March 10, 1954

Friday night Willie and I went to Nuremberg.  I stayed with Barbara.  When we got there the Boswell’s, friends of Willie’s, had a bottle of champagne.  Then Saturday we went shopping in the PX.  Saturday afternoon Willie and I wandered around downtown and I bought some pewter down in old Nuremberg.  We also wandered through Woolworth’s – just like home – records and everything, except that it was all in German.  We ate dinner at the hotel and then went to the dance there.

St. Lawrence Church, Nuremberg

Sunday we had dinner at Der Munsterstinger’s and then sat in the bar at the hotel and chatted.  We almost had to stay in Regensberg because of train connections.

         Last night we went down to Sara and Ken’s and Doc fixed us chop suey.  Certainly was good!

Went downtown today and made like real Germans – ate wurst and sauerkraut at a gasthaus.

March 20, 1954

One night last week, Bob Walker, Willie and I took Pat Allen down to make roll call – Mariandal and Prince Alfonse – really had a ball.

The infamous Mariandal in Straubing

         [Ok, so the infamous Mariandal, which I am assuming was some kind of place to hang out and party, reminds me of the B&L Warehouse in Athens.  Nothing special looking on the outside, but the B&L was party central when I was a freshman in college.]

Last Friday Col. Wilson had a promotion party here.  It was really some party – costs $100.  Then we went on down to the Mariandal.  There we ran into Max and Gus, our bartenders, so we went down and opened up Max’s gast haus.

Barbara came down Saturday afternoon.  We just messed around here and that night Willie and Paul took us to the “Hard Times” party.  That was some party.  Afterwards we had to take Barbara down to make roll call.

Party time at the Officers Club Bar

We messed around Sunday.  I got a cable telling me that I have a new nephew (must be Jimmy Wade).

Wednesday night there was the Shamrock Cocktail party – St. Patrick’s Day.  Afterwards we made the rounds downtown.

“Parties make the world go ‘round….!”  [And there it is.  I wonder if my party loving mother could have ever imagined that she would raise a bunch of party loving children!]

March 22, 1954

Saturday night Willie, Bob Walker and I went down to the Mariandal for supper.  Then we came back here.  The orchestra was here and very few people.

Yesterday afternoon Flo and Bob Wofford and I went to Wahalla – near Regensburg.  It is the Hall of Fame for Bavaria.  It is very pretty with busts of famous people – Bach, etc.  Right now I can’t think of any more except a big statue of Ludwig, who built it.

Walhalla in Regensberg

Last night Willie asked me to go to the movies!  Miracles will never cease!  [It's kind of fun to know that she got all giddy and stuff when Daddy asked her out.]

April 4, 1954

Last Saturday was the spring formal.  Beforehand was a battalion dinner.  I went with Willie and had a grand time.  Afterwards we went down for roll call – from Lt. to Col. And dress blues to tails.

Sunday a gang of us went bowling and that night Willie and I went to the movie.  Then Monday night we went to see the play “The Moon is Blue”.  It wasn’t so hot. 

         Afterwards I typed a court martial for Willie.  [I am assuming that this was a court martial that Daddy was going to give and not his own court martial!  Of course, I'd like to think she wouldn't have been so calm if it had been the latter - LOL.]

Tuesday Battalion left for Grafenwohr for two weeks of firing.  Monday Regiment goes out for a week on CPX.  This place is really going to be dead.  [Poor Mother.  No boyfriend.  ;-( ]

One night I gave Pat Allen a Toni.  Bob cut off what we couldn’t curl – shades of home!

Last night Maj. Pettigrew had a promotion party!  Need I say more!

The Officers Club - in the calm before the party started

April 6, 1954

Saturday afternoon took Peggy Allen to the kiddie show – Tarzan.  (Pat was sick.)

        That night about eight of us went to the dance.  A new pilot, Jim Bray, came in.  He is a friend of Phil and Joe Haller’s.  We went down to their house later.

