Nice places and good people in a natural environment
Memories from
Konice - INTERESTING PLACES AND PEOPLE -
There are certainly a large number of remarkable
places and interesting people in every locality, including the
small town of Konice. From my subjective point of view,
I will try to list a few places that I liked during my childhood
and a few interesting people that I was lucky enough to get to
know (they were mostly very simple and modest
people who did not try to consider themselves
"celebrities" and to rise above the other). The
description given here corresponds to the situation around
1960-70.
"Střelnice",
Jílovec. Aunt Otilka.
About a kilometer southeast of Konice,
towards Křemenec -> Čunín -> Stražisko, there is a very
picturesque and romantic place called
"Střelnice" (there used to be
a hunting shooting range, in the local dialect Šištót).
There is a smaller pond under the wooded hills -
the beautiful Bor
forest. There is an alley of massive old linden
trees and chestnut trees on the dam of the pond (the oldest of them were supposedly 800 years old...).
View from under
the dam from Jílovec
On the dam of the pond below the linden alley
there stood a nice elongated house, in which
until the mid-1950s there was a coaching inn
operated by Mr. Petr Tesárek (*1876), in the front (towards the
nearby road). In the back part was the residential and economic
part of the Tesárek family. In the mid-1950s, when P.Tesárek
was retiring, a textile workshop of the "Kožetvorba"
cooperative was established in the former hall of the pub.
....
more pictures .......
Uncle Peter was an interesting man who traveled
a lot in his youth, especially in America, he was very literate,
progressive opinions (in personal contact,
however, was a bit of a "dry old pepper", as said Aunt
Otylka...). His son Milan he studied
engineering and worked as an engineer for many years in India,
then lived in Bratislava. He regularly traveled to Střelnice for
the holidays with his charming wife Ema, called Mimi
*). They claimed that the Shooting Range was one of the most
beautiful and romantic places they had ever known in the
world. Husbands Mikuláš and Libuše Kovárik (with
their children Julek and Petr) also went there; Liba was
the daughter of Petra - Milan's sister.
*) The glaceful and charming Mimi
had a very optimistic and joyful nature, she liked to laugh and
did not sadden anyone. Unfortunately, she died prematurely in
1960.
 |
 |
 |
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| Mimi with Uncle Peter |
Uncle Pertr with Aunt Otilka |
Aunt Otilka collects raspberries |
Aunt Berta |
Petr Tesárek 's wife was our father' s sister, aunt Otilie
Tesárková *). They had a nice good dog named Šotek. Aunt
Otilka was a rare woman, very modest and hardworking. As
children we liked to go to her through the forest, she loved us
very much, she always gave us something good for the trip. And
especially kind words, stories and songs ...
*) She was P. Tesárek's second wife, his first
wife Julie died in 1942.
Uncle Peter's sister, Berta,
lived in South Africa for many years, sent beautiful exotic
postcards from there. She did not return until the
end of the 1950s, with poor health at a very advanced age, and
then lived only for about 2 years.
. .pictures..........
From our house we went in
Střelnice first around our upper garden, then along the pond
Kameňák, we entered the forest Bor, along the edge of which led
a nicely maintained forest path above the stream
connecting the two ponds (sometimes we went up the
hill over Bor, around the feeder for deer) . At the pond
"Šištót" it turned right, a few tens of meters you
walked along the dam under massive lime trees and chestnut trees,
and then you turned left down a small path steeply down under the
dam. In one place on the right there was a nice stone-walled wall
under the dam with a built-in water container, under which was a
small flower bed. We then walked around the garden (to the left
of the path) and the farmyard (on the right side) to the lower
"basement" part of the Tesárek cottage.
A few steps with railings
led to a hall with a pump and a water tap above the metal sink,
from which a door led to a nice downstairs kitchen with a blue
tiled stove and a large cast iron stove. In
the kitchen at the back right was a slightly lowered alcove with
an antique sideboard. It used to be warm, clean and pleasant. In
the front wall of the kitchen, a bedroom door led to antique
white furniture, only a large floor-standing pendulum clock was
brown. .. .. ... image .
