21st may 1970

Branik

21/05/70

Dear mum and Dad

Thank you for your letter. I am sorry I have not written for so long. I will send this letter express so it reaches you before you leave.

The reason I have not written is I have not been well but I am glad to say I am much better now and should be quite fit and healthy by the time you arrive.

Tony and I had a lovely weekend on the 9^th may. We went to the Giant mountains, about 70 miles north of Prague. It was gorgeous weather and we got quite brown. The countryside was lovely- like the alps with the hillsides full of alpine flowers and cowslips. There was still snow on the high mountains with lots of streams fed by the melting snow. Perhaps we may be able to go there on the first Sunday of your visit. Tony and I walked in the hills and did not meet a soul- quite different from the beauty spots in England. We saw lakes with people fishing and thought of Dad. We spent Saturday night in a hotel and came back Sunday evening. When we returned home I was still feeling well and we had tea on our balcony. It was a perfect evening. On Monday evening however I started having ‘the trots’ and stomach ache. The doctor came Tuesday and said I had gastroenteritis. Since then I have been in bed swallowing pills. I am better now and plan to go back to work next week.

The weather is not so good now- cloudy and chilly. I hope it will be better by next weekend.

I bought some lovely flowers today- tulips carnations and lily of the valley which grows in wild abundance in the woods here. I have spent a pleasant hour arranging them.

We have booked a hotel (Hotel Panorama built for the world ski championships) in the High Tatras for 4 nights- bed breakfast and evening meal at Strbske Pleso. We have also got tickets for a concert in Prague cathedral Saturday afternoon to hear Beethoven’s  Missa Solemnis. Unfortunately we could not get any tickets for the week as they were all booked up. I have been sitting in bed planning what I can feed you when you are here.

Tony went to Germany last weekend and had the car serviced. It is going very well and there is nothing wrong with it. He also bought some bed clothes and lots of pillows for mum to sleep on.

I was wondering if you could bring some books with you as I have read all my stock lying in bed all the time. There are a few I would like but if you can’t get them don’t worry. They are:-

Lawrence Durrell           Tunc            Faber          six shillings

Graham Green               The Ministry of Fear       Penguin        five shillings

Margaret Drabble         A Summer Birdcage         Penguin        five shillings

Margaret Drabble         The Millstone                  Penguin        five shillings

John Steinbeck             East of Eden                   Penguin        five shillings

Desmond Morris   The Human Zoo not sure if it is in paperback yet

If you can’t find any don’t worry just pick the first three books you find preferably by authors I don’t normally read as I have read most of my favourite author’s books.

Secondly could you bring some tablets to treat stomach upsets e.g. ENTROVIROFORM. I say this not because I have just had a stomach bug but because a friend’s parents were here to stay and both had bad stomachs while they were here.

The only other things I would like are

A vacuum flask

Tea

Bacon

Talcum powder sandalwood or French fern

Super tampax.

I don’t think there is anything else and we can always go to Germany or Austria.

We have just had a lovely meal fillet steak, jacket potatoes and spring cabbage all bought locally and cooked by Tony.

I am afraid all the cherry blossom has gone over but the horse chestnut trees and lilac are now in bloom so I hope there will still be some spring flowers when you come.

I was sorry to hear about auntie Edna’s accident- give her love- I hope it has not put her off driving.

I can’t believe a week from tomorrow you will both be with us- wonderful. I think you are very sensible going to the airport by train. It will be much more relaxing than driving so far on the first day of your holiday.