Then Sunday afternoon a bunch of us played bridge.  Then we went to the zoo downtown.

April 12, 1954

Thursday night Pat Allen and I went down to Flo Wofford’s for pork chops, turnip greens and black eyed peas and cornbread.  Sho’ was good.

Flo Wofford and Pat Allen

Pat, Don, and Peggy Allen

Friday afternoon AB Quinn and I played my first game of golf.  Saturday afternoon we went shopping.

Mother's caddy

Saturday night Pat and I spent the night with Pat Leighton.  We sat around and chatted and played records.  Then Sunday we finally got dressed about 3:30.  We came out here and Pat Allen won the free drinks.  We had a party! [Oh my, what a shocker!]

Battalion comes in today!

Valentine's Day

It’s almost Valentine’s Day.  I have very mixed feelings about Valentine’s Day.  I haven’t celebrated it often.  And when I did, I often felt like I had to nudge and make it happen.  I’ve gotten Valentine’s Day flowers from someone I dated once, which felt odd.  It was kind of too much.  And I've had to force someone to do something for me and that didn't feel too good either.  I don’t really care that much about the flowers and candy and romantic dinner expectations that many women have for Valentine’s.  I think for me, it really revolved around the fact that there was someone that I could call a “Valentine”, that I had a relationship.  Mostly because I had so few.  And again this year, there will be no relationship on Valentine’s Day.  Now, don’t feel sad for me.  I accept my status as it is.  But because Valentine’s Day is seen as a celebration of love and relationships, it always makes me think about how that has played out in my life and then how it played out in my mother’s.

I heard a bit on the radio recently about love at first sight.  I didn’t hear the whole thing or what prompted it, but it made me think about my experiences in the world of relationships and what my mother’s may have been.

I don’t know if it was “love at first sight” for Mother regarding Daddy.  It appears that she still had other dates in the beginning, but it quickly seemed to become a more exclusive relationship, even though she neglected to give us the real scoop.  At one point she mentions wishing Daddy was around so that Louie would leave her alone!  And she traveled with him toward the end of her time there.  There was even a reference, after they returned from a trip, as to speculation that they might have gotten married.

She evidently did not share details about Daddy with her family.  And she didn’t share much with us about their courtship.

As I reflect back, I did not talk to my mother about boys or dating.  Whenever anything remotely similar came up, she always gave me very black and white absolutes, like “you don’t have sex until you’re married” and “you don’t go over to a boy’s house”, even as an adult.  And of course, she didn’t want me moving out or getting furniture before I got married.  Not really what I was looking for, so I very quickly decided she wasn't the right venue for those kinds of conversations.

Boys were always very confusing to me.  And, even at a young age, I was not the girl most boys wanted to be with.  The boys I liked, even as an adult, were always cute and popular. I mean, for crying out loud, I wanted to be cute and popular too, so why not go for the cute, popular boys?  Unfortunately, since I was not cute and popular, they kept on going.

I have no idea if Mother dated much.  My aunts said she mostly went out in large mixed groups.  She always looked, in her younger years, a little scruffy, like she didn’t wear makeup or care much about clothes and hairstyles, which also carried over into her mother years.  Those things were always very important to me, however, so the fact that she wanted me to not worry about them or resisted (or outlawed) my attempts to be more modern or up-to-date made me both stubborn and less inclined to ask for her opinion on matters of the heart.

I’ve always been kind of socially awkward, especially around boys and men.  I didn’t read signals well and my internal antenna about men seemed to be broken off.  I had my first date when I was 16 and it went so poorly that I didn’t have another one until college.  In high school, I had heard that a boy wanted to invite me to the prom one year – may or may not have been true – but I discouraged it because he didn’t meet my standards.

