Excerpts from Letters to Mom in italics.
14 February 1962
My roommate was telling me about a blue '53 VW that a friend of his has. The car looks pretty good and has a good engine. It was rebuilt just last year. The owner said he only had to spend $6 maintenance on it last year. He wanted $400 and I offered $300. Finally we made a gentleman's agreement at $350 cash. So I'm going to stay around the barracks the next few months to save money. I figure insurance for a year should be less than $100, and I won't pay it all at once. Request your comments.
It is in great shape and VW's don't depreciate like other cars do. By the way it is a convertible, & the top is in good condition. I'm curious what they'd want for a 53 VW convertible in good shape at Boyds VW; or what they'd give you for $350.
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Tonite I'm going down to the festhalle. "Fasching" lasts till the 5th of March. The music never stops at the Festhall. There are 5 bands and three floors plus dancing in the foyer. Actually there is dancing anywhere you can find space, even on the steps. Costumes are encouraged by lowering the price. The girls wear leotards, bathing suits and all kinds of good outfits. There is also 4 bars and a beer keller (celler). It will last til about 3 in the morning. You usually don't have to ask girls to dance, they ask you. Believe me, I've never seen so many gorgeous girls before. They really have beautiful women here.
I sure hope you will give up the shop. It's too much for you with the kids and the housework.
It's good to hear so many people inquire about me. Tell them "hello" and I like Deutschland fine. I guess I'll go down to the club for a snack before I go to the Festhalle. I skipped supper tonite and took a nap instead. I'll probably need it.
27 February 1962 (Tuesday)
I was swamped with 5 birthday cards today. Brig thought they might have to allocate me two boxes. I had three letters yesterday too.
Oh, I'm going to Driver's school on Monday for 5 days. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I can buy the car a month early. I'm going to talk to the guy about it tonite.
Another German friend named Peter from Neunkirchen (about 30 Ks away) came over for me and an air force friend Sunday. He drove us to his haus for a home-cooked meal. First we had some delicious soup that is foreign to the US. Then, German style, right in the empty soup plate came schnitzel, potatoes, peas and cooked carrots. It was very good & followed up by Maxwell House coffee. Coffee is expensive here; it cost about 30 or 40˘ a cup. We spent most of the day talking & listening to Pete's tape recorder. He tapes popular music.
Pete speaks excellent English, but his mother & pretty girl friend spoke none. Joe [Purcell], the Air Force guy, doesn't speak German. So I continue to exercise my Deutsch. We also had a bottle of Rhein wine that afternoon. His mother made a batch of waffles with sugar and plenty of coffee for us later too! She wanted to know if we had waffles in the States. Joe and I couldn't thank them enough.
His mother said she just hopes when Peter joins the Bundeswehr that perhaps someone will do the same for him. He's an electrician & thinks he might go to NYC with the Bundeswehr to study Radar. Before he drove us back his mother broke out some French cognac & we had a couple "Prosts" .
Like I said before, we get all the news that you do back home & just as soon. Everybody heard the Orbit shot on the radio when you saw it. [On February 20, 1962, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth.] I saw some of it later on TV the next day at Oscar's. We also have all the magazines you have back home. Your letter with the count down was ancient history & I heard it all 5 days before I got the letter. Honest, I'm not living in the stone age here. The Germans aren't on a par with the states on most things, but understandably so. We weren't leveled twice in 50 years by war. Still the standard of living is very high & I enjoy life immensely. I think Germans have more fun in life than most Americans do.
Have Sondra get a "Billboard" now & then and send it along so I can see what's popular at home. Also, it would probably interest Peter. He knows the words to American songs like teenagers do back home. A lot of Germans who can't speak English sing along with popular songs in English. Does that sound unusual? I started to talk to one girl who was singing along with Big Bad John & I found out she "spricht kein Englisch," & didn't understand what she was singing. That was in the Saar Region soon after the Disaster. ["Big Bad John" was about a miner who died in a disaster.]
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I'm allowed to buy 50 gal per month from the [Army] QM station at 12˘ a gal. The Germans pay about 50˘ a gal. I expect to get about 30 mpgal. Oh, thanks for the $1.00, I used it for a schnitzel dinner and beer. It's amazing how I've reduced my beer consumption since I've had the car. I've had about 1 or 2 glasses a day.
I got a letter from Pvt Bihon in Ft Jackson, South Carolina. He isn't enjoying himself and is hurting for a beer. Oh, do me a favor & call the Gerhart's & let them know how I am & how they are. [Still a little "Dutchified?"]
Saturday I went to a sauna near Oskars. That's a Dampf Bade (steam bath). You can stay there 1 hr 30 min for DM 2.50 for regular customers & DM 3.00 for others - Massages cost DM 5.00 (25˘/1DM). Boy are they relaxing.
27 March 1962
I'm writing this from a little gasthaus in the sticks [countryside] near here. The owners are friendly and I learn more Deutsch. They have cows at the end of the haus on the first floor and it reminds me of Cambelltown and the Pa Dutch country. I can see where all our culture came from. A "Pa Dutchman" can't grow homesick here. I'll be able to converse with all the old people when I come home. It's now the 28th and I better finish or it'll never get mailed.
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04 April 1962
I was in France last Saturday with Jim Banaghan. He's the one who took these pictures. [There were a handful of snapshots taken in late March 1962, on a trip which discovered the ruins to a citadel perched high above Bitche, France, and others of destroyed pillboxes along a portion of the Siegfried Line.] We stopped at a French café for a bite to eat & a glass of wine. We ended up drinking a whole bottle of red wine. It was delicious. I think it was the best in the house & cost 75˘. We took a bottle apiece along, too. We took (Jim and I) pictures of each other holding bottles of wine and big loaves of bread in the center of town.
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| Since the GI's often slipped over the nearby border into France, it would be pertinent to interject a bit of French history. The nasty war for Algerian independence was winding to a close. Terrorism and plastique bombs were almost an everyday occurrence. FLN slogans would appear in white paint overnight on walls and buildings. Security was tight and tempers taut. France was not really a favorite destination point. Fehr always felt like he was returning "home" approaching the border checkpoint and allowed to cross back into Germany. There was no need to mention anything in the letters home that might alarm mom. |
Jim came back from the Hommes (Men) & said, Look at the shower room! It had a white porcelain floor with a hole and two slightly raised foot impressions. There was no shower nozzle, but there was toilet paper! He said emphatically that he would never use it even if he were shitting in his pants. So, for the hell of it (& partly because I had to) I used it and told him not to knock it unless he tried it.
We had the top down on the volks that day for about an hour. I'm going to enjoy it this summer.
When you order a sandwich here you get a piece of bread smothered with whatever you ordered. You must order two pieces of bread if you want the kind of sandwich that we're accustomed to.