I must close now so Tony can post this. See you soon with all the news

Lots of Love

Gillian and Tony

Sbohem (go with god)

What I failed to tell my mother and father was that I had been in the isolation hospital in Prague with suspected Cholera.  Cholera was a notifiable disease to WHO but Eastern European countries often failed to notify them of out breaks. One of our secretaries contracted yellow fever during our year in Prague and we all had to go to our local clinic for injections to help fight it off. I have never been so ill before or since with a bad stomach. I passed out at one point just through the stress of the diarrhoea with blood in my stools. The isolation hospital was set on a hill outside Prague. Visitors were only allowed to speak to patients through closed windows from a balcony outside the wards. Groups of people would all be shouting in Czech through the double glazing next to each other. I was told all the clothes and books I took with me would probably have to be incinerated after my stay. I lost over a stone in one week!. I learnt the Czech for ‘blood’ and ‘injection’ and other related medical terms. Not many of the nurses spoke English so it was a difficult time. I remember we had to pay for treatment before they would let me home. The regime was a very slow return to a normal diet starting with bread and yoghurt. Luckily for me they found no recognisable pathogens in my stools and concluded it was a haemorrhagic virus causing the problem. I think I picked it up at the hotel in the Giant Mountains as the female toilets there were in a terrible state. I was weak for several weeks afterwards and had to take it easy. All in all we appear to have suffered more than normal from illness while we were there, both stomach upsets and sore throats and flu’. I guess it was partly due to the different strain of viruses in another country which we had no resistance to.

The giant Mountains were really magical. We stopped at one point just at the edge of the snowline. As the snow melted alpine flowers bloomed in the icy water as if springing from the snow itself.

6th May 1970

Branik

6/05/70

Dear Mum and Dad

Tony and I are reunited again in our little flat- we went for a very nice walk this evening in the streets near us. The last 4 days have been just like summer- it has been very warm. All the cherry trees have blossomed. There is a large piece of common land near us with a silver birch copse and a cherry orchard.

I had a very good weekend last weekend. On Wednesday I phoned A.R. about work and she invited me to spend the weekend with her and her fiancée V.L. We had a holiday on Friday because it was May 1^st. So I went to Brno Thursday evening just in time to join in the leaving celebrations for R, who is returning to England. It was about 2 am when we got to bed.

On Friday we slept late and then hired a car midday to go to V.L.’s family holiday cottage at Hronice for the weekend. A.L. has just passed her driving test and wanted to get some practice in before she gets her own car.

V.L.’s cottage is fabulous, just near a small country town next to a river with wooded hills all around. The cottage is quite civilized with a fridge and 2 electric rings for cooking and a flush toilet and running water. The garden is quite wild and carpeted with cowslips, violets and wood anemones. We arrived Friday evening and went for a walk round town and had a coffee and then went to bed early. On Saturday we went along the river to a small spa which specialised in heart treatments (not for the treatment ourselves!) .

Here the spa water is quite warm. There were some interesting caves nearby which we visited. They are made by the hot water and gasses and quite different in structure from the normal limestone caves. They also contain semi precious stones like onyx and agate. There were extinct geysers- little volcanoes of rock where the hot water had forced its way out. The caves still contains a lot of carbon dioxide and if you go down too far you notice the difference as your  breathing becomes faster and deeper to compensate.

After our subterranean wonderings we went for a walk in the birch woods. The wild flowers were everywhere, wood sorrel, wood anemones and several species we don’t have in England.

In the afternoon I had my first canoeing lesson. Both V.L. and his sister are very good at canoeing and both take part in the national championships. They have a fibreglass canoe. I really enjoyed the experience but it is hard work, especially going up stream.

On Sunday we decided to go and pick up V.L.’s father. He was visiting his mother who was getting treatment for her rheumatism at a nearby spa near Trenchin. This involved driving through the Beskidy mountains. These are more like large hills about as big as those in the lake district with lots of swift clear rivers- good fishing Dad. There were blossom trees everywhere, little country villages and rolling hills with occasional rocky outcrops. We stopped and went for a walk at one point through a small village and into the hills. We found a lovely valley with a clear mountain stream, sloping hills which disappeared into the woods overshadowed by a large rock outcrop. It was so warm A and I lay down and sunbathed for half an hour whilst V climbed the rocks.

Another feature of Czechoslovakia in the spring is that each village has at least one family of goslings, little yellow fluffy things being shepherded around by mum.

