosis, too. I could not believe it, so I looked for a second opinion - which confirmed the first diagnosis. 

Treatment for tuberculosis was not available in Ostrava. The only place for that was in the Slovak region, in the mountains called Tatras (Czeskie Tatry), where the weather was appropriate for such a treatment. So I went there and spent three months receiving treatment. The scenery there was very beautiful and the air was very clean. It was not actually a treatment for me, it was basically a vacation. However, after three months we felt the financial burden of the treatment, and one day I talked to the treating physician telling him that I could no longer carry the financial burden. At that time he told me to go home because I had no illness. Isn’t it Interesting that when I ran out of money I was suddenly cured? I even suggested that I could move to a family home and go to see him only occasionally to be checked, but he just insisted that I could go home. Which I did.

I surely got better after staying in the Tatras village for that time. Once back at home, I continued practicing several sports, studying just a little (as usual...), and my health improved sensibly, although for the rest of my life I had a cough that resulted from tuberculosis. Every time I coughed my mother was in desperation, thinking that I too could die from it - as did my brother Gustav. 

My mother had a golden soul. She always took good care of us all. I don’t remember much about her extended family. They were from the country, and one time I went to spend my vacation with her relatives. They had a nice farm and I enjoyed the experience of being there, although I almost died when on one occasion I fell in a manure container. Luckily someone noticed it and took me out of it. When they wrote my mother a letter telling her what happened, she immediately came to pick me up and I was never allowed to return to that place.

Later on my mother bought a property in the city of Hranice, with a nice home. The land was as big as 16,000 m2 and located next to the Becvi river. It was a nice place in the middle of nature, and ever since we would spend every vacation at that place. We also liked going there on the weekends.

We were Catholics, but even being a devout Catholic, my mother didn't go to church. On Sundays she stayed at home and prepared a nice meal for the family. When I was little she used to send me to church with my father, which we did for a while. To protect my head from the cold I used to wear a nice cap made by my mother; one time I lost the cap at church - or maybe it was stolen! Of course she made me another one, but the next time we went to church, my father said to me, “Oh son, if we go to church again, someone may steal your cap again, so why don’t we just go to the tavern where some people of our business association meet every Sunday morning? I can hear what is going on and spend some time with my friends and you can enjoy some of the games they have there. And nobody will steal your cap again” . His argument was very convincing to me, so … from that time on, we always went to the tavern every Sunday morning instead of going to Church... Of course we never told this to anyone at home! My mother always thought that we were faithfully going to  church every Sunday…

My father was an easygoing person, and always resolved problems with some humor. Our shop was in the same building where a shoemaker had his shop. We kept wood logs in the attic, and when the weather was cold we used those logs to warm up the store. But we noticed that someone was stealing the wood, and after observing what was going on we concluded that the shoemaker was taking it for his own use. I wanted to make a report at the police station, but my father told me to forget it because he had a better idea. He took a piece of wood, drilled a hole into it, filled it with gunpowder, closed it under pressure with a piece of wood, and put the log back into the attic. And sure enough, one day the shoemaker’s heating system exploded! Interestingly enough, the shoemaker went to the police station to report that we threw that piece of wood on the floor close to his shop, but my father explained to the police what exactly had happened and there were no consequences from that. We had authorization to store gunpowder, which was used as part of our business.

Now I am going to tell a little bit about my Grandpa on my mother’s side. I will tell you about the strange conditions of his death. He used to work on a farm and liked to drink a combination of a couple of alcoholic beverages which he mixed himself together. At a certain time he was living in our home in Hranice, close to where another of his daughters was living as well. He was a poor man who lost his wife and had no personal resources. So every once in a while he asked his daughter for some money  to buy his drinks, always saying that he had a back pain that decreased when he had a drink. It was certainly just an excuse. His daughter always gave him some money for that, but on one occasion she refused to give him the money to buy alcohol; coincidentally, he passed away on that very night. I can't imagine my aunt's feelings of guilt that she probably experienced for the rest of her life.

