"I saw the haggiest looking hag...."

October 17, 1953

Went to Regensburg this morning sightseeing.  R. is about the oldest town in Bavaria – 100 B.C.  It was Roman at first.

Went to St. Peter’s Cathedral – oldest in Bavaria (I believe this is also what’s referred to as the Regensburg Cathedral).  Some parts date back to 1100.  The stained glass windows over the main altar were done in 1400.  Very beautiful on the outside – 2 openwork spires.

Went to the Rathaus but it was closed as was the Museum and the Princes’ Palace (probably the Palace of Thurn and Taxis, which also has 2 museums).  Wandered around and the town was fascinating.  Bought 2 pictures – Hummel pictures – very cute.  [Mother was an absolute NUT about Hummels.  She brought back several and, when I went to Germany, she gave me money to buy even more!]

Ate lunch at Hotel National – very nice, good food, and grand people.

October 18, 1953

Went to church here and then to the game – Unicorns vs. Munich Broncos.  We won 49-0.  Those boys can really “motor”.  It was an exciting game although the score didn’t indicate it.  The Broncos weren’t very good sports and we almost had some fireworks a couple times.  [Must have been like those Dookies!  LOL]

         Went to the movie tonight per usual – “Pick Up on South Street” (A pickpocket unwittingly lifts a message destined for enemy agents and becomes a target for a Communist spy ring.  Stars Richard Widmark, Jean Peters and Thelma Ritter).

October 26, 1953

Friday afternoon we caught the train to Heidelberg and got there about 1 o’clock.  The billeting office didn’t have but 2 singles in different hotels so we stayed in a pension – Hans Jagerman Pension.  The bed didn’t have a mattress – just three pillows.  Also it didn’t have a shower or bath tub.  I don’t see how these Germans stand it. [I don't know how Mother stood it.  I would have probably pitched a major fit if I didn't have a mattress, shower or bath tub.  I sure do hope they at least were able to take a whore's bath the next day.  Can you imagine how stinky they would have been??] 

Saturday morning we got up and met Barbara, Muriel and Ann.  After breakfast we went shopping.  Bought my Christmas cards, a pin, and a candle snuffer.  Then we went on a sightseeing tour.  Went to the University (of Heidelberg, founded in 1386) and the castle (Heidelberg Castle).  Saw the Church of the Holy Ghost (actually it’s the Church of the Holy Spirit) too.  It was the 1^st Protestant church here.  It used to be divided by a wall – half Catholic and half Protestant.  There are also stores built into the church all around the outside.

That night we went to the Rot Oche (Red Ox).  ‘Course there were no students there because the Univ. is not in session.  It was full of Americans.  We were told that we could get a good meal there but they had quit serving by the time we got there.  So we ordered sandwiches.  I got 3 slices of Swiss cheese and 3 slices of bread and butter.  First time I have ever ordered a sandwich and had to make my own!

There was a whole gang of us at our table and we sang all the songs we knew.  Well, were called down several times for making too much noise.  Of all things to happen in the Red Ox because I had always heard how rowdy it is.  Macht nichts (roughly translates to “whatever”), we had fun.  [Sounds like the beginnings of Mother's quest to hit every bar and gasthaus in Europe!]

Sunday morning we went to the Victoria to eat and ran into Julia Fowler and Evelyn Palmer.  I had forgotten they were there.  Then we went up to the Civilian Club for dinner.  It was way up on the hill and had a beautiful view.  The food was grand.  I don’t see how people travel over here as tourists.  I couldn’t stand eating only German food day in and day out.  [LOL - that's part of the charm of traveling, eating local food!  Clearly she was looking for an American adventure in foreign lands....]

Then we got the train back Sunday afternoon.  When we changed in Wurzberg we got in a compartment with the haggiest looking hag.  [Oh my!  That was pretty mean, Mother!]  Another woman got on too.  Then they started talking to us.  You should have seen that because they were speaking German and we were speaking English, but they got out their German to English book.  Usually it’s the other way around.  We found out that the hag is a teacher in Regensburg and the other lives in the Russian zone of Vienna but works in the American zone.  Then they admired my clothes and my raincoat kit.  This took about 4 hours.  [4 hours to admire her clothes and raincoat kit?!?]

Then tonight we had some hot games of doubles in ping pong with Capt. Rainey, Bob LaFord and Jim Ashworth.  Played until 2300!  Sho’ was fun.