When we arrived at the spa I found it quite interesting. It was like going back in time. The park was full of promenading patient and on the bandstand was a brass band playing Viennese waltzes. Again the scenery was lovely, a river flowing through a flower filled park with wooded hills all around. We returned to Brno Sunday evening.

I stayed in Brno on Monday to clear up some work I had to do there and came back to Prague in the afternoon only to find Tony had arrived on Sunday evening. He had driven back, picking up the new Daf at Schiphol airport on the  way. It is lovely- cream coloured car. I had it for the day yesterday and it is easy to drive with some improvements in design over the old one. However it is due for its first service already so we are going to drive to Nuremburg on the 14^th May and have a weekend in Germany to get the car serviced and do some shopping. Tony has ordered the Volkswagen but is waiting to see if we can have fuel injection with the low octane petrol here.

Last night I did the washing and I am quite tired tonight. I must find time to clean the gas cooker before you come. I will book the hotel in Slovakia and your day trips around Prague. Time is travelling quickly now- only 3 weeks until you come.

Looking forward to seeing you

Love Gillian and Tony

The health system in Czechoslovakia was free and comprehensive. The idea of sending people to a spa to recuperate was more reminiscent of Jane Austin days in England and there was something very old fashioned about the spa towns. The wild valley where the spa was situated had been tamed with concrete pathways and flower beds and of course the band stand. V’s mother was given a range of treatments in the spa baths similar to the sort of thing you can get today in UK if you go to Bath- and all on the National health in Czechoslovakia.

I did not mention the old couple who lived in half of V’s family chalet at Hronic. People were allowed to keep their holiday cottages after the instigation of communism but had to be prepared to have people billeted on them. The old couple who lived in the chalet were bent double after years labouring on a farm. Their faces were wrinkled and tanned and they looked really ancient. I was astonished when V told me they were only in their sixties. I can see why people did not live so long in days when the majority of the population worked the land.

28th April letter

 Gill had been booked for a training course but developed tonsillitis on the plane to UK and went to Coventry so her mum could look after her. After she  got better she went on one course for a week at Cookham. These sort of things happened very quickly in I.C.L. so you could be told to get on a plane and go somewhere with very little warning. So there will be only one letter in April

Branik

28/04/70

Dear Mum and Dad

As you can see I have arrived home safely. The plane was about a half hour late taking off. It goes from terminal one which is quite useful to know as I arrived at terminal two and had to take a coach to terminal two which is only 300 yards away but with two cases and a bag difficult to walk (No suitcases with wheels in those days).

Tell nanny I will go and buy her birthday present tomorrow. I did not have time today as I have to travel across Prague to the office in Pankrac this afternoon.

There is certainly a change in Czechoslovakia since I left- all the chestnut trees and silver birches have come into leaf. The parks are full of pansies which seem to flower very early here and the tulips are just coming into bud with the Livingstone daisies. In the park where I work they have just switched the fountains on which makes it very beautiful. It appears warmer than England because we do not have a NE wind at present. I was told last Saturday was a perfect spring day and the flat was so warm last night I could not get to sleep.

I have arranged to go to Brno this weekend as we have a holiday on Friday. I have some work to sort out down there and it will be good to see all my friends rather than staying here on my own. I must wash the sheets before Tony comes home.

I had a letter from JM in Ethiopia. She says it is a really beautiful country but she does not have much work to do yet.

All I.C.L. staff are in England at the moment so it is very quiet round here. No more news- sorry it is such a short letter. I am looking forward to seeing you both in June

Love Gillian

I remember how good spring felt that year. I looked at the blue sky one day and realised I had not seen the sun for over a week. It was a very cold and possibly untypical winter that year. But the cold was somehow not so penetrating as the damp cold in England. The sudden contrast from sub zero temperatures and continuous snow to the green shoots of spring was everywhere. The spring came very suddenly. It was almost as if overnight the temperature changes and the flowers and trees burst into blossom.