From the corridor-hall, the door led to the cellar, to the
laundry room and to the stairs to the attic (then continued to
the attic); at the far left of the end of the hall was a
door and window to the bar and the great hall of the former pub.
There were a lot of interesting things
for us in Aunt Otylka's house mysterious places.
Beneath the whole house, and even further beneath
the dike, a long vaulted cellar lined
with stonesstretched underground. From the vestibule, the bricks
lined with steep spiral steps came into it (during
the day there was a little light from the small side window).
It was cold and absolutely dark below, you had to go there with a
lantern or a flashlight (later, when I was already
in 8th grade, I arranged electric lighting there). At the
edge of the cellar was a shelf of compots. It turned left, then
in the underground was a well from which water was drawn,
formerly for a pub, now for a household. At the end of the cellar
was a circular vaulted room, where beer barrels were formerly
stored, later potatoes, beets and other farm vegetables. A small
hatch led there from the dam in front of the pub entrance.
From the side of the Bor
forest, there were two barns in the basement of the house, larger
at the back for a cow and goats (some were horned), in the middle
smaller for two pigs, at the front was a low chicken coop. Next
to it, perpendicularly along the dam, were two large rabbit
hutches for about 50 rabbits; aunt Otilka had a particularly nice
Angora rabbits with red eyes. An old boat (barge), which
was once used on a pond, was placed upside down between the dam
and the roof of the rabbit hutch. This created a narrow roofed
space, a "shed", for some small household tools. Aunt
Otilka took good care of all the animals, saying
that "he who doesn't like animals, doesn't like people
either! ".
On the slope
below the house, right by the stream, stood a wooden shed, beside
it grew an old sloping walnut. The shed was "upstairs",
from the top of the road around the hall was a door to the top,
which stood on stilts below the slope. At the top was a common
household tool. At the back between the round beams you could see
to the bottom of the stream (we were afraid to walk there). At
this bottom of the shed were tools for the field and garden.
Upstairs in the attic of
the house was a smaller nicely furnished living room, where Milan
and Mimi came regularly. In the attic room on the
wall hung a picture of deer on a pasture,
painted by Dr. Miki Kovárik somewhere in the landscape in the
forests above Konice (from today's point of
view, the painting may be a bit kitschy, but we as children liked
it very much...). Just below the
room, next to a steep spiral staircase, was a large water tank
pumped into it from a cellar well. Once I remember as a child
that we were diligently pumping water, after which the water
flowed down the stairs "opposite" like a waterfall -
the reservoir overflowed .
....
picture .........
The most beautiful period in
Střelnice used to be from spring when the chestnuts
bloomed and especially the lindens . The wonderful scent spread
throughout the valley. The emeritus head teacher Karel Kuba,
who liked to talk about nature, often went for a walk there. My
aunt picked flowers, dried them and made tea from them. In the
garden below the house she grew raspberries and strawberries,
currants and gooseberries. Many trees, apples, pears, plums grew
there.
...... picture .. ......
From the Střelnice pond,
a steep forest road leads up through the Bor
forest to the fields near Zavadilka. To the right along the path,
a forest stream winds down in the valley with
cold crystal clear water that never dries out, even in the dry
summer heat. It springs in a depression under a massive old
beech, not far from which are two other springs. Under the garden
at Střelnice it flows into the Jesenka stream.
--------
pictures ...................
Down below the house and the dam on Šištót just around the
shed, flows the stream " Jesenka ", at
that time clean and bright. There were a lot of fish, especially
trout. It then continues down to Jílovec - lower along the
stream, towards Křemenec, there is a place called Jílovec
. There is a old mill, originally a water mill
, later rebuilt into an electric drive. My father and I went to
this mill in a cart with grain to grind and transport flour for
the kitchen, or scrap and bran for the animals.
... picture .....
Above Jílovec, a steep
rock rises in the forest , under which a road leads to
Křemenec around the stream. It is lined with massive spruces and
larch trees. Classmates from Křemenec and Čunín went to school
in Konice this way.