At the age of 70 he moved to Hranice, but at that time we didn’t know him much, neither did he know us;  he always lived in a country town far from us, and we rarely met him. On one of those weekends when our family went to Hranice, it was a time when the cherry trees were full of fruit, and we immediately climbed on one of those trees as we usually did, to eat cherries. Well, he didn’t know who we were, and when he saw us on the trees he thought we were just some kids from the neighborhood and told us to come down and leave. In defiance and thinking that an old man was easy to defeat, we told him then, “If you want us to go down, then come up here and get us”  Which, for our surprise and astonishment, he had no problem doing it promptly: at the age of 70 he climbed on that tree without a ladder, caught us, and gave us the deserved reward: a good spanking! Only later on would he realize that we were his own grandchildren!

In 1991, when my son Alex took me  back to the Czech Republic for a visit, we looked for my Grandpa’s grave at the cemetery but, unfortunately, we couldn't find it.”

 

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14: BEFORE WORLD WAR II - PART 1/3

Before I (George now) pick up the narrative of the years in Brazil, I will post my Dad's description of the Tichys' history starting as far back as possible. There will be three parts for this matter. 

Alexandre Tichy, on the family's past history:

“I actually don’t know much about our ancestors, because there were not many people who could tell me the story. The city where our family lived was Ostrava, in the former Czechoslovakia, now Czech Republic. My grandpa worked for an important, rich person who lived in a castle; he had an interesting job, brewing beer.  

My father, Gustav, had a very difficult childhood.  When he was two years old, his mother died and his father remarried.  My Dad and his brother (uncle Jenik) had a hard time with their step-mother, because she didn’t like them. And they didn’t like her either.  My mother had some information on that family situation and she told me that when the family went to visit someone my Dad and his brother were not allowed to accept anything to eat or drink from the people they were visiting.  When they did accept something they were spanked when they returned to their home because they supposedly were, suggesting to others that they didn’t have enough food at home.’

Then my Grandpa died, and soon my step-grandma remarried. So then my father was actually an orphan, becoming poorly treated by the step grandparents. When my father turned 14 he was literally banned from home and had to take care of himself in all ways.  He was offered a job by a person who used to manufacture firearms, so he learned much of it when he was still very young. When he learned quite a bit of that profession, he went to Austria because there was more work there at that time. He was still young, though, so he also ended up serving in the military in Austria. In those days, as soon as the kids became grown up enough to be able to work, they used to go to Austria to make some money since the wages were higher.  My mother did the same, and it was during those times that they met each other and married.

At that time, Ostrava was only a small village, maybe with a population of only 500 people.  But a big reserve of coal was discovered in that area, and soon people from everywhere came looking for work. It didn’t take much time for the population to reach 20,000 people.  My parents came back from Austria looking for new opportunities as well.  He started a small business, manufacturing especially hunting guns, and my mother was sewing women’s clothing.  Both made pretty good money with their business since the population was growing so rapidly. 

My father, Gustav, and his brother had inherited a big sum of money from their father, and each should receive ca.  20,000 golden crowns; However, it was stated in the will that their stepmother should receive the interest on that money while she lived, so they couldn’t actually get the money.  However, she died only after  World War I and that money lost its value completely.  They had inherited a beer factory in Ukraine, too, but the person in charge of that business was embezzling  all the money and the business went broke.

Despite the hard circumstances, my father was a happy person who worked hard and was a very good gunsmith. He spent some time in Prague where he passed through the famous Frantisek Faukner's shop as a journeyman. He didn’t like the managerial aspect of his business, but loved to work making shotguns himself.  He could always recognize a shotgun that he had built, even many years later. Same thing with any small part he made for a rifle. Once he and I went to Brno to an exposition of firearms; while visiting another gunsmith’s booth, he noticed several of his rifles.  Suddenly my father said, ‘Do you see that rifle? It was stolen from my store by an employee 15 years ago.’  My father became very angry and asked to talk to the owner.  He actually did talk to him, explained the situation, and that person gave him the rifle back for free! 