Food shopping was certainly a challenge in those first few months. Much of commerce was more about who you knew than what you knew. People in particular businesses would have access to goods or services and would share their bounty with friends and family. So if you saw a shop with oranges you would queue and then buy much more than you could possibly eat and share them with your colleagues. If anyone saw a queue they would join it in the hope there was something good at the end of it. Some of our engineers would start false queues outside a shop or building and after the Czechs had joined them they would walk away and leave the people queuing for nothing.

One of our first real shocks was to find a fruit and vegetable shop, in the middle of the week, closed and displaying in its window a small wicker basket containing a few wizened carrots, potatoes and a swede, nothing else. In the winter there were very few fresh vegetables or fruit. Everything was much more seasonal. There would be bottled peas or carrots both bleached almost white by the bottling process

Gill had been brought up in Coventry, and Tony in South London. Both born during the second world war, we had known the hardships of post-war austerity in the UK, rationing, lack of clothes, fabrics and most materials, housing, and at the time important to us, manufactured toys for children. Tony would play Cowboys and Indians with his friends on the south London bomb sites with his index and second finger as a gun, taking cover in the bomb craters; or hunt for ghosts in the shells of empty bombed houses. But by the late 60’s that was all behind us. Not so in Prague. We were immediately transported back to late 1940’s post war austerity in the UK.

Near our flat in Branik was a so called ‘modern’ Supermarket. We were confronted with complete aisles filled with nothing but sugar from Cuba, or salt, or flour, or bottled fruit and vegetables (very good as it turned out), or sour milk. There was a freezer section, albeit rather small. One sniff inside a compartment confirmed that the contents had been transported by lorry without suitable cold storage.

Being part of the ‘never had it so good’ generation of young people, born in the 40’s,  schooling in the 50’s, free grants for university in the early 60’s, plentiful well paid jobs for graduates, cheap mortgages, and setting up a well furnished home in the mid-60’s, we were part of the growing consumer society. But suddenly we were living where even food was hard to come by (unless, like us, we could afford to eat in restaurants when we chose), housing & household furniture were very hard to acquire, the ‘Rock Scene’ was frowned upon by the authorities, and life seemed relatively drab & basic, and the officialdom & state control was stifling. But after the initial shock of the contrast, we adjusted and found a great pleasure in the less materialistic aspects of life that we had become accustomed to in the UK. That pleasure in more simple and basic pursuits and needs, camaraderie & helping others, has never really left us since.

30th March 1970

Branik

30/03/70

Dear mum and dad

Thank you for the letter

Spring sounds as if it has really arrived in England. We are lulled into a false sense of security here for we had several warm days and then it snowed again.

We had a house full over Easter. R. the operator from I.C.L. who is working on the Incomex stand at the exhibition is still with us, staying for about 3 weeks. Then on Thursday A.R and V.L. arrived from Brno and stayed until Sunday. We managed quite well using the hall as another bedroom as it is quite warm and large.

Last Sunday Tony and I went on a day trip to Kutna Hora. Silver was discovered near there in the fourteenth century and it became a very important town where all the money for the Austrian empire was minted. Many of the buildings date back to this time. We visited the town hall which used to be the mint and had an interesting guided tour. The guide was an elderly lady who spoke perfect English. When we asked her how she learned English she said she had lived in London for two years, in Elgin Crescent where I lived as a student- what a co-incidence! There is also a beautiful gothic cathedral overlooking the river. It was a lovely day and we walked round in the sunshine.

All this week there has been a great panic because of Incomex- the computer exhibition. A.R.  went for an hour on the stand and met some friends from Oxford and arranged to meet them on Saturday and we all went with them. We took them round the old town which was quite near their hotel. Here we saw the famous fourteenth century mechanical clock. Inside the town hall were some very old frescos. Also a tower with a marvellous view of the Prague in all directions. As we stood looking we could see a black cloud approaching and soon there was quite a blizzard with snow everywhere. Afterwards we went back to our flat so Mr and Mrs S. could see what a typical Czech flat was like. They were in Prague for their son’s wedding. He was marrying a Czech girl he met when he was teaching at one of the Czech universities. Their daughter H is in her first year, reading history at Cambridge. We exchanged addresses and they invited us to visit them next time we are in Oxford. They are lovely people-reminded me of you and Dad.