The tragic
fateful day for Střelnice was August 19, 1966, when
this beautiful place was practically destroyed.
In the afternoon there were strong storms with heavy rains in
several waves - there were big floods in Konick,
streams of water rolled from the fields and forests. The dam of
the pond burst, the back of the wall of the house was ground with
water and fell. Instead of repair, it was decided to demolish
the whole house - it was a pity, the living part of the
house was practically not damaged. It was a hasty decision of a
"smart head", because other parts of the house could be
easily repaired by bricking up the damaged masonry and laying a
new ceiling and roof. This led to an unnecessary
liquidation of a beautiful location! Aunt Otilka moved
to our house by the Nohávka pond(Uncle
Petr was no longer then, he died suddenly in 1960) . The whole place gradually fell into disrepair
and overgrown with wild bushes, only a pond (although
unmaintained and overgrown) and beautiful
massive lime trees remained (and somewhere
underground an abandoned cellar...) .
Beech "Hubert"
Above Střelnice and Jílovec, towards Zavadilka, on the edge of
the Bor forest, grows a huge old beech , under
which there is a nice hunting painting called
" Hubert " on the stand in a glazed
wooden box - the patron saint of hunters, standing in reverence
for the sacred deer. Under the locker is a memorial plaque to the
hunters murdered during the German occupation in 1939-45.
During my forest walks, I enjoyed going to this place, where I
reflected on the secrets of our forests . From
Hubert was approached from Konice by a picturesque path on the
edge of the forest and fields near Zavadilka. In winter there
used to be a lot of snow, trees and shrubs used to be covered
with beautiful hoarfrost and icicles : 
Glade and the hunting wiew
above Křemenec
was a beautiful place in the Konické forests, near
"Hubert". From this hunting wiew there
was a beautiful view not only of the surrounding forests, but
also of other places in the Drahan Highlands. Nice young pines,
spruces and firs grew on the slope around the sitting area, and a
small forest stream flowed down below. In the sunny summer there
was the smell of resin and forest herbs, in the autumn needles
and fallen leaves, in the winter there was a lot of snow.
On the way down to the left, there was a deep forest above
Křemenec, with a lot of moss and magical forest nooks and
cuttings, evoking with its beauty the innermost experiences of
natural harmony....
The forest stream and
waterfall above Křemenec
is a very secluded and unknown place. A small stream, springing
below Štarnov, flows through the dense forest of Bor,
gradually picks up water and creates several nice smaller waterfalls
in a deep valley .
Around this wild and remote place were several
underground lairs of foxes and badgers. An almost imperceptible
forest path leads down to Křemenec. In summer, a lot of
mushrooms grow here.
Skalky,
Bukovina, Otínsko, Zvoňák
are forest localities about 3-5 km northwest of
Konice, in the direction of Skřípov. When we go from Konice
upwards to the Skalka forest massif and further
through Bukovina, we pass through the dense
forests of the Drahan highlands. There are beautiful and sunken forest
nooks, clearings, thickets of small trees. The Otínsko
region was especially important for us - a large area of meadows,
fields and smaller woods, above which is the Zvonák
forest on the right side. We had a bigger meadow, a smaller grove
and a piece of field there. In the upper part of Otínské luky,
towards Skřípov, there was a small well with springing cold
water; we refreshed her at the haymaker and Dad put a bottle of
plum brandy there to cool off ...
.......
picture ..........
In the lower part of Otín meadows there were wetlands and
swamps. Legends about Otínsko and Zvoňák are
mentioned in the file "Dad's Adventures", part "Bottomless swamps and
wells"....
Schools in
Konice, our enlightened teachers
There were a total of three school buildings in Konica in our
student years :
The old
school was a sturdy two-storey building, where there was
a teacher's apartment and two classrooms on the ground floor. A
spiral staircase led around the large cast-iron stoves to the
floors, where the other 3 classes were. In the old school,
smaller pupils studied, first to fourth grade. In the basement
below the old school there was a large underground tunnel
lined with stones, through which flowed a humming stream - it
used to be a popular and a bit mysterious place
of our games when we left school (pictured
is the entrance to this tunnel in a wall about 2m below the
railing in the middle).
