Sunday, Sunday

February 20/11........9:20 a.m.

To put it straight, sunday is not my favoured day of the week. It might have something to do with childhood memories, somehow sunday had been such a day of boredom on one side and  obligations on the other side.  Only thing, one could stay in bed a little longer, but then it started, had to help mother to prepare breakfast, had to help do the dishes, had to go to church during my formative years and then, after a long lunchtime meal, where usually my brothers got to fight over desert who had gotten the bigger portion, had to help with the dishes again. Then, after the afternoon sunday coffee- cake time , the whole family took a long boring walk. Anyway, till my father got his first car. Then it had been long drives into the countryside, sometimes surprising my aunt, who lived about 100 kms away and usually broke out in tears when we showed up, because she hated surprise visits.  I do not blame her. So I got to know the radius of about 100 kms around my parent's home pretty well and by the time we got home from our drive , my parents were in the no talking state, because my mother, who had no driver's license, always knew better and had been giving my father instructions till he blew his top and then my mother sulked.  Well, after sandwich time in the evening, there came the worst part, the whole family assembled around the radio,  later on it had been television, to listen to resp. watch a show and my mother presented a basket of socks full of holes, belonging to my dad and brothers and mom and daughter had to mend the holes. This had been the moment when I wished I had been one of my brothers!  Mind you, dad produced holes big as potatoes and I could have broken out into a screaming fit having to mend them. 

I never repair a sock now-a-days, off into the garbage they go. This is my revenge.

Later on, when I had my own life, sundays could be very pleasant days, only bad thing had been,that the next day had to be monday. But somehow memory of those childhood sundays sticks and they do not brighten up with time.                                                                     

Winter- and X-mas Childhood Memories without Jingle Bells

December 19/09.......2:28 p.m.

What a beautiful day it is today! Landfrau took a walk with Herr Hund in bright sunshine through a snow- powdered landscape in biting cold. But now- a- days, with the proper clothing it is enjoyable. It had been different during my childhood, I remember having to wear scratchy woolen garments and gloves never were able to keep our little fingers warm. Putting them against the heated tile stove to get them unstiffened again, sometimes made us cry with pain. But it had been fun when Mom wrapped us into thick blankets and pulled us in a sleigh, my jounger brother tucked between my legs. But we never froze when we took our sleighs for downhill runs in the nearby park where it had a few quite nice slopes and a pond for ice skating. Skates had to be put on with a skate key, you had to be quite skillfull. Then we came home wet from snow with red cheeks like apples. - And Christmas! It had that real magic to it, without sprouting Santas all over the place, Santa (Weihnachtsmann) was ever present but never to be seen. And on Christmas eve we heard him rumble behind closed doors but by the time we were allowed to enter the festive room he had left, a little bit to our relief, because to be honest, we were a bit afraid of him . But, oh , the presents he had left, everything had been set under the tree, no parcels to be unwrapped, like nowadays and I vividly remember a beautiful doll with long black braids sitting in a little carriage. Since I only have brothers, I knew right away that it had been left for me and my heart beat with joy up to my throat. And the tree, adorned with real candles and giving away that terrific smell of forrest. The decorations were much admired by us, all those tiny little figurines, some familiar from fairytales, only pity, we were never allowed to take them down and play with them. - The Christmas meal the next day always had been goose, till the war started and all the geese had vanished. Did they also fight for the country like my Dad? From then on memories have dwindled, they must have lost their magic.

And then very fast I had not been a child any more.

Funny Dreams

December 7/08 ..... 8:31a.m.

To get rid of funny dreams might be the best way to write them down.
Had been wearing ballerinas but one of them did not fit and kept slipping. Had been in a strange place, entrance to a jewish cemetery I wanted to visit, but never got around to do it, because people kept serving food and urging me to eat. Outside a car had been parked with open doors, and on and off rain kept pouring.
Contemplating about dreams brings back a childhood memory. Had been a secondgrader, I think ,anyway not very advanced yet, and we were asked to write down a story of what we had been dreaming. I had been a quite serious,honest child, so meticulously I wrote down my dream I had been having the previous night. At that time my grandmother just had died and I had a kind of scary ,confused dream about her, well, like dreams normally are (see above) .- Teacher called me up in front of the class and asked my what kind of stupidity that was and I had to redo the composition. I felt very humiliated but decided to show her. So I made up a story about me beeing a princess riding in a carriage, well, crap like that. Teacher then praised me and said that this was a nice story.-
Now I swear, this had been my first lesson in lying and how you could better get by by not telling the truth. Still hate that teacher today.

Oh, and ran across one of my posts from 2 years ago,still makes me giggle:http://landfrau.blogspot.com/2006/11/news-about-god.html

I call it the "Hoopsie-syndrome"

June 3/08 7:53 p.m.

