2-26-2015

Now I have many memories about our little town. My doctor when I had a fall, a hurt or pain he would let me come to his house where he lived. I liked him. He would always take the time to take care of me. I always had something. A scratch here and a twisted leg there,  and I fell so bad with my roll skates that my bone split. But I had fun. I was a Tomboy.
One time I had gone to a friends house. They had an  upstairs downstairs house. Well my friend was coming down the stairs while I was going up and we hit our heads together. We thought it was so funny. Well on my way home my nose started bleeding. Strange for me I never had that. But I did not think much about it. Next morning my ears were having all kinds of noises in them and I felt really sick. Every time I lifted my head my nose would bleed like crazy. Well when the doctor finally came I was told I had a really bad concussion. For 3 1/2 month I was not able to lift my head. Not at all, not even an inch. . It was a very hard time for me. Then I was able to go to school a few hours and slowly I was getting better. But whenever wind was blowing, my head would hurt a lot. I had to wear something on my head all the time. My mom got me the most beautiful scarfs. Till this day I have headaches when the weather is bad. You never think how something so insignificant can have such an impact in your life.

For the next few years we would go camping at the East See. I loved going there. We made some friends there who I still think of very fondly. Gerd and his Mom and dad. His Grandparents had a Farm not too far away. We went to see them every time we went to camp there. The Farm was beautiful. This is where I got to milk a cow for the first time. It felt so gross but the more I did it the better I got. I started to love Farm life. I loved his grand parents. I think they were the best you could have. I helped her make noodle soup from scratch. I still do it that way. With peas. They had a German Shepard named Senta.
My dad was so crazy about that dog that later he named his German Shepard Senta. When Senta was put in the house so she could not bother us she would jump out of the window to be with us. It was so funny. I had the biggest crush on Gerd. That never stopped. Once a year we would go there and it was always like we never left.
This was a great Area. Flensburg.

   
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2-24-2015

After moving to our New Apartment,  life was great. I started school. It is a big event in Germany. I got a big school cone for the first day like all kids. Filled with lots of chocolates and candy.

A wonderful tradition I kept with all our kids and grand kids.
I went to the Evangelical school because the catholic school which was next to the Evangelic school would not allow me to go there.  We were not evangelical or catholic .There was a fence separating us on the playground. I had a friend who was catholic, so when we had recess we would go to the fence to talk, but soon we found out it was against the rules. So we waited until after school to talk.
I started having lots of friends where we lived. My best childhood friends name was Karin. She and I were always together. We even made up our own  language. Our Apartment came with a cellar so my parents made it so we could play there. We loved it. We came up with our own language right there.
Since I was getting older my mother would let me go with my girlfriend to get milk from the milk store. You had to bring your own container and they would fill it with milk. Karin and I would get the milk and on the way home we would swing the container around and around with the milk. And yes I stopped swinging it by accident and......the milk fell all over me. There I was full of milk, so I had to go back and get more milk. This time I did not swing it. In those days you had accounts at the store and my parents would pay once a month. That's why I could do it. Every time Karin and I were together we laughed and laughed. What a great friendship we had.We had a grocery store across the street from us. In the morning we would go in the back and get freshly baked rolls. Oh how great they smelled. By the time I got home I always had eaten some. I loved to poke a hole in them and take the dough out. Yep I loved doing that. Now my grand kids have inherited the gene.