1960 ................. more pictures ..............
Agricultural farmyard
Across the road next to the Old School, a little uphill is a
larger area with outbuildings - the courtyard of
the former castle estate. From the school it is entered through a
large arched gate, the paved road is then passable towards
Zádvoř, under a sharp turn. Right at the bottom right, on a
gentle hill above the school, in a larger elongated house lived
Mrs. Němečková, a very eloquent elderly lady, speaking a
dialect with nuclear expressions. On both sides were workshops
for repairs of agricultural machinery - machine tractor station.
In the large building on the left (above the main road) was the
forest administration; Mr. Mohelník worked here for many years
as a forester. There was also lived a veterinarian emeritus, Dr.
Kostka, who regularly went (often to Střelnice) with a knocking
black wand ...
A little below, also on the right side, already
below the school, lived Mrs. Polcarová, an older decent lady who
stayed in the nicely furnished cottage by the Nohávka pond
during the summer months. She had a small shaggy dog named
Šišina.
The "Town School" on
the square had a number of classes on the ground
floor and two more floors, the older pupils 6.-9. class were
taught there. There were also very well-equipped cabinets
of biology, chemistry and physics, and a gym at the back
on the ground floor. The other two classes were walked from the
2nd floor by a long corridor in the neighboring town hall
building, towards the fire station. ....
y.1955
New
school in "Příhona", built in the mid-50s,
was mostly used for 4th-6th grades. Teachers from the old school
and especially from the burgher in the square used to come there.
A picture was painted on the facade of the school, which - in the
spirit of the ideas of the time - expressed the role of education
for the progress of science, technology and society ...
1960.
Over three houses away on Příhon is old nursey-school,
in whose archway at the entrance of the memorial a plaque of
Konice citizens who fell in World War I (the
photo no longer shows the old big tree that was on the left next
to the entrance...). There were two
classrooms on the ground floor and the first floor, and a dining
room in the basement. There was a spiral staircase in the left
rear part (it can be seen in the middle
picture on the left). We went to this
kindergarten as small children, a nice puppet theater stuck in my
memory, which was played there for us. The kindergarten was run
for many years by teacher Klevetová.
These three school buildings are
no longer used, as in the 1970s a new school building
was built upstairs behind the falconry in Tyrš Street, which has
since housed a primary school and later a newly established
grammar school. A new kindergarten was also
built, under the church, in the quiet surroundings of the former
parish garden.
Our teachers
At the primary school in Konice, we were probably
"lucky" to be teachers - they were
mostly enlightened teachers following the
National Revival traditions, for whom their profession was also a
mission. The most important of them was
undoubtedly the teacher František Jáchym,
which is discussed in more detail in a separate material "Mr. Teacher Jáchym".
Another "classical" teacher of language,
literature and gymnastics-sport was Miroslav Kleveta.
It was dark, shapely and "square", with a strict
appearance, some students were afraid of it, for a time we gave
it the nickname "devil ". But he was fair and
taught us a lot. He was also interested in technical and physical
fields, such as radio electronics (we discussed, for example, the not very simple function
of the superhetto ). It gave him
intellectual pleasure to know and understand something
new. The following event is also related to this :
Electric arc and
damage to the eyes of Mr. teacher Kleveta
I experienced a somewhat strange and eventually humorous event
with Mr. teacher Kleveta once in the winter. As a physical
education teacher, he used to skate with us on frozen ponds and
play hockey. Some classmates were just learning to skate
properly, I, who grew up by the ponds, of course, I could do it a
long time ago. It was at a time when I was in my 8th grade and
liked to do electrical experiments , some of
which were very dangerous. One of them was an electric
arc. I had two long thick carbon electrodes (probably
from a large car battery), to which I applied 380V from a 3-phase
socket, via plug-in sheet metal electrodes immersed in a bucket
of salt water. We managed to pull out a massive electric arc 20
cm long! At a power of about 50kW, it gave off a huge glow. I had
the whole arrangement for the electric arc ready in the front
garden of our house by the pond. While skating, I wanted to show
it to my classmates, so I turned it on and pulled out an electric
arc that intensively illuminated the whole house, the snow and
the surrounding trees. Classmates came to see only briefly, they
were a little afraid of it. But it was very interesting
for Mr. teacher Kleveta who looked closely at the arc
and electrical wiring and inquisitively asked for details.