Most of the time we ride 3^rd class and that is when we meet all the Germans who can’t speak English!  [Um, duh, Mother, you're in Germany - what do you think they'd speak? ;-)]  Our conversations are really something!

October 27, 1953

Our principal finally came – Bernie Huntley. So far he seems very nice.

Gen. Garbin is here. It is top secret but he is going up to the border boar hunting.  I am determined to go to Egypt Christmas even if I have to go by myself.

October 29, 1953

Spent the night in town with Pat Clark. Played bridge at Juanita Irwin’s with Valloy Butler.

         Tonight was the Halloween party at school. Went off pretty well. [I found this interesting, because it's my understanding that they don't celebrate Halloween in Europe the way we do in the States. But I guess since it was an American base, you still celebrate the American holidays.  Maybe Mother dressed up as a teacher.]

Going to Nurnberg to see Dink tomorrow.

November 1, 1953

Today was the day that the boys could put on civies, and you should have seen them – especially in Nurnberg.

Went up to Nurnberg yesterday morning on the Zug. Barbara and Muriel met me and we went shopping. I got a cup and saucer that are Musser in an antique shop down near the old city. We also saw the figures come out on the front of one of the churches at 1200. They bowed to the king. [I saw something similar to this when I was in Madrid.  It was at a hotel and was essentially a clock.  Everyone stopped to watch.  It was amazing!]

Then I met Dink and John. We went to the game (we won the conference), and then came home and had dinner. Then we went to a party at the Montieth Club. Afterwards we came home, drank coffee, and talked until the wee hours.

This morning we came down in our pj’s and had breakfast – the first time since leaving home. Went to the Kalb Club for dinner. Then went home and sat around and chatted. Then caught the train back tonight with Alice. That was the roughest ride I have ever had!

Had a grand time. It sho’ was good to talk to somebody who talked like I do and could talk about the same things and people.

They had 3 of the cutest children. I loved playing with them. 

November 2, 1953

Went to the stage show at the theater tonight. A couple of things in it were fair. The people were all English and they certainly sound funny. But it was fun!

November 3, 1953

Took my children over to the air section this morning. Had a grand time climbing all over the helicopter and one of the planes.

Had PTA tonight. Afterwards Pat Clark, Juanita Irwin, and Alice Tiley came over and we played bridge.

This was a cold, rainy day. I wonder if this is the beginning of the bad weather.

November 8, 1953

Finally got a flu shot yesterday morning. It pays to know the nurse because they are only authorized to give it to the troops.

Yesterday afternoon Margo, Hilde and I went downtown. We just kind of window shopped and went into a couple of the churches here. They are very ornate and done all in gold. Then we went to see Springfield Rifle with Gary Cooper (Major Lex Kearny becomes the North’s first counterespionage agent as he tries to discover what’s behind the theft of Union cavalry horses in Colorado during the Civil War.) in German. ‘Course we didn’t even get the story. It looked kind of complicated.

Last night the Battalion had a dinner. Went with Bill Shaffer. Then there was an informal dance afterwards. We had a real grand time. After the dance a whole bunch of us went into town to some of the night spots. One of the places we went to was the Café-Hagen. We thought it was very nice until some German who was drunk came over and joined us – I thought they were going to have a fight especially after he threw wine on Bill and then threw another glass on the floor and started insulting Capt. LaFond. As they say, they are still Nazis at heart. A fine time was had by all. There has been a man here this week doing caricatures. He is an Italian. The pictures are wonderful. Got mine today.

November 10, 1953

Well, my camera finally came today. It sho’ does look complicated. I wonder if I’ll ever be able to work it.  [She obviously did, because she took an incredible number of pictures the rest of the time she was over there.]

Tomorrow is Armistice Day, so we get a holiday. We are going up to the border if it doesn’t snow.

It really does look like winter has set in for good – no sun.

November 12, 1953

Yesterday Margo – the nurse, Mary – the librarian, Hilde and I went up to the border. The fog was horrible all the way up and most of the way back. Once on top of the mountain we hit a beautiful stretch – the sky was blue and the sun was out. The border camp is at Regen. We picked up Sgt. Moore (Daddy? First mention of him in her diary.) here who took us on up to Eisenstein. [George said no, this was not Daddy, that he had a document that showed Daddy was an officer when he went over to Germany.  So poo.  It would have made a better story if that had not been the case.]  We went to the Bahnhof. There is a fence that runs right through the middle of it. Also there is a barrier across the tracks. The trains come in on the German side and there are people around, but there is not a lot of activity on the Czech side. All of the houses over there are empty too. Their part of the Bahnhof has a red star on top. It certainly did seem queer. You can see the fence all along the border. But we didn’t see any Red soldiers.

