The floor was shaking and plaster was coming down
Ladislav Kolbaba was born on June 8, 1932, in Brno, where he witnessed the events of the Second World War and the bombing of the city. After finishing his elementary education, he trained as a shop assistant, specializing in electronics. Yet, he didn’t finish his training and got a temporary job in Karviná as a miner. After that, he acted in many professions – a bus driver, a trolley bus driver, a driving school instructor, a cosmetics salesman, a storeman, a bouncer and a boiler operator. He travelled across several countries and had been panning for gold. He was a gold panning instructor, a correspondent and a photographer. He wrote memories of his childhood in the book ‘Bylo nás šest’ (‘There Were Six of Us’). He also wrote about his pursuit of gold in books such as ‘Zrození zlatokopa’ (‘The Birth of a Prospector’), ‘Sedm tisíc km v osmi’ (Eight People, Seven Thousand Kilometers’), and ‘Sedm tisíc kilometrů sám’ (‘Seven Thousand Kilometers on my own’). He holds the title of the gold panning world champion, which he had received in Poland in 2000. His son Jiří is a well-known traveller. In 2017, when the interview had been recorded, the witness had been living in Brno; he had been engaged in the ANO Political Movement.
