photo from willow/magpie tales
MATCHLESS...
Let me take you back to 1988. I was sitting on a dark red sofa in the lobby of the Hotel Forum in Bratislava. It seemed more bustling and crowded than usual. I decided to sort through the matchboxes that I had recently bought for my cousin, Count Esterhazy, who was a rather renowned collector of museum quality boxes. Some people like to sort by sports, or animals, but Cousin Niki preferred to sort by countries. I had before me three treasures, all rated by the Match Book Society: 1. An "Always Ready" label.
2. An English Co. label, issued in 1885. 3. A Thomas Gee label, issued in 1875. I couldn't wait to see the look on his face when I handed them to him.
I looked up to see him headed towards me, but he paused every few seconds to scoop up whatever matchbox he could lay his hands on. Had he been so reduced in taste and judgement, that he was now collecting hotel matches?
He stuffed his pockets with as many as he could, looked around to see if he was being watched, abruptly stopped in front of me, kissed me quickly on both cheeks, and said, "Let's get out of here"!
I gathered my scattered packages, making absolutely certain to stow the gift I had for Niki. We walked very quickly out the door, turned right and headed across the plaza to the Cafe' Camouflage. Niki pushed me towards the back, grabbed a chair for me, and waited until I was seated for him to empty his pockets of dozens of Hotel Forum matchboxes. "These are for later", he said.
That night came to be known as the Candle Demonstration, a first step towards the destruction of the Communist regime. 3000 Slovaks protested in the square. I stood pretty far back, the presence of the military being a big warning to me. But Niki made his way through the crowd, striking Hotel Forum matches and lighting candles for the mostly young protesters.
I walked back to the Hotel, having been assured by Niki that we would meet up later. I still had a gift to give him. And for myself, a single box of Hotel Forum matches, matches from a revolution, that I've saved to this day.
The Crowne Plaza Hotel
previously/ HOTEL FORUM