Standards.  Ah, having standards.  I did have an idea in my head of the perfect guy.  I wanted him to be good-looking, be athletic, be intelligent.  I was kind of shallow with respect to my standards.  But I knew what I wanted and what I didn’t want – and I didn’t want to date a guy that wasn’t cute or didn’t have a good body or who wasn’t popular.  I had a friend in college who told me that I set my standards too high.  A euphemism, I’m pretty sure, for “there’s no way in hell that you can get a guy like that, so you might as well lower your standards for the leftovers”.  But that wasn’t what I wanted.  Sometimes I did settle for the leftovers, because I wanted a date or because it was a blind date, but that was all it was.  In most cases, I would never have given a guy like that a chance.  Because I think I really wanted to prove to this friend, and to others, that I could get that cute, popular guy with the athletic build.

I wish I had known how my mother felt about boys and men.  Did she have the same insecurities?  Did she want someone she couldn’t have, or was told she couldn’t have?  Since I don’t really know anyone else she dated besides Daddy, that’s all I have to compare to.

Interestingly Daddy wouldn’t have fit my ideal either.  He was skinny and had a big nose and he looks kind of goofy in some of the pictures we have of him from back then.  He was not well-educated when Mother met him.  He had spent some time in the Navy after high school, then went to college and flunked out or nearly flunked out, and joined the Army.  Daddy was a good storyteller, so I’m guessing he was back then too.  And he liked to laugh and joke around.  So he was probably a fun date.  And he was a nice, considerate man.  He treated people respectfully and people really liked him. So he probably was like that back then too.  And Mother would have liked that.  A nice man who treated her respectfully and was fun to be with.  And maybe she was more self-aware than I was in my 20’s or maybe she just was open to possibilities.  But she found a diamond in the rough.

Mother did tell me that she told Daddy he would have to go back to school after they were married.  And he did.  And after he graduated he went to work for Southern Bell, where he remained until he died.  He was a good provider and a good husband and father.  He was someone that people always liked, because he was nice and kind and considerate and liked to talk and listen.  And he always loved my mother, no matter what.  I remember having a conversation with him – I’ve forgotten the context or why we were talking about this – but what I was left with was the fact that he loved who my mother was inside, not only the outside.  And, in fact, the outside didn’t matter.  He just accepted her for who she was.  I didn’t appreciate it then, but now I realize what a gift that was.  To be loved and accepted no matter what. 

I wonder, if I had talked to my mother more about her relationship experiences, would I have made different choices.  As a young adult, I always went for the “bad boy”.  And, I have to admit, I did date men that fit my “standards”, and they usually ended up not being worth it.  I married someone that seemed, in some respects, to be kind of like my dad.  Someone who had not gone the traditional college route right out of high school and had taken some twists and turns in life.  But it turned out he really wasn’t like my father at all.  Most importantly, he didn’t accept me for who I was.  He wanted the outside package.  And when the outside package didn’t match his expectations, he mistreated me. 

Since that marriage ended, I haven’t stepped out much into the relationship arena.  The one time I did left me feeling like I really hadn’t learned anything at all.  When it was all over, I just felt empty.  I realize now that I have never met my “soul mate”, I’ve never found the person that I could be with comfortably for the rest of my life.  In many ways that makes me sad.  I wonder if it would make my mother sad.  Because I do think she wanted me to have what she did – a husband who truly loved me and a family.

My parents didn’t really celebrate Valentine’s Day.  My father died on February 5, so on Valentine’s Day I took my mother some flowers.  And when she saw them, she cried a little.  They never needed a day to say “I love you” or “You mean everything to me”, because they lived it every day.  And, I have to say, I’m a little envious, not only on Valentine’s Day, but every day.

Happy Valentine’s Day, Willie and Marion Moore.

Postcard from Lisboa (Lisbon)

To Mocha, Granddaddy, and Amelia Ann:  Lisbon is a beautiful city.  The sun has been out, and all of the buildings are different colors.  We have thoroughly enjoyed.  Here the people look and act like people, and they treat us like people.  We celebrated New Year's Eve with some of their excellent wine.  Tomorrow we go to Madrid and the next day Stuttgart.  It's been grand.  Marion

And this begs the question - if they weren't treated like people before, just what were they treated like?  Aliens?  Animals?  Plants?  Inquiring minds want to know!

