This is a long shot! Many years ago I had a penpal who lived in Plzen and worked for the Skoda car company. When we grew out of our teens and both married, he in Czechoslovakia and me here in UK, sadly we lost touch. He used to send me such interesting letters and sometimes some of the beautiful Czech crystal glassware and in return I would send him the pop records of Elvis Presley and that era or denim jeans, neither of which could be obtained in those days where he lived.
I would love to know what happened to him and if anyone can suggest a way of tracing him again.
Can anyone help me please?
|||
I%26#39;ve checked Pilsen%26#39;s telephone directory, there is no Vlastimil Krejci listed. But that does not mean a lot.
When did you correspond last? Do you still have the address? How old would your friend be?
Perhaps placing an advert in Pilsen%26#39;s local paper?
|||
There are only 11 such people listed in the whole of the Czech Republic http://www.zlatestranky.cz/bs/s/b/Vlastimil+Krej%C4%8D%C3%AD/-/ but that doesn%26#39;t mean anything as many people have mobile phones nowadays in preference to land lines.
The closest I could find is this guy …kurzy.cz/rejstrik-firem/… (scroll down to find address) in Strakonice, which is not that far from Plzen. However, his participation in that company seems to have ended in 1994 so whether he is still at that address is anyone%26#39;s guess (and the company doesn%26#39;t exist any more, either), also this one firmy.cz/detail/1988859-mgr-vlastimil-krejci… in Příbram, which is not that far either.
Otherwise it is a Moravian name and so most of the others are in Brno and surroundings (it means %26#39;tailor%26#39;), so the aforementioned are possibly the best bet...
Good luck!
|||
You could possibly look on facebook.com.
|||
Thank you all very much. I knew you would try to help me and I really do appreciate the comments.
GCEK, your suggestions seem my best bet and I have looked at the two links you give. Although I do not understand the Czech language unfortunately, I can guess the bit which is the address sufficiently to write a letter of enquiry and hopefully the recipient will understand my English; who knows I may just get lucky! However, what does this mean please -
%26quot;Zapsáno: 21.července 1993 Vymazáno: 29.června 1994%26quot;
I believe Skoda were taken over by VW quite a few years ago. I think I was last in touch with Vlasta (who would be about 68-70 years old now) around 1964-65 or just after that time. We had been teenage penpals whose lives became very busy after we each had got married and had children.
|||
Oh goodness, 40 years ago? And you still remember.
What it means in Czech is that V Krejci has became a director in 1993, and ceased to be a director in 1994. It does not say why. But I think the whole company has now been liquidated.
But let%26#39;s wait for GCEK......
|||
That%26#39;s right - that is what it means. That company no longer exists, but the address is a home address, and people don%26#39;t tend to move around much in this country. However the Skoda in Plzen was not taken over by VW; only the car-making section was. After privatisation is was split up into its various parts and the part with the most potential (i.e. cars) wassold to VW.
The other part of Skoda was/is a huge company and still exists - http://www.skoda.cz/en/skoda-holding and they build trains, trams, nuclear power stations, etc, although it is now a completely different company (albeit with the same name and with the same logo).
It is a very long shot, but you could try contacting Skoda Plzeň at ŠKODA HOLDING a.s. Tylova 1/57 360 00 Plzeň Czech Republic (phone number/e-mail on the contacts tab of the above link) and asking if they have any record.
Good luck!
|||
Once again, my sincere thanks PennyLane and GCEK. Its all so very interesting too and, as before, I love to hear and learn things about other countries other than the usual tourist trail and that is really why, I suppose, I remember Vlasta even now. I%26#39;m curious to know how his life has gone and hopefully to hear that he%26#39;s still happy and well with his family.
I believe I%26#39;m right in saying that in those days although he could possibly have been able to leave and come to UK for a holiday, he would have been obliged to leave his wife and/or child back there. Is that correct CGEK? I know that nowadays its easy for us here in UK to hop on a plane and visit Prague but in those days it was absolutely unheard of for the majority of people. Since the late 1960s, I have travelled quite extensively but still never visited Prague so perhaps the time has come now. Oh, how nice it would be for me and my husband to meet up with Vlasta after all these years.
|||
It would have been very unusual, or even unheard of to come to the UK on holiday at that time. He would have only been allowed to go on business, and only then if he had been in a position of responsibility (i.e. in the party, but not always). If he hadcome on holiday, then yes, the rest of the family would have had to stay at home, and if he had stayed in the UK then there would have been repurcussions back home, although families were allowed to join up eventually - it wasn%26#39;t that cruel. The fact that you were able to send pop records and denim jeans was a testament to that :)
Let us know how you get on.
|||
-:- Message from TripAdvisor staff -:-
This topic was inactive for 6 months and has been closed to new posts. We hope you'll join the conversation by posting to an open topic or starting a new one.
To review the TripAdvisor Forums Posting Guidelines, please follow this link: http://www.tripadvisor.com/pages/forums_posting_guidelines.html
We remove posts that do not follow our posting guidelines, and we reserve the right to remove any post for any reason.
Removed on: 10:28 am, October 15, 2009
No comments:
Post a Comment