This is a photo of my class from the year 1938.
As you can see, many boys are dressed in gym clothing, that's because they were practicing for the All-Sokol Meet, which was held in the summer of 1938, it was the last Sokol meet before the war.
In the beginning I also practiced for it, but because during the time it was supposed to be held we were supposed to already be at our summer house, I said that I couldn't practice any further.
I attended a school in Pstrossova Street, earlier Eliska Krasnohorska's Minerva, the first Czech high school for girls, founded in 1890, had resided in this building.
But at the time I attended it, it was already a boys' school, in those days schools weren't yet co-educational like they are today.
I have many pleasant memories of this school. Visible in the photo is also our teacher Jaroslav Pokormy, this older man with glasses.
I was a big fan of Sparta, a Prague soccer team, I knew their entire lineup, I always carefully followed their results.
Always, after Sunday, our teacher, Mr. Pokorny, would come up to me and ask: Brod, how did you end up? And I reported: Mr. Teacher, sir, we won. So you won? Well, that's amazing.
Our teacher addressed us formally, in the end that was the custom back then, when he addressed someone by his first name, Karlicek, Pepik, that was an honor, we would then envy that boy.
But with him I was always Brod, I was fairly tall, and those who our teacher addressed by their first names were always these smaller boys.
