No drinking age; no speed limit

Since I haven't been to Germany since 1982, I do not know how much has changed. There are a few things that most people seem to know about German culture. One of those is the beer or Das Bier. They may or may not know that there was (is?) no drinking age in Germany. Another is the cars and the 'autobahn' or highway where there is no speed limit. Being a young adult at an 'experimental' and 'rebelious' age, I took full advantage of the drinking opportunity. If we went off base, we could buy beer, wine, etc. w/o having to show I.D. We'd go to the German pool in the summer and buy beer, watch the Germans change from their clothes to their bathing suits in front on everyone. Germans are not modest either. The driving age in Germany was 21 or so I am told. Most Germans utilize their excellent public transportation system anyway. Lets get back to the drinking. Uh - oh, gotta go. will update later...

1st German Lesson

Ich habe in Deutschland sieben Jahre gewohnen. <<< This is how I get the kids' attention on the day of "the lesson". I have to repeat it. I write it on the board and translate it for them >>> I lived in Germany for seven years. Then I tell them from when to when, why, etc. I go through the numbers, letters, days of the week, alphabet and show them several words that are so similar to English words. Ich liebe dich is always a hit. That means I love you. We discuss the fact that English is a Germanic language. Most of the students really love hearing me speak German and want to know if I was fluent. At the time I left and for a couple of years after I was in the states, I was. But, I lost it. I think it would come back if I ever immersed myself in the language again. I have learned a little Spanish over these past several years and sometimes I mix German and Spanish up. I once heard that you mix up your 2nd and 3rd+ languages.
A cool German website I found had these quotes and images.
"German and English are very similar languages: Both German and English have the same roots. Their common ancestry shows in many similar words in both languages. And of course you know more German than you thought: German immigrants brought many German words with them, which are still used in modern English."

Ski Trip to Yugoslavia

February - '82. The Sitzmarkers Ski Club, previously mentioned, took a bunch of American Military Officer's kids into a communist country to go skiing for the weekend.
Unlike most ski trips, we were told to be careful because we were Americans in a communist country, like we really knew what that meant. It made it even more of an adventure though, as if it was very dangerous. I think people even mentioned that we could be kidnapped, held hostage, etc.
So, of course, we were leery of the Yugoslavians at first.
Since I was skiing with 2 other girls and they went up together in front of me on the t-bar lift and no one from our group was around, I had to ride with a stranger; a poor, unsuspecting Yugoslavian guy. I was sooooo mad and probably was quite the brat with him. Nevertheless, he turned out to be a "normal person", spoke perfect English, and was so sweet and very interesting to talk to.
Guess what I learned from that experience...that it is so ignorant to prejudge people.
Anyway, the skiing was great and we got to go to the ELAN ski factory. Unfortunately I didn't bring extra money, as suggested, because skis and ski equipment were really cheap. A lot of my peers took advantage of that chance. I bought a head band though and I think I still have it somewhere.
BTW, the place we went, Bled, is in Slovenia. Our hotel overlooked a beautiful lake and I am trying to upload some postcards I bought.

Mein Leben in Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Teil drei

(My life in West Germany, Part III)
I have several items that I have saved from my time in Germany that I show my students. One of the favorites is my schlümpfs, AKA smurfs. They are from Germany and are really called schlümpfs. As kids, we collected them. My sister and I had about 30 or more each. I guess my mother saved them for me because when I got married she gave them to me. My older sons played with them along w/ their happy meal toys, so they got quite used looking.
When I first taught geography, I never thought to bring in my "stuff", but one day I thought I can bring geography to life by sharing these artifacts. Ever since then, I have incorporated my experience into a lesson I do on "My life in Europe." It is a great springboard into the unit since I do talk about East and West Germany, the Iron Curtain, the Cold War, etc. In fact, on the foot of most of my schlümpfs, it says made in West Germany.
I also have some of my Steiff animals. Steiff is a brand of stuffed animals that are very realistic looking and very pricey.

