23rd September 1970

23/09/70

Dear mum and Dad

As you can see I got back to Prague safely after my trip to Germany. I quite enjoyed walking round the shops but the clothes were terribly expensive. We have decided to buy clothes in England as it is certainly the cheapest place in Europe. A dress costs £15 to £20 in Germany. Last week my old faithful watch from Spain finally stopped and as I am lost without one I bought one in the Tuzex shop. It is a stainless steel Japanese watch with a second hand which is useful for timing eggs and pulses. Tony is now convinced his watch is horrible, besides losing time, so I might buy him a new one for his birthday.

I had a nice long letter from Paula on Monday which pleased me very much- I shall try and write to her sometime this week.

As always we have had a busy life. Last Friday we went to dinner with one of the I.C.L. people, Tony A.  His girlfriend is Swedish and cooked some Swedish food for us. Several other people were invited including a couple from the embassy who go riding in Prague. They have promised to phone us next time they go as someone from the embassy acts as interpreter and they have lessons in an indoor school. Needless to say the thought of riding again pleased me very much.

Tonight we are going swimming with our neighbours to the indoor swimming baths. It has suddenly gone cold the last two days although it is still sunny.

I looked at skiing equipment in Germany and it is very cheap so we will probably buy some next time we go to Germany together. We will have a very sporty life; swimming, riding and skiing but it will be good for me after all the Czech dumplings.

We have just been to the Tuzex Shop in the foyer of the Alcron Hotel, but the watch Tony liked so much has been sold. Also there was hardly any cut glass or garnets in their shop as it is the end of season so I am not sure I will be able to buy any earrings for Paula’s birthday. We saw a silly American cowboy film called ‘The Professionals‘ on Saturday- it was quite entertaining.

We were upset as one of the shock absorbers on the VW has gone already, according to the garage where we had it serviced in Germany. It cannot be too bad as we have not noticed it but Tony will have to get it repaired when he gets back to England. The roads here are terrible to damage a new car so quickly. We hope we will not have to pay for it as it is still under the 6000 mile guarantee.

Tony and I will probably travel up to Coventry by car on the 23^rd October as Tony will meet me at the airport and we can drive via Aylesbury and Banbury. We will bring home some of our sheets and blankets as we have bought Czech style duvets. We hope you can find a spare corner in your loft for them. We will also bring over our Czech home movies to show you if you can borrow a super eight projector from some of your rich friends.

Love Tony and Gillian

Compared with modern cars those built in the seventies appear very shoddy and unreliable. Reading these letters I am amazed how often we had to go to Germany to get the car serviced. The roads were bad in Czechoslovakia but we expected a German car to be more robust than the one we bought and it had more problems in the first year of its life. It wasn’t just the miles of cobbled streets that caused such wear on shock absorbers and the like, but the harsh prolonged icy winters left a legacy of large pot holes each spring, and roads were forever being ‘dug-up’ to repair underground pipes and especially tram rails. The repair workers were not supplied with high visibility barriers, let alone night time warning lights, so it could be very hazardous driving at night especially during a blackout.

One of our colleagues, I think it may have been M.V. in his new Ford Capri, actually broke the axel driving into one such deep pot hole around a tram track repair. Perhaps he was just very unlucky because not long after, having parked his car in the main car open-air car park immediately outside the Prague Airport terminal building on route to a training course in the UK, he returned to find the car on bricks and his four wheels missing.

Burst tyres, also nothing like the quality they are today, were another frequent problem for the faster drivers amongst our maintenance engineers. Nothing to do with too much ‘Pivo’ we were assured.

We were advised not to get our cars serviced in Eastern Europe. Mainly because they did not have the currency to buy the spares needed but also because there was a possibility that an unscrupulous garage would swop parts from your car with locally manufactured parts so they could sell your genuine parts on the black market.

Two other crossing the border stories. The first was when we came back from Germany on one of our trips. We were stopped for speeding near the border in a village and given an instant fine. We did not have any Czech crowns with us only Deutschmarks and sterling. Another guard came over who spoke English. We explained the predicament and offered the guards hard currency. Had one guards been on his own he would have taken it and made a three-fold profit on the black market, but because there were two guards (one might have reported on the other) they sent us on our way. The second story again was about the engineers. As a joke the engineer left a trick bag on the front seat. When it was opened a recording played of someone laughing heartily. The joke backfired when the border guards were not amused and he spent a couple of hours being interrogated on who he was where he was going and why.

