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    Velvet Crossovers
    Velvet Crossovers
    Velvet Crossovers
    Ebook129 pages1 hour

    Velvet Crossovers

    By Nicholas Timko Jr

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    About this ebook

    A story of what happened to the author's family and the Czechoslovak nation during a pivotal moment in history, as the Iron Curtain began to fracture, as the sun began to set on the Soviet empire, and as Communist Czechoslovakia changed forever. It is said that history repeats itself. One can recall Russian tanks rolling through Czechoslovakia in 1968 and again in this 1989 story; only to see those same, frightful images replayed in Georgia in 2008 and the Ukraine in 2014.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAuthorHouse
    Release dateNov 21, 2013
    ISBN9781491820254
    Velvet Crossovers
    Author

    Nicholas Timko Jr

    The author visited Communist Czechoslovakia from mid-September to very early October 1989 to visit relatives. He had never met most of them before. His cousins drove him from one end of the country to the other as they introduced him to Czechoslovakia. The author's Slovak heritage has been in his family since birth, and he grew up performing the music of a country that he now saw in person for the first time. He is a Mechanical Engineer who became a Registered Dental Hygienist after his 24 year career with IBM. He has taught both engineering and biology courses at the college level, and has written over 20 technical reports while with IBM. He has received IBM Corporate Level Author's Recognition and Invention Awards. His lifelong hobby has been music.

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      Book preview

      Velvet Crossovers - Nicholas Timko Jr

      AuthorHouse™ LLC

      1663 Liberty Drive

      Bloomington, IN 47403

      www.authorhouse.com

      Phone: 1-800-839-8640

      © 2013 Nicholas Timko, Jr All rights reserved.

      No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

      Published by AuthorHouse 12/10/2013

      ISBN: 978-1-4918-2024-7 (sc)

      ISBN: 978-1-4918-2025-4 (e)

      Library of Congress Control Number: 2013917911

      Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

      Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

      Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      Dedication

      Acknowledgments

      Foreword

      Preface

      A Few Words On Linguistics

      Introduction

      Chapter 1   March 1989

      Chapter 2   The Relatives

      Chapter 3   Monday, September 18th, New York

      Chapter 4   Tuesday, September 19th, The Flight East

      Chapter 5   Czechoslovak History in the 20th Century

      Chapter 6   Tuesday, September 19th, Settling In

      Chapter 7   Wednesday, September 20th, Prague

      Chapter 8   East Germany and The Revolutions of 1989

      Chapter 9   On Gorbachev, Restructuring, and Openness

      Chapter 10   Thursday, September 21st, Karlovy Vary and Lidice

      Chapter 11   Friday, September 22nd, Terezín, Litoměřice, and Veselí

      Chapter 12   Saturday, September 23rd, Veselí

      Chapter 13   Sunday, September 24th, Travels South

      Chapter 14   Monday, September 25th, Bratislava and Sereď

      Chapter 15   Conditions 10 Miles South of the Danube

      Chapter 16   Tuesday, September 26th, To Košice

      Chapter 17   Wednesday, September 27th, Košice and Jalová

      Chapter 18   Carpatho-Rusyn Geography—A Brief History

      Chapter 19   Thursday, September 28th, Jalová and the Surroundings

      Chapter 20   Friday, September 29th, Velvet Crossovers

      Chapter 21   Saturday, September 30th, Act One, The Trip West

      Chapter 22   September 29th and 30th, West German Embassy, Prague

      Chapter 23   Sunday, October 1st, Act Two, Veselí

      Chapter 24   Monday, October 2nd, Act Three, Ruzyně and the Flight To New York

      Epilogue

      Historical References

      About the Author

      DEDICATION

      This book is dedicated to my Mom and Dad, who gave me life and were always there for me.

      It is also dedicated to my extended family in the Czech Republic; Alena and Jiři, Alenka and Jana and their families, for they all demonstrate the true meaning of family.

      Finally, this book is dedicated to my Aunt Mary Timko Kyselová, a lady who made nursing her life’s work, lived her life with dignity, and shared herself with us all. She wanted peace in our world.

