Readin', Writin', and Football - German style

September 8, 1953

Well, school started today.  I have 24 children and they are cute as can be.  I do believe that the little colored boy is kind of in a daze.  The little boy who speaks only German seems understand some English but the little Puerto Rican doesn’t understand a thing.  It’s going to be most interesting.  He doesn’t even understand my Spanish.  ( I think "interesting" is an understatement.)

I thought we had a lot of records to do at home, but they are nothing compared to this.  You even have to sign hand receipts for everything you get and make many copies of everything.  We have to post a schedule on our door and stick to it.

The supplies are adequate I guess but not like home.  Oh for that Eastover storeroom.  The children come at 9 and stay until 3:30.  We come at 8:40 and stay until 4.  (Such slavedrivers!)

September 9, 1953

Well we stayed until 3:30 today and was it rough.  My little colored boy is really something.  He is just a good old farm negro and doesn’t seem to be very smart.

There is another child in my room who is most peculiar.  They say “he doesn’t have all his cups in his cupboard”.  I believe it, or else he is deaf.  He also still talks baby talk.

We had our first PTA meeting tonight.  Everyone was very friendly and nice.  We had refreshments which were grand – coffee, cakes and cream puffs.

We ordered lunch from the snack bar today and it was a mess.  Nothing was right.  Now I think they are going to get a cook for the school which will be grand – hot lunches for a quarter!

September 10, 1953

Well, I got up this morning and put on a cotton dress because it was so hot yesterday.  Went down to breakfast and found out it was raining.  So changed to skirt and sweater.  It’s a good thing too, because it turned cold.  This is the first bad weather we have had, and it certainly was messy.  It sho was rough in school too.  Had to walk to school in the rain.  (It could have been walking in a foot of snow!)

We played hockey and ping pong with a couple of the bachelors tonight.  It’s something different because practically all of them are married.  (I knew she was over there looking for a man - LOL!)

September 11, 1953

Well it finally got cold today, and they turned the heat on.  It feels pretty good too.

We went to the EES beauty parlor today and had our hair cut for 40 cents.  I think she did a very nice job.  You know they have a woman barber too.

September 12, 1953

Had a ride up to Nurnberg with Jack Jernigan this morning.  In a little town not far from here we saw a stork’s nest, the only one in Bavaria.

George, somebody whom Barbara had been asked to date, took us to the game.  It was pretty good.  We won 34-0.

We saw what is now Soldier’s Field (was the Nazi Party rally grounds; the Nurnberg American HS used it for high school football and soccer from 1947 – 1955).  This is where all of the pictures of Hitler haranguing the storm troopers were made.  We also saw the Coliseum (actually was supposed to be the world’s largest stadium, modeled after Circus Maximus inRome and would have had 400,000 seats) – was to be the capitol of the world but was never finished.  We came in on the 8 lane highway that Hitler built to march the big 3 down before hanging them.  Then we went to a charming little wine cellar.  After that we ate at the Four Seasons – a very nice restaurant on the top of a building.  After dinner we went to a most fascinating and tiny beer place.  It is the Greenwich Village type – more stuff around.

I stayed in the dormitory with Mary Jane Little.

Saw Germany’s skyscraper – 14 stories high.  It’s not even finished and they are going to have to take off the top 2 floors.  They are building several modern buildings in Nuremberg.

September 13, 1953

On the way to church this morning we saw where the Nuremberg trials were held.  We went to St. Lawrence – a Lutheran church.  The service was in German, and we had to stand up.  I didn’t understand a thing except and’s and the’s.  This was a beautiful place and was terribly bombed.  Right outside is the Virtuo Fountain – water squirts out of the most peculiar places – the women’s bosoms.

Then we went down to St. Martha’s and found out that there was a service in English there.  The meister singers used to sing here.

Then we ate at a German restaurant not far from the church – very good.  After lunch we toured the old city – walled city.  It was built about 1200 or 1300.  It is simply amazing how old things are here.  (The old city was used as an ammunition depot and was really blown up.  This is the most I have seen yet.  It must have been terrible.)

We saw Hans Sachs’ house.  He wrote for the meister singers.  We also went to the castle.

          We saw many other things along the way.  It was most interesting but boy! were we tired.  I do believe that I am going to be forced to get some of those thick soled German shoes to wear on the cobblestones.  You know I feel as if I have walked over the whole of Germany already.  You really do walk here.  (You still do.  Every time I have visited Europe there is always a tremendous amount of walking.  I always feel like I get more exercise in Europe than at home!)