The next day, Kleveta teacher did not come to
school, someone else was substituting for him, saying that he was
ill and went to the doctor. When he started teaching again in
about 3 days, he told us: "Kids, it hasn't happened to me
yet, I suddenly got severe conjunctivitis, I had
to drip into my eyes, I still have them red and I see blurred. I
don't know what could have caused..?..". I was silent like
foam because I knew it was causing ultraviolet radiationfrom
my arc! Well, in a few days, the teacher was fine, but I kept the
secret to myself for a long time.
Only after many years, when I had already
graduated from the university (Faculty of Mathematics and Physics
- MFF UK) and worked as a physicist, when visiting Konice, I
happened to meet the emeritus teacher Kleveta on the way to the
forest Bor and we talked a lot about various things, he was
interested also new knowledge in the field of astrophysics and
the theory of relativity. On that occasion, I told him what it
was like years ago with his severe conjunctivitis. Seemengly
angrily, he said : "You rascal, if I knew then, you would
get over your ears!". But he immediately laughed
heartily at it, it was clear that I did not do
it on purpose. That it might occur to him, he knew that during
the el. welding of iron is necessary to protect your eyes, but
somehow it didn't connect with the experiment with the electric
arc ...
 |
| František
Jáchym |
Miroslav Kleveta |
Zbyšek Továrek |
Josef Vybíral |
František
Novák |
Chemistry teacher Zbyšek
Továrek was a great experimenter, he sometimes
performed quite wild experiments , during whose
tumultuous reactions it exploded, burned, smoked. He once
contaminated almost the entire school building in the square with
chlorine. He accompanied the teaching with a great sense
of humor , not recognizing "school hysteria",
but the principle that "it is better to see once than to
hear five times".
In the 1st grade we were taught by the head
teacher Josef Vybíral, who could play
the violin beautifully and paint well,
had a nice relationship with beginning schoolchildren. He lived
with his wife in an apartment on the ground floor of the Old
School. Their clever and good daughter Ann went to the year with
us, she studied well. In the years 1957-67, Mr. teacher Vybíral
held the position of principal of a primary school in Konice.
Unfortunately,
the weakness of Mr. Vybíral was the popularity of alcoholic
beverages, he went to the nearby pub "U Andělky" every
early evening, about 100 meters below the school. Most of the
time, he didn't even sit at the table, but right at the bar, in
addition to beer, he also had a nice row of large glasses of
gray, rum or other spirits. Later evening, we saw him return
upstairs to school with an uncertain step. This unfortunate habit
probably contributed to his untimely death (he died suddenly in
1967) - it was a pity ....
We were happy to remember the teacher Božena
Říhová, her talented daughter Slávka went to the
year with us in the humanities. In the first and second classes,
a very good teacher, Otilie Opletalová, taught
, the little schoolchildren loved her very much - she was like
their "second mother". Furthermore, it was a teacher Grepl
(biology; but students often disturbed the
teaching ...), Novák (civic and music education, he commuted from Runářov;
he had progressive opinions, he could sing nicely), .......; from the younger ones then Ošlejšek
(physics), Trunda
, ..... ... add .. + pictures ...
Doctors
in Konice
The small town of Konice, as a catchment area for the whole area,
had a health center and several general practitioners-regional
doctors (further, there were two or three
specialized doctors commuting from Prostějov or Olomouc). I briefly knew some general practitioners :
MUDr. Josef Kuba had a well-equipped
surgery in his villa in the street behind Sokolovna. He was a
very erudite and experienced doctor, strict and
measured (autocratic). He was also able to take and describe X-rays images,
he also liked to solve more complex cases. He went to the pub on
"Živňák", where he liked to play tarot.