Back on the ranch in Straubing

February 2, 1954

Well, we’re back.  No snow, but it’s mighty cold – somewhere between 0° and 5°.  The hairs in your nose even freeze.

Saturday night we went to the Casa Carioca – 75 cents cover charge.  It’s run by the army too.  It’s a very nice night club.  We had dinner and then watched the ice show – “Hello Again”.  Parts from different venues.  ‘Twas very good.

Sunday afternoon we went on an army tour to Oberammergau where we saw the Passion Play theater – open air.  The play is produced every 10 years since 1633.  The entire cast is taken from the village – no outsiders.  One performance lasts 7 hours with 2 hours for lunch.  The play is about Holy Week – Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday.  All natural – no makeup, mikes, etc.  Saw some of the many costumes too.

Oberammergau

Then went to Linderhof – one of Ludwig’s castles.  Smallest but only one completed.  Very ornate inside.

Linderhof Castle mirror room

Ettal Monastery – built in 1330 by Ludwig.  Brewery is behind it.  The original burned in 1770’s and has been rebuilt on original foundations.

 

Ettal Monastery near Linderhof

February 8, 1954

Well it’s snowing again, and it’s really snowing.

Last Friday Louie Ande and I went to see Moulin Rouge.  I was kind of disappointed.  Then later Willie and I went down to a Fasching party the policemen had.  It was really something.  [Wow, what a wild woman!  Sounds like she had two dates in one night!  That hussy.  ;-) ]

Saturday night I went with Willie to the 1^st battalion dinner party and then to the dance.  They really were grand.  Afterwards a gang of us went downtown.  We rode with Doc Triete.  That was one of the wildest rides I have ever had.  It took us forever to get there and back.  When we came back through the gate Doc told the guard to check AGO cards because he knew I didn’t have mine.  Thank goodness the window wouldn’t work or I’d probably still be in the guard house.

Yesterday I went to June and Tug Tuggle’s for dinner.  They had asked Louie too.  It sho’ was a mighty fine dinner.  We stayed through supper too.  I certainly did enjoy it!  [Sounds like around this time, Mother was juggling Louie and Daddy.  I guess it never hurts to feel like you're a hot commodity!]

February 20, 1954

One night last week I went down to Sara and Ken’s for dinner and spent the night.  Thursday night Lock and Tami Ireland asked several of us over for dinner.  ‘Twas mighty good.

Last Friday a bunch of us went to see From Here to Eternity.  It was a good movie, not like the book.

Saturday night was the Valentine Day dance.  I went with Willie and had a grand time.  [Yay!  Her Valentine's date was with Daddy.]

Sunday we just messed around and looked at my slides.  [This reminds me of a trip I took with my friend Shellay and a friend of hers to Daytona Beach.  Shellay had a Polaroid camera that had those pictures that came out of the camera and gradually developed into your picture.  She took tons of pictures during that trip and it never failed that at night when we got back to the room or during the afternoon when we were laying out at the pool that we would pull out "the pictures" and relive our trip to date.  Good times!]

Wednesday Ray Roth’s wife, Janice, came in.  We had a party at the Ireland’s for her.

Then Thursday night Doc and I went down to Sara and Ken’s.  He cooked steaks for us and string beans and salad.  It was wonderful.  Friday night Icke 6’s wife, Ruth LaFond, came in.  Went with Willie to their house to a party for her.  Byron Whitesides’ wife is supposed to come in tomorrow.  If these battalion wives don’t quit coming in!  [Sounds like every time a wife came in town, there was a party.  I don't think Mother really minded though.  ;-)]

             This afternoon we played bridge.  Then tonight there was an informal dance.  Willie Moore, Rick Tuite, Bob Walker and I went.  Had a fine time.

