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.