Is this woman ever going to teach school?

September 1, 1953

Still no principal.  (In my head, I'm thinking to myself that she may not be too disappointed in this development.)

We went into town this afternoon.  It certainly is a nice little town.  I took my suitcase to have it fixed.  That was really something.  We went to 3 places before I found somebody to do it and nobody spoke English.  But I finally got it done.

Met 2 of the wives and had a Coke.

Practically everyone has a bicycle or motor scooter as I said before.  Most of the motor scooters have two seats.  Lots of the bicycles have a little seat in front of the big one for a child.  We even saw one mother with a child in front and one in back.  They carry everything with them – suitcases, etc.  We even saw a man with a dog on his.  It really is just fascinating.

They also have 3 wheel trucks.  Saw 2 horses pulling one of the wagons with a tremendous beer barrel on it too.

September 2, 1953

We spent most of the day at school working on records.  Found out our principal went home for the summer, and they don’t know when or if he is coming.  The way things stand now I am to have a 1^st grade with 22 students.  There is a colored boy, 1 child who speaks only German, 1 who speaks only Spanish, and 1 who speaks broken English.  They are going to get a dependent to teach the upper grades whom they say is a negro.  It’s going to be great!

So I have to admit that this is the kind of stuff that always made me nervous about my mother.  I know that in her day and time, the terms "colored" and "Negro" were pretty commonly used, but it always made me nervous when she said them out loud.  She was born and raised in the South, in a very different time, and her prejudices and beliefs never changed.  She also tried to pass those prejudices and beliefs on to me and my brothers.  I'm sure it bothered her that I didn't want to be prejudiced against people who didn't look like me, just like it bothered me for her to say "Oh, Marian, what is that colored man doing over there?"  I used to roll my eyes and ask her why she couldn't just refer to him as "that man" or, if she absolutely had to describe him, why not say "that man in the green pants".  We had a lot of arguments about that.

When I was in junior high school in New Jersey, one of the girls in my group of friends was black.  When I wanted to have a slumber party and invite all the girls, my mother wouldn't allow me to invite Jackie for that reason.  That was so awkward and difficult.  It damaged my relationship with Jackie, obviously, and it made me so angry with my mother that she put me in that position.  I was probably too young then to really understand it from her perspective.  As I got older, I understood, although I never accepted it as my own point of view and I never understood why she wouldn't let herself change her own point of view.  She was never unkind or mean to anyone, but she had very rigid social interaction rules that she never let go of.  I can only imagine how this went down over in Germany....

Tonight a couple of the boys took us downtown to dinner to the Wittelsbach Hotel.  They say that that is the place to eat in town.  It was very nice and the food was grand.

September 3, 1953

Stayed at school all day and made preparations for opening of school.  I declare I believe the teacher for the upper grades is a negro. 

Barbara called and said that they weren’t going to be able to go up the Rhine this week-end, but we are going on anyway.  Some girls here told us how grand it is and some places to go.

Went to the movie tonight to see “The Blue Gardenia” [A telephone operator ends up drunk and at the mercy of a cad in his apartment. The next morning she wakes up with a hangover and the terrible fear she may be a murderess.  Raymond Burr was in the movie!].  It was pretty good and only cost 25 cents.

Tomorrow we start on our travels again.

See?  This is how I know she was really only there to travel!  I don't know if this was a thrown together trip since the principal was AWOL or not.  LOL

September 4, 1953

Finally got started fixing our rooms but couldn’t do too much.  The school was spic and span until 2 days ago.  Then the Army engineers decided to come in and do the building over – typical.

Got the train at 7 PM for Cologne – will take all night.

September 5, 1953

Arrived in Cologne at 6 AM – very foggy but then it is in the British zone.  Certainly seemed odd to see British soldiers instead of our boys.

Went into the cathedral (this was the Cologne Cathedral).  It is magnificent.  They have put back a lot of the stained glass windows but not all of them.  They are still rebuilding.  14 bombs fell on the cathedral.  They say that everything around it was leveled, but it survived.  It really is amazing how they have rebuilt, but you can still see the evidences of the bombings.

We went in the Treasure Room at the cathedral.  It is loaded with gems and gold.  Then we climbed the tower – 501 (Wikipedia says it’s 509 steps, but what’s 8 steps at this point? J ) steps straight up.  I thought we would never make it.  Halfway up are the bells.  One weighs 25 tons (actually 24 tons, called St. Peter’s Bell) and is the largest swinging bell I think.  They rang while we were there.  Then we went on up to the top.  The view could be amazing if it were a clear day but it was something anyway.