___________________________________________________________

7th september 1970

Branik

07/09/70

Dear mum and dad thank you for the letter- it only took 3 days to arrive so the post must be getting better. I had a very nice present on Friday- a bikini from Auntie Kath in London. Her best friend works making these bikinis –it was fabulous-black and fits me perfectly.

I have not heard about my courses yet but I am expecting a telex this week. It is possible there are no places left so I may not be able to get to England until later.

Our water came back on Wednesday and we washed both cars and waxed the VW ready for the winter. On Sunday we spring cleaned the flat and I disgraced myself by spilling window cleaner on the radio- Tony’s pride and joy. Although it stopped working it is OK now it has dried out.

On Saturday we visited Les B. and his wife M. who have just bought back an old English sheep dog puppy from England called Henry. He is fabulous a ball of black and white wool with big floppy paws and no tail. Greg. W. and his wife Angelica have just been adopted by a stray kitten. I feel envious of all these pets. I will have to ask Tony to bring me a hamster from England.

Tony bought me some lovely roses this week as it was our third wedding anniversary. I arranged them in a Hogarth curve in our new Japanese vase.  He also bought me some books by Hungarian authors and I am looking forward to reading them.  I bought Tony some chocolates and champagne and we celebrated with chicken curry and peaches. The shops are unusually good at present with pears and peaches available and we have been cooking some good meals. The weather is changeable with warm sunshine at present but wind and rain over the weekend.

We have been reading a lot lately having raided Greg. W.s library while on a visit to see his new son. Yes the first new I.C.L. baby has arrived and the second due to Chris. J and M.J. is due in the next six weeks.

Work is going quite well. Tony is going to Karlovy Vary tomorrow for a symposium on computer topics. We are both waiting for pay rises but knowing I.C.L. it will take months for them to come through.

Give our love to everyone at home. Hope Nanny has a good holiday.

Love Tony and Gillian

It was about this time Tony started working with the Czech wood industry in their attempt to justify buying a computer and to find the hard currency to pay for it. Tony recalls that on meeting the Directors they each handed him a unusual business card. Each card was printed on a rectangular slither of hard-wood veneer, in a variety of different woods, beautifully gilded with each person’s details. I wish we had kept them.

But it was the usual problem of the lack of hard currency in the organisation to pay for a computer system. Their plan was to produce an excess of their products and sell them in the West for the hard currency needed. They were big on wood chalets and cabins that might do the trick. A City of London ‘Barter House’ Executive duly arrived from the UK, the very epitome of a city international wheeler & dealer. Dressed in his slightly too bold blue stripe three piece suit, white starched shirt, military colours tie, paisley top-pocket handkerchief, and sporting a well OTT public school accent, he exuded self confidence. His role was to find a buyer for the Wood products outside the Iron Curtain, arrange the export, get the hard currency, take a substantial cut for his services and place the residue in an escrow account so that the computer company could then ship the computer in from the West. That is, subject to the Czech technical import/export agency Kovo’s agreement, and more importantly the approval of the NATO CoCom committee in Paris whose job it was to ensure that no computer equipment went into Eastern Europe that would give them any strategic advantage.

Tony didn’t spend very long on this project because were soon to move on, but we did hear that a computer was eventually supplied some years later.

 

31st August 1970

Branik

 31/08/70

Dear Mum and Dad ,

Sorry I have not written for so long but we have been very busy since we came home. Thank you for the photos- they are very good. I think you both look very young. I owe everyone letters. Pat.S. wrote and guess what? She is going out with David. K. again. He finished his finals at Christmas. However P.S. is still going to S. Africa and is waiting to see if D.K. will forget her or not. I would very much like to see them married.

I hope you got your card from Corsica. I sent one to you, one to Nanny and one to Auntie Dorothy all at the same time. In case you did not get them the interesting news is Christine B. is expecting another baby so she has relented in her determination to have only one child.

I also had a letter from Jane .M.  which contained the information that she is unofficially engaged. I was told to keep the information under my hat but I don’t wear one. I don’t think she would mind me telling you as you are unlikely to see her mother or anyone else she knows. I cannot remember whether I met the man or not at the weekend we spent with J.M before we left so I am not sure who he is.

There is then several pages describing our holiday in Corsica which we thouroughly enjoyed, camping by the sea shore and relaxing. I have decided not to post these pages as they are not related to our life behind the iron curtain and many people will find it tedious to hear our travels. We did get stuck in a huge traffic jam over the Brenner pass because the tunnel through the mountains was still being built. Years later we traveled the same way and found it very quick and convenient but not in 1970.