      15May58.jpg

      Aunt Mary

      ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

      In any serious endeavor such as this, there are many people who helped me in numerous small ways—too many to mention them all by name. Three people however, played a significant role in helping to bring this book from thoughts in my mind to the written word.

      Thanks go to Lorna, for inspiring me to write this book in the first place, and for her helpful edits and suggestions. Thanks to Bernie, the wife of the man responsible for my second career, Dr. Robert Carman DDS, for her review and thoughtful words in the Foreword. Special thanks to Christine, who painstakingly edited the entire book, both text and photos, and offered many invaluable suggestions.

      FOREWORD

      The author and I are the children and grandchildren of immigrants from Czechoslovakia, and have been given quite a heritage. After reading the draft of Velvet Crossovers I made the visitation to extended family with him. His book immerses us into the feelings of connectivity with those who we had only heard of, and now meet and hug as family. Traveling through the country and experiencing it’s ancient history resonates the differences in culture and values we share today.

      In the author’s story, he describes the plight of the East Germans in a holding position in Prague in 1989. He includes documentation and letters that the world at that time had scarce knowledge of. His description upon leaving Czechoslovakia is spellbinding, raising our fears along with his.

      Indeed, Velvet Crossovers has a duplicity of meaning; historical as well as personal. We have a deep love and appreciation of our families that braved crossing the Atlantic Ocean, bringing with them their love of music and precious traditions.

      Bernadine Kucko Carman

      PREFACE

      The story you are about to read is one of my travels throughout Communist Czechoslovakia in September of 1989, along with supportive facts of that country’s history as it pertains to my story.

      First, the story of my trip itself and how I perceived it, together with my Czech and Slovak families. These words are mine and mine alone; derived from my memories, a small 2½ by 4 inch notebook I kept during my visit, and by watching the video my father-in-law John filmed during the time that he and I had together during those two weeks.

      Second, the historical facts I mention throughout the book can all be found in multiple sources; brief excerpts from scholarly works such as encyclopedias and history books, various newspapers of the time, magazine articles, travel brochures, airline brochures, and information from reputable online sources. I knew few of these historical facts before making my trip, but uncovered them all after I researched the many changes that took place in Eastern Europe in 1989.

      None of the factual materials I present contain verbatim copies (except where required by those who granted permission) of any original document, nor are any of them large, complete excerpts taken from the source material. These historical facts are presented and paraphrased in my own words to benefit the reader’s understanding of the story.

      For those historical facts that are specific to the immediate two week period of my journey, permission to cite these materials has been obtained from each source. See the historical references section at the end of this book for a complete list of these sources.

      I hope that by blending the historical facts with my travels throughout Communist Czechoslovakia, I’ve helped to give some unique insight to the phrase history being made right before your eyes.

      A FEW WORDS ON LINGUISTICS

      For those interested in correctly pronouncing some of the names and places in this book, I have included the phonetic pronunciation in square brackets following the first occurrence of the more important ones. The emphasized syllable appears in boldface type.

      Although this is not intended to be a course in the Czech language, just a few words about some unique pronunciations may help.

      č is pronounced like ‘ch’ as in cheese. ch has no English equivalent. It is pronounced as the ‘ch’ in the German composer’s name J.S. Bach. All ‘r’s have a rolled sound, like ‘rrr’, with the tip of the tongue vibrating on the palate behind the front teeth. The letter ř is the most difficult to pronounce. It sounds like ‘rzh’, where the ‘r’ is rolled, followed by the ‘zh’ sound. The š sounds like ‘sh’ as in ship. The ž sounds like ‘zh’, as the ‘s’ in measure.

      INTRODUCTION

      The purpose of this book is to present a story of my two week journey to Communist Czechoslovakia in September of 1989. What makes my story unique is that history was being made during those two weeks (literally around the corner in some cases), yet none of us were aware of it. I wish to share this brief snapshot of my travels during those two weeks with my American family, friends, and all others who likely have no idea of what life was like in a Communist East European country involved in the midst of major historical events that were unfolding daily.

      I hope that through meeting my family, you will see what

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