Among
his patients, it was said that when someone came to him for the
first time, Dr. Kuba would ask him who he had been treated for
before and what he had precribed. If he told him what medicine he
had received from a previous doctor, he would almost always get
the same answer: "Is that an ox, what
kind of disgust did he prescribe for you ?! I'll prescribe you
something far more effective! ". If, after several
visits, the "more effective" drugs did not work, he
eventually returned by sometimes by detour back to the original
drug; but he was no longer from the "ox", but from Dr.
Kuba - and of course he was excellent!
MUDr. ..Spurný was a jovial fat
gentleman who got on well with rural patients. He sometimes
responded with humor to the excessive health nostalgia of
patients, "But I have that too ..! ..", or
even "It pulls out the soil in the grave..! ..".
He commuted to the patients with a older car that was rear a
large tank of gas.
MD. ..Crha was a pediatrician, ordained
to the health center next to the" Old Post
Office ", he had a nice relationship with the children.
Furthemore, he worked MUDr.Novák
and the dentists MUDr.Šebek and MUDr.Popelka
.
Sokolovna - sports association "Falcon"
is a nice and interesting building, originally designed for
sports and gymnastic education activities. There is a range of
gym equipment in the basic large hall. But there is also a stage
with a nice painted curtain, there were theatrical performances,
which were usually directed by our teachers. To the right of
Sokolovna is a smaller sports field and a monument to citizens
who fell during the war, in the early evening of May 9 there was
a lantern parade .
In the left part of the building there are living spaces, which
for many years were inhabited by teacher Jáchym
and his wife (who took care of cleaning and
running the building), had astronomical and
radiotechnic props here. After retiring, they moved to a small
house in "Zakopanica", which they bought and renovated.
Here, too, the teacher pursued his favorite radiotechnic hobby
and "ether hunting".
Church,
castle, old alley
From the square down to the south is the oldest
historical part of the town of Konice. There is a chateau and
chateau garden, a church, an old school, a rectory and small
variously intertwined streets. We can see this when we go from
the square down the old alley (Smetanova
street.), or along the path around the
castle. To the left of the road around the chateau stood an old
brewery, which was demolished in 1960. Also on the left is the
old castle garden with a statue of St. Florian right in front of
the castle. The chateau on the right dates from 1705, now there
is a library, a ceremonial hall, a school club, several hobby
groups for the school (including a mechanical workshop), the
People's School of Art (Mr. Vladimír Janál taught music here
for many years), the Konice Museum. A narrow alley leads
from the square down to the parish (Smetana street). From it, on
the right, two or three small "breakneck" alleys (or rather sidewalks, and in one place also steep stairs) in the direction of "Důl " - Water
Street. My aunt Stázka Křupková lived in one of them. And
to the left to the church there is a path around the wall of the
castle park, a glazier's workshop, a church arcade with a chapel;
after a few steps you will go to Church street towards
the old school.
Aunt Stázka
lived in a house on a steep slope leading from "Aisle"
to "Water street" - picture on the right (comes to add) . Through a small
garden there was went in a basement with a cellar and a well,
then up a steep wooden staircase up through a small porch with a
table and a sitting area for coffee. To the left we entered a
nicely furnished room (dark antique
furniture), which was just for
"parade", or when daughter Liba came with her family.
On the left, a door led to the living kitchen, which also served
as a tailor's workshop with two sewing machines and a large table
(for cutting fabric) .
To the right of the door, a small cast-iron stove ("vincek"),
from which a smoke pipe led through a window in the wall to an
adjoining room and then to a chimney. In winter there is was very
warm and cozy... ........ picture ......
Below in the aisle opposite the vicarage, is a
small grocery store (led by Mrs. Lojková), a little lower bakery (Mr.
Říha), downstairs meat-sausage shop (led by Mr. Kolomazník). At the
very bottom of the crossroads, the road leads to the left around
the "U Andělky" pub towards Old school and Chmelnice,
and on the right to Old Town and Příhona.