This is really a grand place with a wonderful bunch of people.

By the way.  Heard that General Cramer died today.  He was just down here this week on an inspection.  That’s really something.

February 23, 1954

Yesterday Sarah Doughtery, Tami Ireland and I went to Munchen with Doc Treite.  Saw the figures come out on the Rathaus.  Then we went to the Ratskeller for lunch.

Rathaus in Munchen

Another view of the Rathaus

             After lunch we rode around.  Also walked around and went window shopping.  Saw the Angel of Mercy statue, Koenigsplatz, etc.  Went to the Haus Der Kunst (art museum).  Then we had dinner at an Italian restaurant – Eremitage.  Was wonderful.

Angel of Mercy statue in Munchen

It was a very nice day!  Sunday Willie and I went to a party at the La Fond’s for Byron Whitesides and his wife Wilma.  Afterwards a gang of us went to the Sonnerhof for dinner.  Then we went on down to the Mariandal.  Had a very good time.

February 27, 1954

Last night Doc, Willie, and I went down to the Wittlesbach for dinner.  I saw something I had never seen before – heaters in beer.

March 4, 1954

Last Saturday was the Fasching party here at the club.  I went with Willie and had a grand time.  Tami Ireland, Alice Liley, Pat Allen and I went as Lock Ireland’s harem.  Don Allen was the slave boy.  We had a wonderful time and caused quite a bit of comment.  [No doubt!]

Sunday several of the boys in the BOQ had an open house.  It lasted all afternoon and was a fine party.

Last night a bunch of us went down to the Mariandal and the Prince Alfonse.  We ended up making roll call.

Tonight Willie, Doc, Bob Walker and I went down to Flo and Bob Wofford’s for dinner.  Pat Allen had made spaghetti and it was grand.

This morning there was a USAREUR alert and the buses didn’t get to the school until 10:30.  This afternoon we met with Col. Blasé and he told us what to do in case they ever do pull the chain.  I am to be on one of the first vehicles out and am supposed to help the driver – classified info.  [Not anymore!  LOL]

Women's Work

As you know, my mother was a teacher when she went to Germany for this big adventure.  In fact, you could say that my mother had 3 "careers", back in the days before changing careers was popular.  Her first career was teaching.  She taught mostly first grade, although I think she taught second grade one year.  But first grade was her favorite.  She never intended to work after she got married.  She did tell me that she asked Daddy if he wanted her to work and that he said no.  I feel very confident that she wanted to run off by herself and jump up and down like a child with glee!

Her second "career" was as a wife and mother.  I know she didn't enjoy the housewife aspect of this job, but all she really ever wanted to be was a wife and mother and she did only that for a very long time.

Her third career was working in the cafeteria at Stone Mountain High School with her best friend and neighbor Dolly Snyder.  She started as one of the ladies that collected the money and worked her way up to being Mrs. Snyder's assistant.  I don't know that we needed the money, but as my brothers and I got older I think it gave her something to do with her day.  And after Daddy died, I think it became a bit of a lifeline for her.  A place to go and something to do that kept her from sitting home grieving.

I always wanted to be somebody.  I spent my life wanting to “be” somebody.  Somebody that made money, somebody that was important.  I remember wanting to be a doctor, a lawyer, a dentist.  I think part of it was that I always saw myself escaping where I was in life.

I can remember when I was a little girl and I would lay in bed thinking maybe I would wake up the next morning and be someone else, be someplace else.  And when I would wake up in the morning I would lay there with my eyes still closed thinking today would be the day when I would wake up in a different house, with different parents, as an only child, in a mansion, with everything my heart desired.  But when I opened my eyes I was still in the same room I’d gone to sleep in the night before, in the same house I had lived in for years, with the same family that disappointed some very deep place in my soul.