This is the area where I lived in that time. The 4 houses on the left, the first house is where we lived.
On the left is my school Bodelschwinghschule. Behind there is my girlfriends Karin's house and the store Schmidtobreik.
I loved living  there. karin and I had wonderful friends there.We discovered boys here. Everything was so innocent in those days. Our clique was of Karin ,I ,2 boys named Horst and Georg. We called him. Schorchi. Don't ask me why I never knew that. We played volleyball almost every day at the School after we finished homework. I was very good at it. Yay me. We also played roll playing. We did like we were on a ship and pirates would try to kill us. Wow what imagination we had and so much fun. In the 50th and 60th it was OK to play like that. Our friendship was so close and I am glad I had such great friends.
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2-23-2015

It has been so much joy thinking back how wonderful life was in the 1950 th. Of course at the time we probably did not think some of the things were as much fun as I remember them now. For instant we had to move to this Apartment when I was 5 for a year because the Apartment we supppose to move to was not ready. We always lived in really nice places so this was a shocker to me. But we knew it was just for a while. It was downstairs so being a kid instead of using the front door I would go outside through the window. There was a reason though. The Owner of this Apartment Building was so strange and weird. He had a Beard and he smelled as bad as the Hallways from one Apartment to the other. I would hold my nose every time I went through there. His Name was Mr. Kelpsch. That name fit to him. I could hardly pronounce it. My mom explained later that the bad smell was from him cooking cabbage all day. Pew!!!!!In the backyard there were lots of chickens.They looked so gross .Really dirty. I felt so sorry for them. From time to time you would hear them squeal. When Mr. Kelpsch would be outside I was so afraid to pass him. He looked so mean and nasty. I tried to never look at him. One day when the chickens were yelling again, I asked my mom what she thought the noise was. She explained that Kelpsch was killing some of the chickens. Now I knew he was a Killer! A chicken killer at least. From this day foreward every time dinner had chicken I always asked
"is it store bought or from outside?" I could not bare thinking it was the chickens outside. You can really tell I was a city girl!
I had a girlfriend who lived 2 Apartment Buildings down the street. I believe in the 3 rd. story.
One day the weather was really bad. Rain, thunder, and lightning. It was so bad I hid in the closet. Believe it or not my mom joined me, she hated lightning because of what happened when she was a little girl. So here we are huddled up in the closet when all of a sudden we hear a huge noise "Kaboom"~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~***
And more noise and people screaming. We ran into the street and the Apartment from my girlfriend had been hit by lightning. Not just a little. The Apartment Building was split in half. One side was crumbled down and the other side was standing like nothing happened. The noise was unbearable. People running into the street  yelling , crying, screaming. Some people were just standing there in shock. . Worse then any earthquake. I could see my girlfriends Kitchen standing there but her bedroom was gone. People were screaming so bad. My mom ran into our house and got a blanket. My girlfriend was standing in the street in her undershirt. She was just standing there. My mom put the blanket over her and just held her. Finally after a long time,  we found her parents. My friend was late doing homework in the kitchen. If she would have been in her bedroom like any other day, she would not have made it. As a child nobody ever told me how many died and got hurt, I just know I  hate lightning even more since then.
Well our time soon was over in this very interesting place and we moved to a brand new area.
There we would stay until the biggest change ever would come our way.
This is a picture of Gladbeck nowadays.

2-22-2015

I remember another time when I was no older than 6. My dad decided to take us camping. I don't believe where we went could have been called a camping ground.We had to drive up a mountain. Round and round the street went. At times the street did not seem wide enough for our car.
I was so scared especially when I saw my mom was too. On the outside of the road you could not even see the bottom, that's how far down it went. No rails, so if you would have gone too far to the right you would have been tumbling down the mountain. All I could think was "We are going to die"!!!!!!!!!Mom and I decided to walk the rest of the way. I felt so much safer and did not mind the walk at all. We laughed and laughed and laughed. Not quite sure why. When we finally got the end there was the most beautiful place. Trees everywhere, green grass, hills, and a lake. What a sight. I felt Nature calling me. In the sky we heard the birds singing and playing around. Now I was in a camping mood. We found a cove down by the lake where my dad decided to camp. It was a great place. Here we could discover many adventures. Up on the Hill was a broken down cottage.It looked so creepy. All the windows were broken, wood hanging from the roof, and spiderwebs everywhere. It felt like any moment this old creature would come out of the cabin and snap you away.
We discovered another family had found this place too. Who would have thought?   Luckily it was a nice family. Especially the boys. The older one was so cute even I noticed. He was tall, gorgeous and talked with a dialect.When The boys went up the Hill to go to the Cottage I followed them like a little puppy.  Bodo the oldest boy went inside and then ....he screamed running out. We ran like crazy thinking the dead had arisen. But he was just scaring us. The lake was really big and so cold. I could not believe how cold. I only went in once. It was extremely deep and dark. You felt as if  Lockness Monster was lying deep inside just waiting to take a bite out of you. It gave me the creeps.
At night we all sat together around a campfire laughing and singing. Putting potatoes in the fire. Really tasted great. After a week every single day it rained and rained and rained. So my dad decided it was enough,  so we packed our things and put our huge tent together and till this day it amazes me how they got this in our tiny car. My parents had a car named "Loyd".