Then we went to the Arbersee (lake in Bayerischer Wald, Bavaria) on the way back. That is a beautiful lake near Eisenstein.

Then we went to Zwiesel (located in the Bavarian Forest) to the crystal factory. One was already closed and they had stopped blowing in the other.  The second one was packing glasses for the States.  They looked very familiar – like Woolworth things. Then we went to a brewery.  I never knew before that they cooked beer, but I do now, and it smelled horrible.  Then we went to the cellar where they cool it and age it in tremendous barrels.  And guess what!  We walked around in beer.  Have never done that before, but it was all over the floor.  [I went with my friend Dorris to the Red Hook Brewery when we were in Seattle several years ago.  We took the tour and thankfully did not have to walk around in beer.  But I do remember our tour guide telling us each of the stations we would stop at to see how they made beer and that "then we'll have a beer!"  Quite a fun trip.  I remember at one stop, she looked at me and said "you just wanna have a beer, don't you?" ;-) ]

Thank goodness Sgt. Moore speaks German like a native (this makes me laugh for some reason).

Then we went back to the border camp.  It really has rolls of barbed wire all around it.  We went into the mess hall for coffee and cookies.  That place was most fascinating too.

Then last night after the movie Ray Roth, Hilde, Art LaFond and I went to town.  Went to the Prince Al Farse and then to the Mariandel.  Had a grand time.

Sky (Art) wants to take us back up to the border Sunday.

This morning we had a EUCOM alert and everybody moved out except us. [You forget sometimes that this wasn't even 10 years post-WWII and that it was still kind of a scary time over in Europe and how close they were to the Iron Curtain.]

November 13, 1953

Went to the movie – Hans Christian Andersen (with Danny Kaye as Hans Christian Andersen) with Bill Shaffer.  Then we had to go downtown to answer roll call only nobody was there.  Went to the Mariandel a couple of times, the Prince Al Farse and the Weinstube.  He also took me to see the Donau and the Alte Donan for the first time in Straubing.

November 14, 1953

Yesterday Bill Shaffer, Byron Whiteside, and I went downtown shopping.  Then last night we all had to go in for roll call.  The place was really jumping.  Then this morning Jackie, Ray Roth, Hilde and I went up to the border again.  ‘Twas very foggy.  Went on up to the ski lift but it was rainy.  I drove part of the way home – first time since I left home.

         We all went to the movie tonight and then played some hot ping pong games.  [This also makes me laugh.  "Hot" ping pong?]

This is such a small place that when you go to town you see everyone you know.

November 15, 1953

Had to make roll call again tonight.  The town wasn’t too gay, but the ones we were with were!

November 16, 1953

Today was a beautiful sunny day all day.  This was the first pretty sunny day in about two or three weeks.

November 18, 1953

Guess what!  They had a scare up on the border yesterday right where our troops go – Rogen.  The Czech brought up 15 tanks right to the line so we sent ours out too.  This is very hush, hush.  I don’t know how many people know it even here. [I really think they should have been careful with how much information they allowed Mother to know.  She really was quite gossipy.]

When we went to school this morning there were a bunch of vehicles parked in front.  They moved out about 1100.  I don’t know whether the incident yesterday had anything to do with it or not.

November 23, 1953

This weekend was really a big one.  We played the 28^th Division here and lost 31-6.  It all started off with “crying hour” Friday afternoon.  [I'm dying to know what the "crying hour" is.  Is it the same as "happy hour"?]  Then we went to the dance here.  I went with Bill Shaffer.  Afterwards we had to go into town for “roll call”.  Then Saturday we had a buffet luncheon and went to the game.  We went with the C Co. officers.  All of the boys had to wear their yellow scarves.  That night there was a big dance too – went with Jim Ashworth.  Naturally we had to make “roll call”.  [I'm thinking that "roll call" might be code for "party our asses off".]

Sunday a bunch of us took Byron Whitesides back up to Vilseck – the Tank Training School.  Had dinner at the Officer’s Club there and then came on back through Cham – border camp for 3^rd Battalion.

You see there are 6 of us who live here – Hilde, Margo-the nurse, me and the 3 service club girls.  They don’t associate with us, so the 3 of us and the married and unmarried bachelors really have a grand time.  [That Mother - she was a wild and crazy gal! ;-) ]

Today we found out that we have reservations for Egypt for Christmas.