16. THE TICHYS’ HISTORY 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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