My confession: I was addicted to fast cars and coke / Kola a rychla auta – to bylo me gusto!

Every time I open a can of Coke (gotcha!) these days two very different feelings overwhelm me. The first one is a pleasant feeling – a happy feeling – feeling like I am very rich and well off. Why do I feel rich when am I sipping on a stupid can of soda, you may wonder? The psychologist would tell me that it comes from my “inner child” meaning that it  comes from the memories of my childhood. Back when my brother and I were little the only time we could get a taste of this magical beverage was during Christmas as each of us would get a can of coke as one of our Christmas presents (for the whole story “Christmas at our house: Czech style” click here). The second feeling that comes to me is more complex: it is the one of a terrible fear and anxiety mixed with excitement. Let me explain myself. Back when I was little, during communism, one could not buy sodas in a regular grocery stores. That is why these empty cans (forget the full ones) were a very desired goods among children. My brother used to keep all of his fancy pens and pencils in one of those Coke cans. And when I reached the “mature” age of being worthy enough to own one of those cans too, I did the same thing. All of us kids collected soda cans from the Western world – there is no doubt about it. But where and how did we get them? In my circle of friends we use the “Freeway method”. These are the steps that one had to follow:

• walk over any bridge that runs above the freeway
• stop in the middle of the bridge
• begin to wave profusely at any of the approaching semi-trucks
• the semi would honk and if he was trained well he would throw an empty can of soda out of the window

The problem was that sometimes the can would end up in the middle of the freeway divider, which means if one wanted to get it you had to actually cross the 4-lane freeway. Of course, we REALLY wanted the can, so we had to cross the freeway. I myself ran across it a only couple of times as I was one of the youngest in the group (the oldest kids usually bravely took on the task) but I remember that feeling very well: I waited for a little vacant spot in the flow of traffic and then I ran and ran as fast as I could. I would grab my precious can and did the same thing going back. Only now if I hadn’t paid enough attention and one of those cars did hit me I would die happy. After a while our can collections started to pile up and my brother and I had them exhibited all over our room: the red coke cans, the orange ones and the green ones too; there were couple of beer cans which were probably the most precious ones as we had only few of those in our collection. Up to this day, I am not even sure what kind of lie we had told  our parents when they were wondering where all those cans came from. We had probably said that we kept them from Christmas  and it happened to work.

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CZ: Pokazde, kdyz ted popijim sodovku prozivam dva protichodne pocity. Nejdrive me premuze pocit neskutecneho stesti a pohody, a to proto ze si prijdu jako kralovna, jako nejvetsi bohac na svete. A proc si prijdu jako kralovna, kdyz posrkavam stupidni sodovku? Psychologove by to vinili na tzv. “inner child” nebo z laickeho hlediska, na me detsvti.  Ten druhy pocit, ktery se me zmocni je trosku slozitejsi: da se posat jako pocit nezkutecne uzkosti spojeny se vzrusenim. Tak abych vam to snad trosku podrobneji vysvetlila: jak sami vite, plechovky se sodovou se za komunistu strasne spatne schanely (my jsme napriklad dostali pravou Kolu  pouze pod stromecek od nasi babicky), a proto je vetsina nas, deti, sbiralo. Muj bracha si  do plechovky od Coca-Coly  daval sve nejoblibenejsi propisky a ja jsem se po nem pozdeji samozrejmne opicila. Ale kde jsme toto vzacne zbozi vlastne sehnali? My jsme to s kamaradkami nazyvaly tzv. “Dalnicni metodu”, ktera se sestavala z nize uvedenych bodu:

• dojdete do poloviny jakehokoliv mostu, ktery je postaven pres dalnici
• zacnete horlive mavat na one protijedouci kamiony
• jestlize je kamionak dobre “vytrenovany”, tak nejenze zatroubi na pozdrav, ale take vam hodi z okna prazdou plechovku

Problem byl ale v tom, ze nekdy onen ridic nevyhodil plechovku na kraj dalnice, nybrz doprostred, tedy kde se protijedouci pruhy rozdeluji. Ale co nadelas? Plechovky jsme MOC chtely a tak jsme pro ne take museli pracovat. Ja osobne jsem prebehla onou dalnici nastesti pouze parkrat – tuto mizernou praci prebraly spise me starsi kamaradky. Nicmene jsem ten pocit ale zazila: ruce se vam zacnou potit,zatimco cekate, az v kolone rychle jedoucich aut nastane kratka pauza. Jakmile tuto pauzu vychytate, zacnete sprintovat jako jste jeste nikdy v zivote nesprintovali. Na dalnicnim rozdvojeni – jakemsi ostruvku – popadnete svoji milovanou plechovku, a sup zpatky do bezpeci. Akorat ze ted kdyby vas z nepozornosti auto opravdu porazilo, alespon byste zemrel/a stastny. Pocase jsme doma s brachou mely peknou vyzdobu: cervene plechovky od koly, zlute a zelene od limonad a ty nejvzacnejsi v nasi sbirce – plechovky od piv. Akorat si  vubec nepamatuji, co jsme vlastne nalhali rodicum, kdyz se divili, odkud tyto plechovky vlastne berem!