My life in W. Germany - Part II

...this is a long story, so I better post in chunks.
We lived on Patch Barracks for ~4 years. A brand new school was built and opened in 1979. It was so modern and cool, the lockers were in cylinders & there were lots of windows open to green areas. The kids on base no longer had to ride buses to other bases in the Stuttgart area because we had our own school. I started there in 8th grade and finished 10th grade before we moved back to the states.
I joined band in 8th grade and learned to play the flute under Marcia Dawson, one of the most memorable teachers I had. Another 8th grade teacher I adored was Mr. Frese, pronounced freeze, for U.S. History. I wasn't fond of History at all, but he made it interesting. I remember thinking he should be the president. I found out later that he became the principal of Patch High School.
Patch High School is still open and via many friends whom I've reconnected with, I've gotten to see recent photos of the school and base. Mental note: Post later. Patch HS colors are black and gold and the mascot is the panther. Rawwrrr.
Our football team was pretty good from what I remember. The band marched and played at the games. I think we were the only Department of Defense School (DoDs) to have a marching band. Ms. Dawson got us uniforms and took us to local parades to march. She even took us across the English Channel on a ferry to perform in London. Those My most vivid memories of attending high school overseas were the times we traveled to countries that were so close. Going to London from Germany was like going from Houston to Midland or Lubbock. If we went now though, we'd take the Chunnel. It didn't exist back in the early 80's.
Another ultimate travel opportunity came from being a member of the Sitzmarkers Ski Club. It was a youth ski group and we'd take ski trips to Austria, Switzerland, France, Italy, etc. The prices were very reasonable because we were right there, hours from the Alps. There were parent chaperones that went, but we were mostly on our own. Sometimes the trips were weekend trips or week long trips for Xmas or Spring Break. Once for Spring Break, we went to Chamonix, France and skiied on Mt. Blanc, the highest peak in the Alps. I am sure someone mentioned this at the time, but I don't remember that detail. I remember the hotel which had a bidét in the bathroom and we thought it was a funny sink b/c it had knobs to turn, and it shot water strait up and had a drain. My best friend and I decided this would be a good place to put our food; crackers, chips, candy, etc. When we found out what it was, we were mortified of course. But, it wasn't a big deal. The bidét was clean and all of our stuff was in packages.

My life in West Germany - Part I

It's all over the news...10th anniversary of the Fall of Communism! Wonderful timing because in my World Geography class, we are just getting into our next unit, Europe. Part of my Europe lesson is what appears to be just telling the kids about my life over there, but I do happen to touch on major concepts & vocabulary from the unit. I do show them actual photos of me in Germany and the places throughout Europe I had the opportunity to travel to while there. I will try to post those photos here as well.
I'm a Cold War kid and lived on this side of the Iron Curtain in West Germany for 7 years of my youth. At the time, of course, I had no idea what it meant and that my day to day existence would become part of history AND that I'd finally come to understand it. I was in Germany from October '75 til summer '82. My father was in the army and he served two tours of duty there back to back plus an extension. When I got there, I was in 4th grade and when I left, I was going into 10th.
My father's first duty station over there was Frankfurt, Germany and my sister & I attended Frankfurt Elem. School #1. The school was an American school and all the children of the servicemen attended it. The housing area was not on a base with fence and gates, it was in the middle of the German community. The baseball field was right outside the window of our apartment and on the other side of the field was the school.
There was a DYA (Dependent Youth Activities) center nearby as well. A DYA is kind of like a YMCA. You can be in sports or take dance or gymnastics classes. My sister and I took ballet. We were also in girl scouts. When family from "the States" came to visit, we'd take them sightseeing.
One of the places we usually took people to was Dacau, a concentration camp. I was too young to realize the significance of it at the time, I was only 9-11 years old. I think we went there 3 times. It was kind of boring to me then. Although now, the magnitude of being on the grounds really affects me. I remember seeing nuns sitting on benches outside the museum part of the camp crying. One time we saw Sammy Davis Jr. and his entourage entering the camp as we were leaving. Someone asked him what he was doing there and tried to get an autograph and he said he was paying his respects. He was not there to be recognized as a celebrity. BTW, for those that don't know, he is Jewish.
After three years in Frankfurt, we could have gone back to the states, but my father had to serve one more tour of duty overseas, so he signed up for another tour in Germany, but it was in Stuttgart. So, we moved to Southern Germany. I was going into 7th grade and entered Boeblingen Juinor High. The military community was on a closed base called Alexander M. Patch Barracks. You could only enter with military I.D. The entire base was fenced. On the base was a clinic, movie theater, bowling alley, gym, liquor store, library, beauty salon, Post Exchange, commissary, football and baseball fields, DYA, Officers Club, pizza & ice cream parlor, barracks for the single soldiers, and housing for the officers. It was mostly an Officer's base, I think. My dad was a specialist in the Russian language which he learned for one year in Ft. Ord, California, prior to us moving overseas. I remember his stacks and stacks of note cards to learn the language, the books, tapes, and him practicing writing. He taught us a few words and showed me how to write my name in Russian. Of course, I was oblivious to how "cold war" all of this was.