Yesterday our house guests all went with us to visit Karlstein castle. It is set on a hill in beautiful countryside. Inside there were lovely old frescos in the chapel and an old treasure chamber where the crown jewels were kept historically. All the walls of this chamber are coated with gold leaf and encrusted with semi precious stones. We then drove to the river at Slapy and walked in the woods picking pussy willow and catkins. I have done a flower arrangement with dried grasses and a white lily. We were tempted to buy a potted azalea to cheer the flat up, a lovely red one.

The Czechs have a very strange custom at Easter. They sell painted eggs for the girls and sticks with ribbons on for the boys. The boys beat the girl of his choice with the stick and if she accepts him she gives him her eggs. It looks like an old pagan custom to me, but the eggs are in astounding colours and patterns to symbolise spring.

We saw A.R. & V.L. off on the train to Brno and then could not decide what to do. Then someone suggested cards and we sat plying ‘chase the lady’ with R until 2 o clock this morning.

Today we have stayed home doing the washing and cleaning the car and flat. This week we had a letter from Mrs F. saying they are driving to visit us in July or August and bringing Auntie Pat with them- we were quite surprised when we got this letter but we are glad they are willing to make the effort to come. I must finish the washing now and get ready for work tomorrow.

Lots of live to all the family

Gillian and Tony

Ps G.W.  always calls me Gillian you will be pleased to know.

There were many old cars on the road in Czechoslovakia and the Czech were very good at making spare parts to keep them going even though they were long out of production. Because the Germans had suddenly decreed the Czechs should drive on the right during 1939 after they invaded, many of the older residents still looked left when they crossed the road. This caused many accidents and while driving in Prague you had to be aware that older people would suddenly step out in front of your car. They had a system where the old cars that should be in museums were loaned out to people who had the responsibility to keep them in good order. They had a special plaque on the car stating what museum it belonged to as it still trundled round the streets of Prague.

As it was so easy to nearly run over pedestrians, the I.C.L. engineers invented a game where you got points for the type of person you virtually hit. An old person who stepped out in front of you was a low score, younger people and policemen scored higher. It was only a joke and we did not try to hit people but it did happen occasionally through no fault of our own. One engineer scored the highest ever when he ran over the skis of a white clad border guard in no man’s land.

Then followed a trip to the UK. If I remember right Tony had a trip taking one of his customers around computer sites in the UK. With huge restrictions placed on Czechs travelling outside the communist countries and the difficulties in obtaining hard currency to fund a UK visit, research visits to western Computer sites by potential Eastern European customers were very popular. If the host site in the UK was of particular interest to the authorities in (say) a military or a high tech field, it was not unknown for a potential Czech customer who had been courted for many months and whom one might now know rather well, to suddenly require a previously unknown ‘personal assistant’ to accompany them. The ‘assistant’ would arrive, camera in hand and surprisingly knowledgeable in the subject of the visit, and would take photographs of just about anything they saw that might be interesting back home to whoever their real sponsor was. Needless to say that after the visit the ‘assistant’ was rarely seen again.

Computer technology was of special interest to the emerging Russian computer industry.  A colleague was offered a considerable fee if he would bring back from the UK a case of (then) new technology disc read-write heads; he declined. But we were aware that western industrial ‘know how’ was a prime target for some of the ‘assistants’ and translators who went on the many pre-sales visits to the UK.