Since we came home we have been very busy doing all the washing. Last weekend we had planned to clean the flat and the car but were frustrated by the metro workers fracturing our water main. Instead we started filming the epic ‘Prague’. We had a good day Sunday filming the lesser town with Charles Bridge and the castle and many of the back streets around there.

Tony is coming to England in October for four weeks to learn German so he will probably come and see you one weekend. I am trying to book some courses and I will telephone you if I am able to go on them and let you know. You must write and ask if you want anything from Prague.

Give my love to Paula David and family. I hope Auntie Dorothy has a good time with you in Coventry. Give my regards to Auntie Phyllis and Uncle Jo. I will send them a card soon. Love to Nanny

Lots of love

Tony and Gill

We were very lucky to spend such a good time travelling in Europe and visiting so many different countries. We always found holidays on islands worked well for us. There is a limited amount of ground to cover which prevents one from travelling around at too fast a rate and makes you take time to really look at the scenery and history of a place.

 We still have the cine films we took with our super 8 camera in Prague. They were transfered to Video tape in the 1990s and soon we hope to have them on the computer. They are of poor standard as the tape started to mildew before we did the transfer but they act as a reminder of our earlier life.

It is hard to remember the time when the motorways did not go everywhere in Europe and travel could still be slow even in Austria. They were beginning to build the first motorway in Czechoslovakia while we were there. Travelling around the country was very slow especially in the mountains with the hairpin bends. They were also starting building the metro in Prague as the letter shows but it was not opened until some considerable time after we left. We were quite used to the electricity going off for a few hours each day but it was the first time the water had stopped and it took several days to get it back on again.

Sometimes the blackouts due to electricity cuts would last hours. Tony was driving home after dark through one of the road tunnels when a blackout occurred. It caused chaos & it was probably only due to the slow driving speed of the many antique cars on the road that prevented a large ‘pile-up’.  The locals said that the blackouts were due to the Russians cutting supplies because the Czech Authorities had not paid their bill, but how true that is we were never sure, especially considering the very negative attitude at the time towards the occupying Russian Military in Prague.

There were work related consequences when electricity failed and customers who had not commissioned or maintained their stand-by generators faced many hours of running slow back-up tapes to recover their computer programs and lost data.

4th August 1970

Branik

4/08/70

Dear Mum and Dad,

Yesterday we saw the Tony’s parents and aunties off on their travels across Europe. At present I am busy preparing for our holiday in Corsica which we start on Friday so I am writing this at work as I am not too busy at the moment.

We had a good time with Tony’s family. Auntie Pat and Auntie Kath were thrilled about everything. It was Aunties Pat’s first trip abroad. She had planned to travel with her husband when he retired but of course never had the chance. The Fs travelled slowly across Germany stopping at Coblenz, Bonn, Mainz and Nuremburg and arrived in Prague Friday evening. Lucky I was home. Auntie Kath thought to bring a jar of instant coffee which was very kind of her. The aunties said they were quite willing to stay at a hotel but we fitted them quite easily, I had fun cooking for my large family and I don’t think I washed up once as they were all very helpful.

The Bohemian cut glass was very much appreciated and they went home laden with vases, glasses and ash trays. It is much cheaper in the Tuzex shop than in England. Auntie Kath and Tony’s Mum bought some Czech garnets- auntie a ring and Mrs. F. a broach for her sister and a cross for herself. Mrs F also bought a modern glass fish which had been incorrectly priced- it said £2 instead of £20 so she was very pleased with her bargain,

The first Sunday it rained all day and they were all very tired from travelling so we stayed in and played cards while Tony’s Mum read ‘Devil Dr- Fu Man Chu’.

On Saturday we had looked around the castle and Belvedere summer palace and in the evening we went to Slapy Dam. Like you they were impressed with the Slapy area.

On Tuesday we travelled to the mountains stopping at Zelezny Brod where there was an exhibition of modern glass at the School of Glass. Mr. F. bought Tony a piece of modern glass sculpture for his birthday. It is a large smooth Art Deco sculptured block of dark blue glass that looks lovely with the light behind it.