Then we went to get the steamer down the Rhine to Bad Godesburg.  The fog lifted just before we left.  The trip was just beautiful.  It was just like all the pictures – the tall straight trees, etc.  The Rhine is certainly one of the busiest bodies of water I have ever seen.

You know everywhere you go people bring out their sandwiches and beer.  They usually carry them in a brief case.

So far we haven’t seen any castles, but I think we will tomorrow.

We landed at Bad Godesberg about 3 PM.  We are staying at the Godesberger Hof – a military hotel.  It is really lush – wall to wall carpeting, a private balcony, private bath with heated towel racks.  First private bath since I left Charlotte and the 3^rd bath.  Hitler used to stay in this hotel.  It is right on the Rhine – so was our room.  The dining room overlooks the Rhine too.  It’s really something.

The town is very nice and peaceful.  Most of the people looked more prosperous here than the other places we have been.  It is noted for its nice residential sections.  This afternoon we took the streetcar over to Bonn – the temporary seat of the German Govt.  The elections are tomorrow, so the place was really jumping with campaign speeches, etc.  We went in one booth where they were having some sort of movie – Adenauer’s forces were sponsoring this.  Got another streetcar to see the great building.  It was too late to go in so we just looked.

Tonight we decided to go over to Petersburg for dinner.  It is across the river and on top of one of the “seven hills”.  We could look out of our window and see it.  It used to be the headquarters for the Allied High Command.

Well, the desk clerk told us that it was about a 20 minute walk to the ferry and then we could get a bus up there.  It took us about an hour to walk.  When we finally got across, the bus driver wouldn’t take us for some reason – he couldn’t speak English, so we had to get a taxi (no English).  When we finally got there, we found we didn’t have any marks and they wouldn’t cash a traveler’s check.  So we had to come right back down.  We ate at the Hotel Loreley in Konigswinter.  It was pretty good.  Then we got the ferry back and had the devil’s own time getting a taxi.

Most people say that you run into people everywhere who speak English.  Try going with us sometime!

By the way, they even had our beds turned down for us.

September 6, 1953

We got the steamer about 9:30 this morning.  The trip down the Rhine was beautiful.  The hills come right down to the edge.  Lots of them are cultivated – probably grape vines for the Rhine wines.  Saw several castles – most impressive.  There are little towns all along the river – very quaint and picturesque. 

I got to do this when I was in Germany in the 80's.  We had a lovely trip down a portion of the Rhine and saw all kinds of castles along the way.  When we got to our end point, we took a train back to our car. 

Finally we got to Weisbaden [one of the oldest spa towns in Europe] after taking a bus from the ferry.  The clerk in the billeting office told us that he could put us in the room with two other girls in the Rose Hotel.  When we got there the clerk told us that there wasn’t any one in there.  Well, you just ought to see this room.  To begin with it is tremendous with a high ceiling.  It has two beds – one on each side of the room – and 3 baby beds.  It has hardwood floors, big old furniture, a funny old chandelier and funny big basins.  I think there are to bathe in because we can’t find a tub.  I do believe this hotel was the original one here.  Machs nichs – for $1 a night.

One of the sights all along the Rhine – all the little boys had their hair slicked down with a bobby pin.

September 7, 1953

Have you ever slept on a red and gold mattress?  Well I did last night.  The hotel really must have been magnificent at one time – stained glass windows, marble steps, gold iron work on the stairs, etc.  By the way!  All of the elevators have seats in them.

Got the train to Frankfurt to meet one of the auditors.  We waited from 12 to 3 o’clock at the Carlton.  She has a Renault.  It really is something for 3 people and luggage to ride about 250 miles in one.  My feet nearly froze.  It took us until our usual time to get in – 3AM.  We stopped at Rothenberg – the wall city which the Army engineers asked the Air Force not to bomb so they didn’t.  No new architecture can be used there.  They even have to have a permit to repair something.  It really did look very quaint and attractive in the dark.  Ate dinner at a German restaurant here.  Saw a chimney sweep riding his bicycle down the road with all of his equipment.  He was precious.  He stopped and let me take his picture.  Do hope it turns out.

This actually says that it's a chimney sweep at the school, but close enough!