What I had was never enough.  There was always such a yearning inside me for more, even as a young child.  I used to write when I was young.  It was never good stuff.  It was always some take off on some TV show I liked or some other story that enchanted me.  I always put myself in it, never as myself, but as who I wanted to be.  Someone pretty, well-loved, smart, funny, accomplished.  I was always the romantic female lead even when I was too young and inexperienced to know what that meant.  The handsomest man was always in love with me.  I was the center of the story.  Always.

So when my mother would talk to me about what I was going to be when I grew up, I was always disappointed in the direction those conversations took.  She wanted me to be a teacher, like her.  The appeal, for her, was that “the children always love you” and “you have the same schedule as the children”, meaning summers off and the same holidays they got.  But I didn’t really want to be a teacher.  I didn’t want to be my mother, was really what that was about.  But even back then, long before “women’s lib”, I knew that I didn’t want to be pigeonholed into a “woman’s job”.  I wanted to be able to do anything.  And back in those days I thought I could.

When I wanted to be a doctor or dentist, my mother tried to talk me into being a nurse.  Another of those women’s jobs.  The funny thing was that I was always squeamish about blood; not really conducive to being a nurse or a doctor.  When she saw me writing, she even suggested being a journalist.  Another career path I dismissed as not paying enough or having the right level of prestige.

Really and truly, I think my mother was hoping I’d pick some job or career that would give me something to do until I got married and started a family.  Because that was what she really wanted for me.  She didn’t believe that women who were married and had children should work; they should stay at home.  We had many a bitter argument over that.  I couldn’t see myself being a stay at home wife and mother.  I knew I needed more than that in my life.  In her mind, anything I did with my life after college was just “until you get married”.  She didn’t think I needed to move out of the house until I got married.  I didn’t need to buy furniture until I got married.  I asked her once “what if I don’t get married?”  She thought that was just silly talk.  I wasn’t so sure, in those days.  But that’s what she had done.  She lived at home, except for the year she was in Germany, until she got married.  She didn’t buy furniture until she got married.  Everything was just a place holder until she got married.  That truly was her goal in life, whereas mine was to be successful in my career, to have as much fun as was legal, and to party all the time.

When I went off to college I still wanted to be a doctor.  But when I heard about the course work during orientation – lots of science and math – I knew that wasn’t for me.  So I changed majors to business, mainly because I believed that was a major that would lead to an actual job.  And then struggled with just what my actual direction would be.  At first it was accounting, then marketing, and finally management.  I think my mother was still hoping I’d come to my senses and choose some marriage and child friendly job, but in those days I wasn’t thinking as much about getting married or having children.  I always appreciated that my father told me I could be anything I wanted to be.  Period.  My mother seemed to always want to add “as long as it’s teaching or nursing”.

I actually allowed my father to pick what I would major in.  When I couldn’t decide what I wanted to do, he was the one that suggested Human Resources.  Actually it was “Personnel” back then.  But that was what he had majored in and he thought I would like it.  So that was what I did.  And I was fortunate to be able to get into “Personnel” within 6 months of graduating from college.  I had gone to work in a management training program at a retailer and, since I wasn’t well suited for merchandising, I was fortunate that there was a store Personnel Manager position open for me.  Now, to be fair, there are aspects of HR that I like and that I do pretty well.  But I really don’t like dealing with the people.  I really don’t like dealing with the people issues.  I’d rather create a compensation plan or design a benefits strategy.  And now I feel kind of stuck in a career and in a role that isn’t where I really should be.

I always thought of my mother as not being very ambitious.  She never really aspired to much.  She was content being a first grade teacher, which I thought was horribly boring.  And she loved being a wife and mother.  I think what it really boiled down to was that I didn’t want to grow up to be my mother.  So I rejected out of hand all the things she held dear.

When I look back on this from my current perspective, I feel like I shortchanged myself.  I still wouldn’t have wanted to be a teacher or a nurse, but I do feel like I went down a career path that, while I could do it well, wasn’t really where my path should have led me at all.  And because I didn’t choose well when it came to relationships, I didn’t end up as a wife either, at least not long term.  And I never became a mother.