When we got back to Barbara’s, I called Dink and John Ware.  They came by for a few minutes.  It sho’ was good to see them.

Nuremberg is a most interesting place and we didn’t even make a dent in the places to see and things to do.  I’m going to have to go back soon.

September 14, 1953

Another horrible Monday.  Besides the road outside my window is the one to the ammunition dump and it was in constant use today.  The boys are getting ready to go out in the field for awhile.

We found out that our principal is finally on his way.  He sailed last Wednesday.  Also we are getting an extra teacher in the upper grades.

We are to have a cook of our own starting Oct. 1 and the menus look pretty good.  It sho’ will be nice.

Played bridge tonight for the first time with a couple of the boys and one of the auditors.

September 15, 1953

Well, most of the boys are out in the field for the rest of the week.  It’s kind of quiet around here.

Four of us played bridge tonight.  I lost.

Nothing new.

September 17, 1953

We finally found the golf course today.  Went out this afternoon for about an hour and practiced driving.  Since the German pro has just quit the boys on duty there said that they would teach us.

The course seems to be entirely flat – around the landing strip, but I’m sure it will do for us.

It is 25 cents to rent a set of clubs, 40 cents for green fee and 1 mark for a caddy.  Pretty cheap!

September 18, 1953

Friday, thank goodness.

We went downtown after school this afternoon to look for an evening dress for Hilde.  They were most peculiar looking.

Then tonight some of the boys took us to Mary and Al’s for goulash and dancing.  The goulash was very good, but I thought we would never come home.

Tomorrow is the big game!

Had a pep rally tonight which we didn’t get to.

September 19, 1953

Well, we won the game – 27-6.  Unicorns vs. 18^th Field Artillery.  They really put on a show, and we thoroughly enjoyed it.  ‘Course we got in the reserved section, and not only that but we sat in the place reserved for the wheels – purely through ignorance.

           First there was a buffet lunch which was very good.

Tonight there was a dance at the club, and I went with Dan Daniels, one of the players on the other team.  We really had a wonderful time.  The dance was grand – just like one of the Spinster’s dances!  (Spinster's dances?  I wonder what those were.)

This post is really most fascinating.  Even the architecture is different and interesting.  It is German architecture and the whole Kaserne is very pretty.

September 20, 1953

Went to church here on the post today.  The chaplain is on leave, so we had a Lutheran minister from Munich – German.  I didn’t get too much out of the sermon because I couldn’t understand him.  (Damn that foreign language....)

John Fulton insisted that I have a lesson in pool this afternoon.  I’m not a very good student.

Tonight we went to the movie with a boy from Alabama.  (I'm sure she enjoyed talking Southern with someone and actually understanding what he said.)

My mother was a huge sports fan.  And clearly that dates back to at least her young adult years.  She went to armed forces football games while she was in Germany and, while it’s not clear whether she went because she loved sports or because it was a social event and reason for a party, it was a big part of her life there.

She was a North Carolina Tarheels fan first and foremost.  She didn’t actually go to UNC – she went to what was then called “Women’s College” or “WC” – but Carolina was her school.  WC later became UNC-Greensboro.  As I remember it, in the days when my mother went to college, women didn’t go to Chapel Hill, or at least they didn’t the first couple years.  WC was essentially the women’s division of the University of North Carolina, so that was where her loyalty lay.

When she married my father, she made him promise to go back to college and complete his degree.  My father had joined the Navy out of high school.  When his Navy service was up, he returned to his hometown of Mt. Pleasant, Michigan and went to the hometown college, Central Michigan University.  He only went for about a year and a half, so my mother was intent on him getting a degree.  He was able to get in to UNC, so the love of the Tarheels was a shared love for them.

UNC basketball was my mother’s first, and greatest, sports love, but she was also an avid football and baseball fan.  But she would watch almost anything.  She watched pro and college sports and, of course, supported her children in the sports we participated in.  She didn’t care for race car driving, golf or tennis and I don’t remember her being particularly enamored with hockey, but the good news was that with football, basketball and baseball, she had most of the year covered.

