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.
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