The Hotel we stayed at (Alpski Hotel) was only small, built like a mountain chalet with about 30 rooms. It was not as luxurious as the Panorama we stayed at in Slovakia but the food and service were very good. We were not sure how the Fifields would react to mountain walking but they enjoyed every minute. Mrs F. was very game and did not grumble in spite of slipping twice. Auntie Kath was very pleased with herself as a year ago, when she had the cancer she could not walk any distance at all, so to go on a ten mile hike including climbing 1,400 feet was quite an achievement. We were lucky as the weather changed for the better the day we arrived. It was ideal for walking hot with a cool breeze. We walked up the valley where the hotel is situated, following the river all the way and climbing through the pine woods. I recorded a very amusing scene on the cine camera of Mr F., Tony, and Auntie Kath climbing up the river from stone to stone and Tony and Auntie Kath falling in the water. I hope the film comes out OK.

We were pleased to find at the top of the mountain a route centre with a restaurant where we could have a pint of lemonade. On the mountainside there were lots of flowers including marsh orchids, alpine pansies, hare bells, knapweed and cotton grass. On the way down the mountain we had the new experience of being caught in a thunderstorm. The forest went really dark and we could not see where we were walking. Then the rain just poured down with thunder and lightning. We tried to shelter but decided it was better to carry on and as a result got soaked. None of us had a Mac with us as the weather had been so perfect all day. (All the Czech walkers had handy pocket Macs and plastic hoods). When we got back to the hotel we had a bath and were none the worse for the experience. The next day we visited a large cirque valley with two waterfalls. We all felt a little stiff except for Mr F and Tony and Auntie Pat who did very well for her 60 yrs.

On the way home we stopped at Kutna Hora which they liked very much. The last few days were spent visiting Karlstein castle, Slappy and doing last minute shopping at the Tuzex shop in Prague. We were all prepared to go boating at Slapy on Sunday. I had lent my spare swimming costumes to the two aunties. We went to Zverhost to the hotel Sport and had a meal. After the meal we were preparing to inflate the boat when a thunderstorm arrived and it has been raining ever since so Auntie Kath and Auntie Pat did not get their swim.

The aunties insisted on buying a record of a Dvorjak concert and giving me £5 to buy some shoes and bringing Tony a jumper from England. Auntie Kath is also going to finish knitting the blue jumper for me so I may have a chance to wear it before Christmas. Mr and Mrs F. bought us a nice Japanese style vase so I can do some Ikebana flower arrangements.

I am looking forward to coming to England to see your films of the holiday in Czechoslovakia. Ours are not too bad and I have some nice shots of you and Dad in the mountains. We gave Mr and Mrs F a couple of films to develop in England and we hope to take some more in Corsica.

The boat tickets only had one mistake in that it had our car as a Vauxhall instead of a VW but I don’t expect it will matter. We are planning to travel via Saltsburg and the Austrian Tyrol then via Lake Como to Milan, arriving at Genoa on the third day. Tony has all the equipment ready so I have to do the ironing and packing. We are greatly looking forward to this break. The VW is a good size and can comfortably transport six people on short journeys.

I said you would always be pleased to see Tony’s parents & aunties if they have time to visit. They all thanked you and sent you their love. Auntie Pat said you must visit her in Folkestone next year when her house has been decorated. Mr F’s chest is still bad but he is still smoking. I think the holiday has done him good. We did all the driving while they were here so he had a rest.

I hope Paula and David have a good holiday in Yorkshire- I keep thinking how they would like the countryside here, especially the mountain walks. I sent Christopher and Nicky a post card so they don’t forget who we are.

The plant you bought me is shooting out new leaves so I am hoping it may flower again- it will probably suffer when we are away on holiday. I have a few scrubby marigolds in my window box and some wilting nasturtiums but the standard is not good at all.

I hope Auntie Dorothy enjoys her holiday with you. Thank her for her letter and give her my love.

Have you heard any news from Pat S? I have not heard from her for a long time but I guess she is busy preparing to go to S Africa. Remind her to write to me when she arrives, I shall be interested to hear her impressions.

I had better close now and look as if I’m working. I don’t expect I shall have time to write in the next couple of weeks but I shall send you some post cards. I never have time to write to all the people I should, like Auntie Edna. What did she think of your drift wood from Slovakia?

By the way the driftwood in the giant mountains was very good, polished smooth and white by the mountain streams. We would have been stopping all the time if you were with us. I did bring one piece back as a souvenir, shaped like the head of a dog- psohlavcu- very appropriate.

My Czech has not made much progress or Tony’s German- we don’t get a spare minute. Perhaps we will have more time in the long winter evenings.

The grass outside our flat is full of beautiful blue chickory, knapweed and cow parsley; blue, mauve and white.