The church of Konice
is located just below the chateau (there
is even a connecting corridor from the chateau). In the years 1947-1959, the pastor in the conical
church was a somewhat dogmatic and authoritative P. B.Nerychel
(however, he had a great overview of church
issues), then left for northern Moravia and
eventually settled in Olomouc. From 1960 he was replaced by the
very solid P. František Škoda, modest and
tolerant, who was also interested in nature. He worked as a dean
in Konice parish for more than 20 years, until his sudden
departure for eternity on October 25, 1981.
Zádvoří,
aunt Anna
The name "Zádvoří"
comes from the fact that it is a part of Konice located behind
the former farmyard (rather
it is above it, on the slope towards Vyšehrad ). One of the last houses in Zádvoř, on the right by
the road up to Vyšehrad (and then towards
Olomouc and Prostějov) , was inhabited by Aunt
Anna, who called us "Zádvorská " (we no longer knew uncle Josef, he died a shortly after
the war ), partly with his daughter Olga,
who commuted from Prostějov on Saturday and Sunday. In front of
the road to the front garden was a picket fence with a gate (in the later picture, the picket fence was replaced by
a wire fence); however, we mostly went
there from behind through the garden (picture
on the right) , shortcut around Sheepfold.
Aunt Ana was a good old lady who ran a modest but very orderly
and clean household. The large living kitchen had a nice blue tiled
stove , thermal comfort, clean and pleasant. Aunt Anna
baked the delicious sweets we used to go as children; especially
at Easter, we received a rich portion of candy (it is also mentioned in the section "Easter"
commemorative features "Poetry of life in the
countryside"). She was
able to tell a lot of stories, especially about people from
Konice, relatives and acquaintances. In the house next to the
living kitchen there was a "great" guest room,
especially for his son Eugene (and his
woman, who occasionally came), with an
interesting antique light.
........pictures.................
Uncle Lojzek,
behind railway station
Alois Ulman - uncle Lojzek (*1903) - was 2 years
younger brother of our father. He was an extremely erudite
precision mechanic in the field of scales, he
mastered all metalworking techniques perfectly. He participated
in the development of new weighing systems in the company Kovo
Konice. In other areas, too, he was very manually
skilled and extremely industrious. Influenced by this
mechanical perfectionism until the end of his life, he believed
that he would be able to construct a perpetuum mobile.
When I later, as a graduate physicist, denied it with scientific
arguments, did not believe it and in my 80s claimed that he would
certainly be able to improve his mechanism so that it would work
forever without energy supply... But Uncle Lojzek also liked to
discuss the universe, theory of relativity, etc., but without a
deeper understanding; he could not get rid of his mechanistic
ideas - which was completely understandable given his age and
lifelong professional orientation.
Uncle Lojzek lived with his wife Josefka, aunt
Pepča, in a nice house, which he built in Behind
the station Street, on the left by the road uphill towards
Skřípov and Šubířov. They mainly lived in the basement,
where there was a cozy living kitchen with a tiled stove,
next to the bedroom. On the 1st floor there were
"great" rooms, where during her visits mainly her
daughter Anička lived with her family. In the yard on the right
was a perfectly furnished workshop. Behind the workshop was a
footbridge over a stream, then a steep path led up a slope
through a grove to the garden. They had another large garden with
a field and many trees up under the forest towards Šubířov (almost a kilometer away) . This
uncle self-made a small tractor, with which he drove to a remote
garden and forest for firewood.
............
picture ...........
In addition to the already mentioned youngest
daughter Anička, Uncle Lojzek had two sons - the older Lojzík
and the younger Jarek. Both trained and worked in mechanics and
metalworking at Kovo. Lojzík married Helenka and lived
in Lhota near Konice, Jarek built a house in Konice behind the
Old Post Office, he married Jana, the daughter of teacher
Jáchym.
"Pond
dams" - neighbors of Šlézar
The last two houses in Konice (if we do not
count Střelnice-Šistót) , behind the dam
of the Kameňák pond, by the road to Křemenec, were called Hrázky
- dams. Two Šlézar families lived
here. Karel Šlézar lived with his
family in the first house, right behind the dam of the pond. In
the 1960s and 1970s, Karel (nicknamed him
"Kodaj") held the
position of chairman of the city's National
Committee in Konice for many years. Leopold Šlézar
("Polda ", worked in
road repairs and maintenance) lived in the
second, back house .with
the family, their daughters Bohuška and Eva went to school with
my brother and me. His wife spoke a strange Silesian-Polish
dialect, inunusual in region Konice. The Šlézar's were, in
fact, across the pond, our neighbors, their father knew them very
well.
