Antonie Militka and Karel Michal

This is a photo of me and my brother Karlicek (Karel) Michal and our dog Mega. I don?t remember the photographer's name. The photo was most likely taken in the 1930s. I was born in 1928 in Brno. My main memories are from back when I was four, when my brother Karel was born, which was my greatest joy. Beginning at that time, my memories are coherent. We had a beautiful childhood. Everything was for the children. Our parents didn't live very luxuriously, and didn't do much for themselves, but for us they did everything. They concentrated only on the children. If someone looked at it today, he?d say we were spoiled. They definitely gave us freedom and love. Maybe someone would even have misused it. Luckily, we tried to return it to them. They weren?t strict, not at all, just in extreme situations, but mostly they trusted us. We could?ve misused it, we could?ve said we were in school and they wouldn't have checked up on us. Nor on our schoolwork. We were always something amazing for them, and it was a beautiful childhood. We had a large dog, who was named Tiger because he looked exactly like a tiger. He was huge. He guarded us, but we had more dogs back then. They were all huge. When my brother was born, my parents showed him to him, that here's Karlicek, you?ve got to guard him. When my mother put the carriage in front of our building, he?d lie down there, and everyone had to give him a wide berth. He?d never let anyone even get close to him. To be on the safe side we gave him a muzzle, that had to be so that some sort of accident wouldn't happen. At night he was very important on those grounds, he?d signal if anyone wasn?t wanting to climb over the fence. There were thieves, who only wanted fruit. There were large alleys of fruit trees there, cherries, apples and pears. My parents took care of them, because they were the superintendents. They fruit would be eaten at camp. Whoever in the camp wanted, could pick some, because everything was free.