Give nanny my love. I hope she enjoys Wales this year

I must say bye bye now. I will write a long letter when we get back from holiday and tell you all about it.

Lots of love

Tony and Gillian

I remember on the journey to Kutna Hora as we met a huge convoy of Russian lorries and tanks. We were travelling in two cars both with Dutch export plates. The road was narrow and winding and we tried to hop past the lorries one by one but they were driving so close together it was almost impossible to get back into the right hand lane. I was in front and came to a straight piece of road and put my foot down and sped past the convoy. Tony followed more slowly partly because the road started to bend again. When he reached the front of the convoy a local police officer stepped out in front of him and told him he had been speeding and had to pay a fine. He tried to explain it was not him that exceeded the speed limit it was another Dutch registered car. In the end he paid the fine. I was sitting in Kutna Hora wondering where the other car had got to and imagining they had broken down or crashed.

Tony later explained the delay, and as usual, noted that the speeding ‘fine’ went straight into the Police Officers pocket. No receipt was offered.  The pocketing of money incident, not unlike the similar experience in Prague earlier in the year involving Tony’s ‘prang’ with the Russian General’s car, was (we later experienced) to be found from time to time in similar guises throughout the Eastern European communist countries. It was said (not sure how true it was but the phrase was well known at the time), that Lenin had said that to take a tip or a bribe was an affront to socialist dignity. Often we found that government officials all the way down to waiters were delighted to have their socialist dignity affronted, most frequently by request.

27th July 1970

Branik

27/07/70

Dear Mum and Dad,

Thank you for the two letters. I was glad to hear the tickets arrived safely. I am sorry they caused you so much trouble. You seem to be having a good time with your American visitors. I shall look forward to seeing your films when I am home again. Mr and Mrs F and family must be somewhere in Europe now. We are expecting them on Friday. We will be quite pleased to see how our films have turned out. We keep meaning to take some film of Prague as we have not managed it so far. I think it will take a whole weekend and we never have time to devote solely to filmmaking. It would be good to film at different seasons to show Prague throughout the year.

We have just finished cleaning the flat and I have all the bed clothes ready for the incoming F hoards. I hope they like Smetana crème, smazony syr and knedlicky.

Last weekend we went to Brno for A and V’s wedding. We had to get up at 4.30 to arrive get changed and be ready for the wedding at 12 noon. I was surprised how nice the service was translated into English. A. wore a long dress and veil and her sister was the bridesmaid. The town Hall was a fabulous setting with a vaulted Norman ceiling and bare stone walls. The actual words were similar to a Christian wedding replacing ‘God’ by ‘our socialist state’. The funniest part was the interpreter who came with several quaint phrases like ‘put aside all inhibitions when closing this marriage’ There was a mixture of Czech and English traditions. A cup was broken in front of the couple as we saw at the wedding we witnessed at Kutna Hora. The bridegroom must sweep the pieces symbolising he will help his wife with the house work. At the reception afterwards the bride and groom have to share a soup bowel, another Czech custom. However Czechs do not have confetti or the traditional wedding cake. After the formal reception there was an informal party at V’s parents flat which went on quite late into the night.

We came home on Sunday after a long lie in. On the way home we picked some cherries which were lovely. The shops are full of fruit and veg now (unlike in the winter months) pears, red currents, cherries, apricots and new potatoes, carrots and cauliflower. I don’t expect it will last long.

Work is progressing as usual. I have had another pay assessment though I don’t expect .......THE LETTER ENDS here with a missing page do we will never know what Gill did not expect

The cherry trees grew along all the roads in Czechoslovakia. If they belonged to someone there was a piece of material tied in the branches. Those who did not have an owner could have the fruit taken by anyone. You would often see people standing on top of their lorry cabs picking the fruit. And the lorries themselves were always the same, flat-bed with side flaps (and sometimes with canvas over-mantels), a separate drivers cabin, never washed and painted the same dull grey brown, probably made in some vast factory deep in the USSR.

Quite a few of the I.C.L staff married Eastern Europeans and many of the marriages have stood the test of time. One of the married English engineers in Brno started an affair with a Czech girl and decided to smuggle her to England. He hollowed out the back seat of his car and she hid there. Amazingly they crossed the Iron Curtain and passed through all the border crossings in Germany, Belgium and France (all in those days strict individual passport-checking and car inspecting places) only to be discovered at Dover. The girl asked for political asylum in the UK. The last I heard she was working on a supermarket check-out. I wonder what happened to her? I hope some of my old ICL friends are reading this blog?