As a Carolina fan, she also leaned towards the ACC in her sports loyalties, with the exception of Carolina’s biggest rival, Duke.  She could never pull for Duke.  I remember asking her once, when Duke was in the college basketball national championship game, if she would pull for them.  Her response?  “I always want the ACC to win, but I can’t pull for Duke.”  I could relate to that when faced with a similar situation when Florida played for the national championship.

Since I was the first child off to college, she learned to love and support the University of Georgia.  Since Georgia was an SEC school, the two schools rarely played each other, which, I think, made it easier for her.  I do remember one year when Georgia and Carolina played each other in the men’s basketball tournament.  Carolina was, as always, a powerhouse, Georgia just an upstart team.  But, as the fates would have it, they met in a regional matchup.  I was watching the game in Columbus, Ohio, where I was living at the time.  It was an exciting, close game, but towards the end Georgia began to pull away.  With just a minute or so left, it was apparent that Georgia was going to pull a stunning upset.  I was on the floor, cheering on the Bulldogs, when inexplicably my phone rang.  This was in the days before caller ID or answering machines, so I answered.  And my mother said “well, looks like Georgia’s gonna beat Carolina” in a most exasperated tone.  I could hardly believe it.  The game wasn’t over.  I wasn’t going to have the chance to bask in the glory of victory because now I had to talk to my mother about it.  Unbelievable.  I remember saying “Mother, the game isn’t over” and her responding in a tone that told me she was a little annoyed, both at me and at the Tarheels, “well, it might as well be.”  I think though, if anyone was going to beat Carolina, she was at least a little glad it was us.

She did that again once.  Back in those days, there were no sports channels on TV, so televised games were very regionally focused, and there was no internet to keep up with your team.  I was still living in Ohio and it was the weekend of the Georgia-Florida game, Georgia’s biggest game and biggest rival.  I had the TV on to some boring Big 10 game just so I could keep track of the score.  I remember seeing an end of 3^rd quarter score and Georgia was leading by a pretty comfortable margin.  Not too long after that, my phone rang.  It was my mother.  “Georgia beat Florida”, she said triumphantly.  I recall saying “really, the game’s over?  I just saw a 3^rd quarter score.”  The score she gave me was the same one that I had seen.  Then I heard my father say, in the background, “Mother, it’s just the end of the 3^rd quarter.”  And my mother laughed.  “Oh, Daddy says it’s the end of the 3^rd quarter.  Well, I thought the game was over.”  And we had a good laugh.  Georgia did win, by the way.  Very handily.  As it was meant to be.

She was also a huge Braves fan.  She watched every game.  I think, at times, she thought the Braves ought to win every game.  She had her favorites, as well as those she put in the doghouse.  Rarely did a player that had aroused her disfavor turn that around.  One exception was Dale Murphy.  I think originally he was in the wrong position and so didn’t play well.  When he was moved to the outfield and became a star, she was a fan.  She had odd reasons for why she sometimes didn’t like players.  Maybe their name or nickname, or whether they had facial hair, or if they chewed tobacco.  She despised Bob Horner, although now I don’t remember why.  I remember her sitting in her chair with her little foam tomahawk doing the tomahawk chop when the Braves scored or otherwise did well.

When the Braves started winning, I remember thinking that her loyalty had paid off.  She was beyond pleased, but of course that’s also when she became hypercritical of everything they did.  Any flaw or mistake infuriated her.  So in 1994 when baseball went on strike, my mother was furious with anyone who was involved with that.  She spewed her venom most on Tom Glavine, who was the union rep for the Braves then.  To be fair, a lot of people in Atlanta did as well.  He was the public face of the union to Braves fans and many showed their displeasure with him, for years afterwards.  Mother also was not a fan of David Justice, although she had been at one time.  I don’t remember either why she disliked him so much, but she did.  I think the hardest thing ever for her was the fact that the year the Braves won the World Series, the two heroes of the night were Tom Glavine and David Justice.  I don’t think she ever forgave either one of them and it tainted the memory of that victory forever for her.

It was hard to watch sports with her sometimes because she was always so critical and often the subtleties of the game were lost on her.  She was a pretty straightforward person and when the game wasn’t as straightforward, she’d get mad.  We would argue over a call or a play more times than I can count.  But I credit her with letting me know it was ok for girls to like sports and support teams.  I learned a lot about sports, not as much from her as from my father and brothers, and I was able to stay in a conversation when sports came up as a topic.  I have always been as passionate about my teams as she was about hers and I’m grateful to her that she gave me her permission, by example, to love them and support them fully.