Updated JULY 10, 2008
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of Bob Moats |
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the story continues...
I don't remember what airport I flew out of to go to Germany, but I remember the
flight. Long and boring. We arrived in Frankfurt Am Mein Airport and were trucked
to The 21st Replacement Battalion. It was well after midnight and we were bedded
down in the attic of the place due to over crowding. I remember looking out the
attic window and viewing the Frankfurt Bahnhof (train station), and it was a
beautiful site from my vantage point. I spent three days there in the compound and
finally I got my orders to go to a town called Schwabish Gemuend which was about
52 Kilometers east of Stuttgart. Three of us from the compound were taken to the
train station and were warned to stay on the train from Frankfurt as there were
CID agents, criminal investigative division or something scary like that, who
were watching for straying GI's who wanted to get in trouble. The train ride was
great, the first time I had ever been on a real train. We pulled into Stuttgart
station for a short lay over and there was a young Sargent on our train
who took us to a beer kiosk and bought the three of us one glass of beer each.
I wasn't used to beer and the German beer could fuel jets so I got really tipsy.
Our train was getting ready to leave and I had trouble getting my duffel bag up
to my shoulder. I knocked off my saucer cap and it rolled under the train. I
somehow managed to crawl between the platform and train to retrieve it and this
German conductor came by yelling something at me. I'm lucky the train didn't pull
out then. We got on the train and had an uneventful ride to the town I would call
home for the next year and a half. We settled into our barracks in the walled
fort, called Bismark Kasserne in German, and I claimed a corner of a room to be
mine. My room mates were Les "Skip" D'Amico from Rochester, New York; Rich Webb
from Trenton, New Jersey; Eldon Klemme from Boone, Iowa; Larry Battisti from
Youngstown, Ohio; Jim Pottle (don't remember where from); Jim Austin from New
York City and a couple of others who's names I can't remember. I do remember two
guys in the barracks named Hatfield and McCoy who provided many hours of humor.
My first plan while in Germany was to learn the language, so I went on a rampage
of translation dictionary buying. I found that German people were more friendly
to you if you were making an attempt to speak their language and would help me
to correct my grammar. After a number of months absorbing the language, I finally
had some validation on my skills. Eldon and I went to a local car rental place
and I did all the arranging for a car in German. When it came time to produce my
drivers license the rental man was surprised to see I was an American G.I., he
praised me on my use of his language. I felt good. (Today, 2008, I couldn't
speak the language to save my life, you don't use it, you lose it.)
Going down town was a unique experience in culture shock. I would see movie
theaters with posters of nude actors right next to a church and no one seemed
to care. The U.S. is soooo repressed.
I found that German girls were
very open and pleasant once you get over their hairy legs. I can't remember how
we met but I started seeing one girl named Anita and spent one interesting night
with her in a local Gasthaus and when we tried to leave around 4am we found the
place locked up. Luckily the tavern owner was still up and she let us out. I
spent my first German New years eve with her at a local night club called the
"Lido Tanz Cafe" and at midnight we went out on the balcony and I was amazed by
all the fireworks being set off by just about everyone in town. It was truely
beautiful. My relationship with Anita was getting a bit too close and I wasn't
ready to take a German bride back to the U.S. so I cut off the relationship
rather abruptly. Feeling the need to travel I purchased a rundown Volkswagen
from a guy ready to go back to the U.S. and spent a couple weeks trying to get it
in shape to drive on the roads.
I fondly remember one incident with the VW, Eldon Klemme and I went to some town
south of us to do
something, can't remember now, we were on our way back late in the night and I
was driving down this country road when I discovered the road took a very sharp
turn left. I steered into the turn a bit late and found I was driving down a
railroad track that ran along the road. I stopped the car in the middle of two
tracks and Eldon just had to say "The trains run pretty often don't they". Short
of smacking him, we got out and tried to push the car off the tracks, it was
heavier
than we thought. Another car came along and two big guys got out laughing at our
distress. They weren't German, as they didn't speak the language, but understood
that we needed help and the four of us pushed the car back on the road. We headed
back safely the rest of the trip. I used that car up until just before I was
scheduled to go home, the Military Police told me to take it off the road because
it was falling apart and the German laws were strict about junkers on their roads.
While I was on a short leave (Army vacation) I was in a small town called Shorndorf
and while I was sitting in a local tavern a guy came up to me and asked if the VW
with the US plates on it was mine. I said yes and he introduced himself as Joseph
Wink, a German national who lived in the USA but was attending the University of
Munich.
This picture (right) is of me in a Fashion show at the Service Club.
There were four other girls I had became slightly involved with, all were
waitresses or bartenders or owned a bar. The first, waitress, named Melaina was
from the Czech Republic and we were friendly until she felt I was showing too
much attention to her girlfriend. I wasn't but the girlfriend was showing too
much attention to me, and I just didn't see it or was enjoying it. Anyways the
relationship ended and I was off to play solder again. The next affair was with
a bartender in town named Inge Meyer. The Service Club at my base would have
soldiers visit a local orphanage and I would go there every time they went. I got
attached to two, a girl of 7 named Elfriede and a boy, 10, named Klaus Dieter.
Elfriede was a quiet girl who's side of face and right hand were severely scared
by hot liquid thrown at her by her mother as the nuns explained, which is why she
was in the orphanage. I had met Inge around that time working at a local gasthaus
and took an interest in her,
with frequent visits to her bar. I decided one day I wanted to take the kids to
Stuttgart Zoo and asked Inge to go so the Nuns who ran the orphanage would
approve. We had a great time (see pictures below) and it felt like I had a little
family, me, the wife and the kids at the zoo. I continued to visit her where she
worked but nothing ever developed with Inge and so I stopped seeing her.
Down the road from where I was stationed was a small gasthaus owned by a rather
attractive woman and we took an interest in each other the first night we met.
Around midnight she chased the few patrons out and we sat comfortably close
talking into the night.
She had forgotten to lock the door and four drunks came in and demanded drinks,
she didn't want trouble but called her bouncer back. He came and it was getting
late, I had to be back to the barracks in an hour, so we parted. I don't remember
why I didn't go back, must have been a really good reason.
The last girl I met was probably the
only one I would have brought home with me to the U.S. I was with a Pershing
nuclear missile unit and we would take turns with the other units setting up live
missiles aimed probably at Russia, once a month by a small town way south in
Germany. On off time we would go to a local gasthaus called "Zum Coolen Grund",
roughly translated "in the cool ground"?. It was a basement bar. I got to know
the owners and the girl, a bartender named Crystal Link. She was stunningly
beautiful and I fell hard. It was so nice to be able to speak the language,
but she would get mad at me and correct me if I mis-pronounced something.
When I had trouble with something to say, I
tried to get her to help but she didn't understand english. So we coped. My last
visit to that town before I was to go back to the states was hard, I thought she
was married but found she wasn't, then I was talking to a german guy who spoke
english rather poorly, and she was listening and corrected something I said in
english to him that he didn't understand. I accused her of being
able to speak english and she gave me this cute little smile but admitted nothing.
Sadly I left her and the cool ground quietly, it wasn't meant to be, but I still
think of her.
Recently I went to Google Maps and did some exploring. I found out how to find the base
I was stationed at in Germany, Bismarck Kaserne, and it was a strange feeling to see
the buildings I lived in and worked in for a year and a half. I copied off the picture
and added some text as seen below.
My Magic and Talent show days info coming soon! More to add to this page soon! |