Our house No. 147 by the Nohávka pond - parents,
Aunt Marie
At the end of our talk about interesting places and people from
Konicko, I kept the location most important to me - my birth
house , where my parents and loved ones lived. The
reason for this classification is that it is mentioned (albeit from a different point of view) several times on an ongoing basis in the file "Memories
from Konice".
1907
Originally there was a small cottage, modestly inhabited by
grandfather Antonín Ulman and grandmother Anna
Ulman, with a large family - 5 sons and 5
daughters.
My father, with the generous help
of Uncle Lojzek, before the war rebuilt this cottage into a nice
relatively spacious house with living rooms, laundry
room, large attic, storage room, cellar, basement, barns, sheds,
yard, gardens.
............ pictures .......
Our house is in a nice place by the Nohávka
pond, at the time clean and deep (this
is how his father kept it, later it was overgrown with reeds and
covered with mud...) . And a little lower,
a larger pond Kameňák is right next to it
across the dam, right behind it on the hill is a beautiful
forest Bor, which stretches for several kilometers to
Stražisko. The third pond "na Střelnici - Šištót"
is about a kilometer further along the forest - it was described
at the beginning in the section "Shooting range,
Jílovec. Aunt Otilka.".
Near our house there were four prominent old
trees at that time: - A pear next to the porch. - A bent apple
tree a little further in front of the house, towards the pond. -
A large nicely grown maple tree in the yard. - An old apple tree
at the end of the yard on the way to the garden.
Next to the house is lower garden,
where besides the beds were a few hotbets and a large heated
greenhouse (the stove at the
entrance of the pipe around the greenhouse led hot water), all primarily for the cultivation of vegetables and
flowers. In the upper part of the land to nearly the forest on
the hill is spread by our large garden, on
which, in addition to a large number of trees,
meadows and flower beds, there were several hotbeds, a
medium-sized greenhouse (unheated) and garden cottage. In front of the garden, an alley of
large "Douglas" fir trees, with fragrant
needles and resin, stretches upwards to the left around the
fence.
.
............ pictures ...........
At the fence of the lower garden, the father dug a small lake (in the local dialect it was called "hloka"), where water seeped through the soil under the dam
pond. It was mainly used for watering hotbeds and greenhouses
sprinkling with watering cans. Under the shore of the Nohávka
pond, his father stretched a metal pipe with a suction basket,
from which water was used to pump water for the beds of the
smaller lower garden and a long pipe to the large upper garden
with a powerful pump, where hydrants for screwing 5-10 m long
watering hose were led out in several places. Daddy, as a
gardener, he carefully managed both gardens for
growing vegetables, flowers, fruit and nursery work (growing and breeding fruit trees).
.... pictures .....- watering
....
From the very beginning, father's sister, the
unmarried Aunt Marie (*1898), lived with us in
our house. She took good care of the household, participated in
gardening work, and could cook well. She was very interested in
culture, especially literature and music. In this spirit of noble
wisdom, she raised us as children, was very kind and
loved us very much. ... picture .........
. .... more pictures ......
Moom Kristína (*1912) liked to read and was
fond of handicrafts, sewing, knitting, crocheting.
Father František (*1901) was mainly interested in nature,
especially forest, wildlife and hunting (some of his stories are listed in the line "Dad's
Adventures"). In addition to gardening work, he was also able to mow
grass and grain very well. During the winter season, he enjoyed
working in the woods. He also could sing ancient songs nicely.
.......... continued, more pictures ......
...........
This talk about
some nice places and interesting people is freely followed by
mine
Memories of Konice - Poetry of Life in the
Countryside ,
which describes how we lived in the countryside during each
season.
Vojtech
Ullmann