To have ended up more like my mother actually wouldn’t have been as bad as I had once imagined.  My mother had a job for a number of years that she loved.  She got to combine it with the adventure of a lifetime when she went to Germany for a year.  And she met and married the love of her life and had an incredibly happy marriage and raised four children.  Which was really all she wanted to do. 

For many years I thought that was the biggest waste of a life.  But here I am, not really fulfilled, not married, no children, not pursuing my passion.  And not totally sure what that passion is.  But I do know for sure that what my mother had and the life she lived was worth pursuing.  She had a great life.  She was loved, as a wife, as a mother, as a daughter and sister, and as a friend.  She cared about other people and she was kind and giving.  She lived the life she always imagined for herself.  She and my father weren’t rich, but they were comfortable.  And it was enough for her.  She didn’t aspire for more than she had, because she had the things that really mattered.

I wonder what would have happened if I’d set my sights just a little lower.  If I hadn’t cared so much about material things and money.  What if I had pursued that love of writing years ago?  I still don’t think I would have wanted to be a journalist, but maybe I would have tried a writing career back when I was young enough to have been really successful at it.  I think that would have made me happy.  And fulfilled.  And then maybe I would have had the life my mother did – filled with love and acceptance.  I was wrong not to have listened more to her.  I was wrong to have thought that she was the antithesis of me.  Although we were different women in many ways, deep down I really wanted what she had – I wish that I had been open enough to have learned from her. 

The long and winding road....

January 3, 1954

Here we are on the next to the last lap of a wonderful trip – flying from Madrid to Stuttgart.  Then we start fighting the trains.

We got into Madrid yesterday about noon.  After lunch we supposedly went sightseeing.  Our guide hardly opened his mouth so we might have seen something but didn’t know it.  We did go to the Prado Museum – an art gallery.  [An art museum??  Oh my.  Um, Mother, the Prado is one of the great museums of Europe!  It is, by the way, one of the places I visited on my first trip to Spain with Paul, Beth and the boys.  It was wonderful, but we went the day I landed in Madrid and I was so tired by the time we were done.  I even fell asleep sitting on a bench outside the gift shop!]  We saw some of the Goya’s and Greco’s pictures.  We also saw one by Vasquez (Velazquez?) that had a mirror in front in such a way that the mirror gave a 3D effect.

Madrid in front of Prado Museum

My picture of the Prado from October 2010

Madrid was just another large city.  [True, but a fascinating large city.]

Madrid from Hotel

             I ran into a boy in the hotel – Bob Kazrir – that we had met on the train to Rome.  He took me out on the town.  You don’t eat until 10 and you don’t go out until at least 11.  First we went to the Rex which had two orchestras.  It was a nice little place – I liked it.  Then we went to the Erica which Bob said was one of the local dives.  It’s plush compared to Straubing.  It was just a bar with music – very nice.  Then we went to the Pasapoga which is supposed to be it in Madrid.  It really was swank and had a grand floor show.  We got home just about time to get up for breakfast this morning, but I really had a grand time.  [That party animal!  She is right, though, about dinner time in Spain being late.]

This morning we went to Toledo.  It is the oldest city in Spain and was the capital in the 16^th century during the Roman Empire.  It is known as the home of Kings.  It is an old walled city and was cold as blazes.

Toledo Spain

My picture of Toledo

We went in Greco’s house here.  Typical 16^th century Spanish house – courtyard inside.  He was Greek and painted elongated bodies.

Grecos' House in Toledo

There is also a cathedral there which we didn’t see.  It is supposedly the largest and most beautiful in Spain.  We had lunch there.  Now we are on our way.  We do stop in Lyon, France to refuel.  [We took a day trip to Toledo.  We did not visit Greco's home, but we did go to the cathedral.  And it is spectacular!]

