Memories

of

Petr Šámal

by Alfred Riedel

On Tuesday, January 31, I was sitting with Jan Zdiarsky from Eduard

in a restaurant near our hotel in Nuremberg. I was enjoying dinner

and relaxing after a busy day, full of preparations of the stand at the

fair. However, this relaxed mood was swept away by the news that

hit me hard. Petr Šámal has died. He hadn’t been in good health for

some time, but according to the reports I was getting, he had started

to improve. So, it came like a bolt from the blue. After Petr Dousek

and Radek Pavlíček, another great friend of mine had passed away ...

I met Peter sometime in late 1990 or early

the following year. We were introduced

by a mutual friend, my classmate Petr

Šobíšek, at a model exhibition organized

by the plastic model club Albatros. We

got along in many things with “Šámi”,

as we called him. Plastic modeling and

interest in history were of course two

of them. “Šámi” had knowledge as well

as copious archives and was, like us,

kind of “patient”. We became members of

Albatros club and “Šami” became a bit of

a mentor to us. After all, he was a bit older.

Unlike me, a student at the time, and Petr

Šobíšek, who was serving the alternative

civilian service, “Šámi” was already

making money and owned a car. Two years

later, I started working at one MPM model

shop in Prague while Petr Šobíšek was

working at another MPM shop in a different

Prague location. Thanks to his work at

Prague Energy company (PRE), “Šámi”

kept moving around Prague and very

often stopped by one or the other store.

A group of colleagues and their friends

formed around both shops and “Šámi” was

an important member of this group. At that

time, he got a studio apartment in Písnice,

so our group had a place to meet. Today

I wouldn’t probably survive such lavish

6

INFO Eduard

parties as those held there back then …

We travelled together not only to attend

model competitions, but also to do various

trips including mountaineering. “Šámi”

with his guitar, which he played with great

skill, often took care of the entertainment.

In fact, music was his other great hobby.

Besides playing the instrument, he also

collected records and his knowledge

of

good

music

was

astounding.

But time passed, “Šámi” settled down,

got married, had a daughter and later

a son. His son was born just a few months

before mine. So, we would occasionally

meet up with our families, usually at

a modeling contest. Unlike “Šámi”, who

was still working at PRE, I left MPM to

eventually return to Special Hobby. So,

I was also seeing “Šámi” professionally,

because in the meantime he had become

the chairman of the plastic modeling

section of SMČR (Modelers association

of Czech Republic) and was dealing

with sponsorship issues. He took over

the plastic model section in quite a bad

shape, but thanks to his dedication,

organizational skills and knowledge,

the functioning of it has changed for the

much better. At the same time, he led the

children model club in Písnice and raised

many new modelers. He took care of the

children like a little grumpy, but very

caring babysitter. Unfortunately, he did

not take similar care of his health, which

had fatal consequences. “Šámi” left too

soon. I miss him.

March 2023