I always wanted to go to Germany all my life and after spending about 17 years in the Army, getting out to work at Civil Service for four years, with just a few trips to teach the U-COFT in various military bases in Germany. After I started working for the company who underbid General Electric I was finally being stationed to Germany.
There was two main reasons I wanted to go to Germany. The first was when I was a young lad, I remember visiting with my dad's folks in Lexington, Kentucky. On the rare occasion when we stayed over night, I can remember setting at the breakfast table being served Black Forest Ham along with over easy eggs. When the adults were at the table and wanted to say something not for little ears, they would speak in German. I didn't know what it was at first so when I asked my dad on the way home he told me it was German. That started me wanting to see Germany first hand. Secondly, when my kids were young as a part of a school project they had to list their ancestry back as far as they could. Of course they came to me. I did some research into the family ancestry and I was hooked. I took it all, hook, line and sinker. In my research I found that my dad's folks came to America in the mid-1700's from Germany and Alsace-Loraine, France.
As I stated before, my headquarters over there was in Grafenwoehr, but I made my headquarters out of Vilseck. While in country, I rented a small but nice room in the Gasthof Goldener Greif in Edelsfeld, Germany. I was over there alone so the one small room was nice, in a nice, quite town. On Saturday morning when I was not on the road tracing down ancestors, I was at the local soccer field, cheering on the team from Edelsfeld.
A little over half way through my obligation to the company, my daughter, Michelle had graduated from High School and she came over to join me in Germany. I was sending just about all of my salary home to Mila so I could not afford two rooms at the Gasthof. I got to looking around at found a nice up stairs, two bedroom efficiency apartment in Dorfgmund, Germany, which was half way between Vilseck and Grafenwoehr. This suited us just fine. We only had German TV there but there was a VHS hooked up to the TV. I picked up a Walt Disney film, Pete's Dragon, at the PX in Grafenwoehr. Michelle and I just about remembered all the songs and words to it because we played it so much.
I was busy with work during the week but on weekends we traveled to different places sightseeing. I never did get into the Volks Marches over there like so many Americans. I was mainly interested into family history. Mila did finally come over to join us there but she was cold and bored with the place so she went back to Sierra Vista to get ready for us when my time was over on the contract.
On one of my trips to Germany, I was there to see the Wall come down and many other interesting things. I visited many places while I was there, Berlin, Bonn, Frankfort, Baden-Baden, Heidelberg, Stuttgart, Nuremberg, Munich and Hamburg, just to name a few of the towns I worked in. I visited in Belgium, France, Switzerland, Austria and Czech Republic. I did get to see Europe.
I will update you on what has happened since I have returned on the next blog. Til then . . .
Auf Wiederschen . . .
No comments:
Post a Comment