 Gill had been booked for a training course but developed tonsillitis on the plane to UK and went to Coventry so her mum could look after her. After she  got better she went on one course for a week at Cookham. These sort of things happened very quickly in I.C.L. so you could be told to get on a plane and go somewhere with very little warning. So there will be only one letter in April

23rd March 1970

Branik

23/3/70

Dear mum and dad

It was lovely to speak to you on Thursday. As usual we are getting all the brochures on different cars before we make a decision but I think we will buy an estate car so we can go camping in the future.

We have a big exhibition of computers in Prague for the next 3 weeks so both Tony and I will be busy. We are putting up one of the computer operators R. in our flat during this period so I shall be in training for catering for more than 2 people. Tony just asked me to tell you to put the money from the building society into your current account if possible.

I don’t expect Tony will have much time to spare when he is in England as he will be escorting Czech customers round various installations (we don’t know where yet) In fact we always expect last minute changes  with I.C.L.

G.W. has gone to London this weekend and will try to book me on a course as soon as possible so I should know in a week or so when I will be coming home.

We are both very tired today as it was the I.C.L. monthly meeting on Friday and we had the usual I.C.L. party last night and did not get to bed until 4 am. As a result we have not done much today apart from shopping and washing. I hope we will go for a drive in the country tomorrow as nearly all the snow has melted now. Unfortunately as it thaws all the roads become terrible. There is a lot of new building near our flat and the lorries have churned up the local roads. The Daf gets dirty very quickly.

I was quite sad to leave Brno as I have made a lot of friends there. Still I have invitations to go and stay and I hope some of our Czech friends can visit us in Prague.

I am getting spoilt having a washing machine here- I did manage to turn two of Tony’s shirts blue washing them with my pants. He will have to buy some new ones in England. Clothes are very expensive here- a dress can cost between £6 and £10 and are often of poor quality, (that’s about half weeks salary in the UK, let alone how many months salary it is here!.)

I had a pay assessment on a plane from Brno to Prague. I happened to be on the same plane as G.W. and as he was on the inside seat he could not escape. I badgered him until he consented to give me an assessment there and then. I dare say I will get a negative rise after that. I won’t hear the results for a couple of months. Our finances are beginning to look up now but it is difficult to keep track of three bank accounts each in three different countries.

After you have been in a country for a while everything seems normal. Things you found strange when you arrived you soon take for granted. I am sure I am forgetting what England is like. I am quite used to queuing in shops, not being able to buy things at certain times (there are oranges here at present) and hoarding goods when they are in the shops. E.g. if you see soft toilet paper you buy about 30 rolls to insure against the days when there will be none.

I am rapidly running out of air mail paper and will have to borrow some from someone in I.C.L. One gets used to borrowing from each other out here.

The main thing is we are still enjoying ourselves at work and in our spare time

I must find out where the riding schools are in Prague and then I will be really happy.

I must close now- no more paper.

Love to you both and Nanny

God bless you

Tony and Gillian.

Still in our twenties we had the arrogance of youth and often completely failed to see the struggles our neighbours had in life. After 42 years we went back to Prague this year and looked up our old flat. As we took a photograph of the building, a lady of our age came to her balcony and we shouted a greeting and told her we had lived there in 1970. She joined us outside the flats and after a while she remembered us and later sheepishly admitted that when we left later in the year she had taken our rubbish bags and retrieved all of our discarded clothes, and they had served herself and her husband well. Life was very hard for the Czechs.

Computer Exhibitions in Eastern Europe were by no means uncommon. The largest was the Polish Plovdiv Fair, but we never managed to get to that. The Prague exhibition was nonetheless a revelation. Firstly, assuming that time off work just to hang around an exhibition stand would be an easy and relaxing experience  was a big mistake. It was full-on hard work, meeting and greeting visitors, constantly explaining the technicalities of our products, and was tough on even young feet. But above all you had to be very aware of who might turn up. Unlike the UK, access to Communist government ministers and senior decision makers was not that difficult. You could go to their offices and wait in turn for your chance to raise an issue. Might take a while. So too at exhibitions where the unaccompanied mother with two young children in tow, could well be (and on one occasion in my experience was), a vice minister of technology in the government.