Munich

Munich, Germany

From the time that I first arrived in Germany, I felt that I was different from the people that I met. I never felt accepted. German was my first language, and that should have been sufficient for me to be accepted by those with whom I was in contact . My German was good, as that was what we spoke at home. However, my German was too perfect. Because I had spent my entire life in an environment that was completely isolated from any dialect or slang, the people that I met thought that I was either putting on airs, or was from East Germany. I attempted to explain about my life in Paraguay and told stories of many of my experiences there, but they could not imagine that anything that different from their own lives could be true. In any case, they were always suspicious of me. My Aunt Lolly helped me get hired at Siemen’s Company, and I was trained as a key- punch operator. All day long I sat at a desk and typed numbers in cards. To be sure, it was a boring existence. But it was a job and made it possible to put some food on the table.

There was a woman at Siemens that I became friends with named Bertha Schmidt. Frau Schmidt was married to a chemical engineer, and had lived in San Diego. Actually, she and her husband had their residence in San Diego and had only returned to Munich to be with their aging parents. She also noticed that I seemed different, but she took an interest in me and was going to sponsor me to go to America, as she was sure that I would be happier there. Because she had lived in other places in the world, and not just Germany, Bertha understood how I felt. Naturally, we became friends very quickly.

Bertha invited me to join her and some other ladies from work to attend the Octoberfest. When I asked her what exactly the Octoberfest was, and after she explained about the beer and wurst, I was reluctant to join them. Bertha explained that all the women would stay together, and besides, some women had met their husbands there. I , of course, promptly replied sarcastically, “I’m sure that’s a fine place to find a husband”. But in spite of all my reservations I agreed to join them. I must admit that I had a good time, even if I did not like beer.

During the evening of “oompah” music, Frau Schmidt, after going to the ladies’ room, anxiously approached me. She wanted me to meet an American G.I. I was not in favor of it. Still though, I again agreed to follow her suggestion. However, there were two Americans that came to us, and they both joined with our group in drinking and singing. We were having a good time, and I was glad that Bertha brought the Americans to join us. I was sitting between the two Americans and both of them, without the other knowing it, were asking to take me home. Of course, after spending most of my life in an environment that did not allow dating, I had no idea that they were both wanting to date me. Bert, one of the prospective suitors, was sweet, but was like a “teddy-bear“, short and chubby, not unlike “Winnie The Pooh”. The other was the opposite. He was tall and dark, with dark brown hair and eyes. That was October, 1963.

George had a very good sense of humor, but more importantly, he showed a great interest in my background and believed the things I told him. George and Bert were in Munich on leave, and we met on their first night in Germany. It was George that took me home that night. The problem, was that we had taken the last tram for the evening, just to get me to where I lived. George was left with the task of finding his way from my Uncle Max’s house to his hotel near the train station. I pointed George down the tram tracks in the direction of the city center, taught him to ask, “where is the train station,” and off he went. There it was, after midnight in a foreign country with no ability in the German language, except the phrase, “wo ist der Hauptbahnhof”? George said that everything went fine, until a fork in the tracks came and again he had to find someone on the street at that time of night, to ask, “wo ist der Hauptbahnhof”? I am still not sure how many forks were on the tracks, or how long it took George to walk home, but he did finally arrive at his destination, tired from the long walk, but otherwise safe and in one piece!

We were to meet the next evening after work at a pre-arranged place that we both could find. Bert was going to join us, which was a good thing, because I had forgotten what George looked like. It was only after seeing Bert and George together again was I sure which of the two was, in fact, George.

For the next couple of weeks, the three of us met daily. We visited many of the sights of Munich, and had a very nice time until Bert had to return to England as his leave time was used up. George decided to stay as he still had a couple weeks of unused leave. I brought George to meet my Uncle Max and Aunt Clara. They hit it off immediately! In fact, all my relatives were favorable to George. My Aunt Lolly, though was concerned about George’s height. She thought that because he was so tall he was not able to find any girls in America that would go with him.

It was fun watching this “Yankee” who’s entire German vocabulary consisted of a few phrases such as: “wurst mit kraut und eine cola, bitte”, or “ein bier bitte”, actually communicate with my aunt and uncle. Communication was further confused because Aunt Clara and Uncle Max were deaf-mutes. They all worked at understanding each other, and surprisingly got along very well. I was especially surprised with the reception that George received from my Grandfather. Every day at noon with his meal Opa would have a beer with his lunch. While George was there Opa actually opened his beer and insisted that George share it with him. That was a truly sincere act of acceptance and respect that Opa had shown to George. There had been a young man on the ship that brought us from Paraguay, and I guess that he thought I had a thing for him. On the ship we were together a lot, but there was never any kind of physical attraction. At least on my part our relationship was purely platonic. To my amazement, he followed me to Munich! He wanted to marry me! He went to Opa’s house to get me. Opa was furious and from the first did not like him. In fact, he made him leave. So you can imagine my excitement at how George was welcomed into their homes. Perhaps they all recognized that I did not quite fit into Munich life and that George would take good care of me.

George’s leave time passed too quickly, and it soon was time for him to return to England. However, George asked me to marry him ! Needless to say, I said yes! Immediately I made plans to leave Germany and join him in England.
Although my Grandfather and Aunts and Uncle were apprehensive about my making such a decision, I wanted to join George. Besides, if George was not the person that I thought he was, I felt that being close to my parents and siblings was better than life in Munich. In spite of the desire to be with George and my family, it was quite difficult to leave Opa, Aunts Lolly and Clara and Uncle Max, Hermann and all of my cousins. In the few years that I was in Munich we had become very close.