This is a picture I found from a site. That's what we had.
Since we were leaving the other family left too. When we got home we found out that if we would have left any later we would not been able to get out. The rain came so fast and much it filled the cove within a few minutes to the top.We all would have died. Needless to say we never went there again. But it was an adventure for sure.  My dad loved to travel it was in his blood and because of that we had lots of trips and fun.I believe he gave this to everyone of his grand kids and great-grand kids.I am so glad. No bordom for sure when you love new adventure all your life.

2-21-2015

So many times I started to write about my life, but every time I tried to put the words on paper  I could not find the beginning.Where do I start?  That is the question! So I will begin where it started for me. 
I was born in 1952 in a small town in Germany. As luck had it I had wonderful parents who  loved me and wanted me. I was born at Home with a midwife.You can hardly imagine that nowadays. But it was the time where people were riding bicycles , Our Milkman had Horses and a buggy to bring us the Milk direct from  the farmers.The streets were made from bricks, no one had a phone yet and we were lucky to live in a modern place. We had a radio that my parents always listened to wonderful shows. It is amazing that people got along without technology like today.
My father worked in the coal mine.In those days you took any job you could get.  But he always  even in those days,  had something on the side to make money.It seemed like every time you looked around he got hurt bad. But my parents always made a happy home.My mother was a great influence to me throughout my life.Whether life was giving me obstacles or was full of laughter and joy. She always was there to listen, laugh, or talk to me.
The first thing I remember is when I was 2. It was a very hot summer and my mom was hanging up clothes on a clothesline. I was riding a tricycle and fell smack off the bike and hit my teeth.My poor 
little mouth was bleeding to every vampires delight. My dear mom ran, yanking towels from the clothesline to stop my bleeding. I still can see her face like it was today. 
At 2 I had a boyfriend named Peter. I always say he saved my life!This summer of 54 it was so hot that these little black flies would crawl on your arms. Don't ask me what they were called. All I know is that I hated them and I would scream when I would see them.I was outside playing when all of a sudden I saw those bugs all over my arms.I ran screaming and yelling trying to get to my mom. When Peter ran behind me, his little 2 year old hands trying to get the nasty bugs off of me. They erked me so bad. But he saved my arms. There sure are no more Hero's like that around. It warms my heart to think about this special moment. I wonder if he even knows what a kind and memorable deed he did.
When I was 5 we got our first T.V.Black and white and in a console. Nobody can imagine what a big deal that was unless you lived in that time.It was a super event for the whole family. In our case we had it delivered. After this day we were never again without this wonderful invention. It has changed a lot over time . Our T.V. was in a console so people could not see what it was. A lot of churches did not like it and said it was from the devil. Including our church. Many people put the T.V. in their bedroom. But not my parents they put it smack in the living room where everybody could see it.I felt like royalty. My parents taught me always to stand up for what you believe. The T.V. went from black and white to color . Then the shape of the T.V. changed, then the thickness. and lets not even talk about how many channels nowadays and all the different films. We started off with only 2 Channels. 
Yes it was a great time.