Burro in front of church in Toledo

On the road to the cathedral in Toledo, which is in the background

January 12, 1954

We did get back.  We had to circle the field in Stuttgart about an hour because something had happened to the radio and we couldn’t receive landing instructions.  It had been snowing the night before.  That meant that everyone missed the midnight train, so almost everyone was late to school.  We finally got back about 1130 hours Monday after going all over this part of the country.

Guess what!  Right after we got back they picked up one of the Germans in detachment headquarters because he is a Communist.  He was working in a very important position.  They had been watching him for a couple of months.  They picked up someone on the border a couple of months ago.  All of the information they got then pointed at this man.  That’s really something!  [And again - should they have told this woman all this stuff??  She's a gossipy one, that Marion Hunter.]

Saturday was the beginning of Fasching (the pre-Lenten Carnival season, which begins in Germany on January 11), so Don and I went to town to celebrate it.  Everyone was out!

Gasthaus in Straubing - maybe where they celebrated?

Sunday night there was a square dance at the Service Club.  It sho’ was fun.  Afterwards the band came over to the club, and we really had a party.

            It has really been snowing here – almost every day for a week.  They say it is the worst in a long time, but then all of Europe is being snowed in.  They had to call off school yesterday because of it and that is really something here.  But they send these children out at recess regardless of the weather.  We did get a ride to school today in a jeep – my first jeep ride – windshields up, thank goodness!  It’s mighty hard walking in this!

Snow from Mother's School Window

Sunday afternoon the companies all had to go out and move their tanks so the tracks wouldn’t freeze – we had a small blizzard.  I have really never seen anything like this.  [Mother did not like snow, so I'm pretty sure she was fit to be tied by this.]

January 24, 1954

Last Friday – a week ago – there was a big Fasching party downtown.  The German personnel here put it on.  First we went to Lock Ireland’s and then on to the party.  More fun!  Then Saturday afternoon we sat around out here and played bridge.  A bunch of us went into town to make goulash over at Lock’s.  They called an “alert” so Sara Dougherty and I cooked while they were gone.  They came back about 1 AM and we ate.  I spent the night with Sara and Ken.  We just messed around all day Sunday.  Then we came out here to the Italian dinner.  After that we had to initiate Sara – we took her in for roll call.

Wednesday night was bingo and a party afterwards.

Friday night I spent the night with Sara and Ken again.  So did Paul Otis.  Lock’s wife came in Friday, so we all went over to welcome her – about 60 of us.  Sho’ was fun!  Then we came home and cooked.

Yesterday afternoon Sara, Doc and I went to town and took pictures of Straubing.

Main Street of Straubing

             Today has just been a lazy day.

Mother in her room being lazy

January 30, 1954

Last night we got the train about 1800 for Garmisch.  We are staying at the Sheridan Plaza – an army hotel – for $1 a night.  This army recreation business is really something.  They provide free bus service, etc. everywhere.  [I can't remember the name of the Army hotel that Debbie and I stayed in in Garmisch, but Mother is right - the army/air force recreation business is really something.  They also sponsored tours of local sights.  We went to Garmisch in the summer, so our trips were to the castles in the area, as well as a church with a weeping Christ statue on the crucifix.]

Hotel in Garmisch

This morning we walked up to Holiday Hills because the bus never did come.  We got a complete ski outfit for the day for 25 cents and a 2 hour lesson for 25 cents.  You should see me skiing.  Sho’ is fun but I surely did get tired.  We ate lunch in their snack bar.  Then skied a little this afternoon.  Afterwards we went shopping.  Tonight we are going to the Casa Carioca.  It is sort of a night club with an ice show run by the army.

Holiday Hills Garmisch

Mother, the unlikely snow bunny!

Garmisch is so picturesque.  It is covered with snow and is beautiful.  Just like a ski resort ought to look.  It has snowed all day today.

In Garmisch

Linderhof Castle

Ettal Monastery near Linderhof Castle

Garmisch