Although my father was an expert, the business was not doing so well.  We always had enough for our daily living, but there was no big abundance. of goods. Since I was a small child I always had serious health problems, especially with my tonsils.  Any change of temperature was enough to make me seriously ill.  Because of that, during vacations my parents always sent me to some nice places to recover my energies.  I went twice to Yugoslavia and very often to the mountains not far from our town.  One of my father’s clients lived up on the mountains and he always had me there for a month or two.

On one occasion when I was in Yugoslavia my mother was supposed to come from Moravia to spend a few days with me.  I was waiting for her at the train station, and the train was not arriving.  Suddenly we got the message that that train had suffered a terrible accident on the mountains, caused by a huge rock that fell down and hit the train hard, with many wagons ending up in a river - the report said that there were many casualties.  My feelings were the worst possible, and we were preparing ourselves for the worst. However, to our surprise, she arrived the next day.  She missed the train in Vienna the day before, and so her life was spared. 

I was a very good student during my first five years in school, but then I started to practice sports.  My both parents were working at their store and didn’t pay much attention to what I was doing, and because of a shift in interest I neglected my studying, getting just the minimum scores to pass. I was supposed to study to be an engineer, but the business was growing and new branches were opened in other cities, which needed proper supervision.  I worked hard in our business, but had little experience in management.  My brother Gustav was a good person, but didn’t like to work that much.  My father sent him to another city in Germany to learn more about the business, but in a couple of months he came back saying that the Germans were prejudiced and were mistreating him because he was Czech. Mere excuses for laziness! Other attempts were made to send him to other places to learn more, but all ended up being a failure. He would always come back home again, and would do basically nothing other than riding his  Harley Davidson motorcycle during most of the day, but especially at night. 

My parents were not too tough on my brother because he had had a bad experience when he was a small child.  He was born cross-eyed. There was a physician in Prague who became famous for correcting that problem with surgery. So my mother took Gustav and me and we went to see that doctor, who performed the operation on him within a few days. The tragedy happened when the doctor took out the bandages from Gustav’s face, to show the results of the operation; but what a disappointment and frustration it was to learn that the doctor mistakenly operated on the wrong eye and now both eyes had a problem. This had impaired Gustav's sight for the rest of his life. However, that didn’t prevent him from running crazily on his motorcycle. He loved his bike, which became part of his life and personality. The bike also became responsible for a great deal of his frequent problems.

On a certain occasion, there were some motorcycle races in Ostrava, and Gustav invited one of the competitors to spend the night at our house, to get a good night of sleep. At some time at dawn, the friend needed to go to the restroom; since he didn’t know where it was, he woke up Gustav asking him where the restroom was, and got the information. He went there but missed the right door and ended up outside the home; but the worst was that  the door locked itself after him and he was now literally on the street and still in his pajamas. He could not return and stayed in the cold outside, always having to hide himself when people came on walking on the street. Later on he started knocking on the door, wishing that the housemaid would come to open the door for him. The problem was that she was not aware that there was a guest spending the night in the house! Gustav and his friend went to a party the night before and came home very late, so obviously she would not let him in and closed the door leaving him outside. He knocked again, but she would not let him in either. Being afraid of having a stranger doing that, the housemaid woke up Gustav explaining what was happening, but being still sleepy and having forgotten that he brought a friend with him the night before, he told her to just ignore the guy. And the poor guy had to stay outside, suffering the cold weather for one more hour until Gustav finally realized that his friend was not in the room…  I will tell a couple more stories about him in the next segment." 

Legit GUSTAV TICHY piece of art

 

And now, five more pictures of a shotgun currently owned by Dr. Aaron Wallace (George's son in law, married to Lais Tichy Wallace). Aaron's children, David and Alex, are excited holding the gun as well. (Pictures taken on Jan 12th, 2022). 

 

 

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