Vincenc Kummer

"We were arriving in a car behind which I had a small trailer. We were coming to the Rozvadov, and it started to rain. And they knew us at Rozvadov because when we used to go with [singer Karel] Gott, we always bought a package for the customs officers when we were coming back, which contained cigarettes, chocolates and something to drink, so we left it there. And then the customs check was always very smooth. There were customs officers who were bad and those who were good, you knew about them. When we were coming to Rozvadov, the barrier went up, we entered the customs control area and there was a Mercedes from Netherlands in front of us. And out came this older, little customs officer who was mean. That's when I thought, if he comes to us, we'll end up in Ruzyně [prison] too. And I don't know what would have happened to the little daughter, six years old, who was sitting in the car with us. I had the car full, I even had a double bass, I had all the essentials in the trailer. But there was a young one, and the old, mean one, he rushed at the Dutch and had them pull all the suitcases out into the rain on the bench and checked, and the young one came to us. And he says, 'Hello, Mr. Kummer. Are you going on holiday this time?' And I said, 'Yes, yes, on holiday with the whole family.' He took the papers, everything was in order. He went to the rear and said, 'Open up that trailer for me.' So I got out and I opened the trailer and he lifted it up just two centimeters and closed it again. So it was clear to me that he knew what the situation was and that everything was fine."