I must have been 13 or 14 years old, when my parents have been visiting with a family, who had a daugther my age, Hoopsie. I remember that I just had been fascinated by that girl, we had lots of fun together that day and I am not so sure anymore, if we even stayed overnite. My parents returned the invitation some time later one sunday for lunch. At that time we lived in an appartment in a block where the main street ran in front. So , after breakfast I positioned myself at the front window, waiting and looking out for Hoopsie. Her father ran a trucking business and they were supposed to arrive by truck. Anyway, time went by, lunchtime passed, no truck, no Hoopsie. My mother told me to stop looking, but I would not listen, I held on to my post. To make a long story short, they never showed up. At that time people did not have telephones like nowadays, so I think that day we never found out what happened. And I never met Hoopsie again. My dissapointment that day had been out of this world and till today, if I run accross a similar experience, I call that my "Hoopsie syndrome" by myself. -
What made me think of that today? That family lived in a city called Soest, quite near the place where m.o.m.l. is taking his rehab.

Just a little Bit of Snow

February 02/08 8:40 a.m.

Woke up, looked out of the window: SNOW! - Just a little bit but enough to call on childhood memories of waking up in the morning to a landscape covered thickly with snow. We kids hardly could await to run outside. But this has been in another region of Germany where I grew up. Around here we admire the single snowflake and by the time Herr Hund will take me out ( I am a slowpoke in the morning) it might be all gone.

Fran Lebowitz Quotes

Landfrau and very "first love"!

Fran Lebowitz Quotes:

"Romantic love is mental illness. But it's a pleasurable one. It's a drug. It distorts reality, and that's the point of it. It would be impossible to fall in love with someone that you really saw.

Fran Lebowitz "

September 20/07 5:24 p.m.

He is so right, this Fran Lebowitz.

In my early teens I fell madly in love with Winnetou ,would not have worked out if we had really met, besides that he did not excist. What has been left over, however, is this faible for "dark boys", they still make old Landfrau swoon. And might have something to do with my long lost" very first love".

Zwinger Dresden

August 27/07 7:05 p.m.

The Zwinger in Dresden is shown in this little video, I'm very proud of, taken in October last year, during our Dresden visit. Now, some spots, like smells, trigger memories with

Landfrau and Dresden is a place where I spent memorable time during my childhood. My mother had been the joungest of 8 children (spoiled by them all) and most of them, and most of all our favorite aunt, lived in Dresden. So in summertime we kids got often shipped off for a stay with the relatives. The spoiling was transferred to us, my brother and myself and I have great memories of family get-togethers. They all had been quite plain people, but full of fun and laughter and, some of my uncles beeing hardcore communists -old school - hated Hitler no end. Of course they always made sure that we kids were out of earshot, when they had their discussions, but we had our ears on the table, so to say. What it transferred, they had been talking about, dawned on me only much later. - Of course excursions to the old part of Dresden and, most of all the Zwinger, were a must. I went back the first time after the terrible bombings when I was a teenager and we were living in the golden west already, which for us had not been so golden whatsoever,especially in the beginning in 1946. I simply hated it here, would rather have stayed in Eastern Germany with all my friends, becoming a little pioneer!

Now the grown pioneer has to circle her luggage again, one scarf and a pair of flip flops have been the result of the day, rather meager. So....3 more days till River cruise,
weather still playing along, in a way!

Mixing with People...

May 20/07 3:12 p.m.

..is something Landfrau must have detested already as a kid. I remember that birthday party of a classmate, must have been about 8 years old, hosted by the daugther of the owner of the local pharmacy (really something,if you live in a small village) I just decided for myself I just did not want to go. Few days later my very upset mother had found out and I had been in for some nice talking to. I' m old enough now to cope and by the time I have joined the vanitiy fair I am fairly o.k. and it sometimes happens, like today, that I discover a companion in spirit. My tolerance level rises with my wine consumption, but before I start to love everyone, man of my live drags me usually home (fortunately!).

Our friend's place (it had been a housewarming), really is a showpiece, very nice, attractive roofgarden, if there were would not be the passengers leaning out of the airplanes to peek, passing over every 10 minuntes or so - or so.

My first Love!

November 01/06 7:20 p.m.

Landfrau does not have so many amusing things to talk about now-a-days, so let's venture again into the past a bit. My first love ( actually not the "very first one", him I lost at the age of 5, when fate separeted us, he moved away) I really have been smitten with. He has been definitely a little womanizer,dark hair, dark eyes and olive skin ,well, kind of grown up lost "kiddie"(see above!) love, and I had been so proud, he choose me as "his girl", it lasted for about 3 dates, then he showed me the cold shoulder, up to now I do not know why, probably the next cutie to be conquered. I really sobbed my little eyes out and what made it even harder,my mother showed no sympathy whatsoever,laughing and telling everyone about my desaster. -
Now my brother has been meeting the guy occasionally and he still is inquiring about me and if I still had that beautiful "golden" hair, my brother says, I do, I think touches of grey are definetely showing. Told my brother, he should tell him - that he broke my heart! -
Still, a soft touch for "dark boys" has been left over from that time of beeing sweet fifteen! (hope, man of my life will forgive me,hihihi).

And,next post friends, it will be politics again, I warn you!!!

A Beautiful Town or Phoenix out of Ashes

September 30 /06 4:30 p.m.

..That is Dresden, city full of childhood memories. My favoured aunt and more aunts and uncles from my mother's side lived there. Us kids used to visit during school holidays, and we always looked forward to staying with my aunt, she had no kids of her own, and she spoiled us rotten. Well, times long gone, and there are not even graves left. Since I grew up later on in the western part of the divided Germany, there had been no more chance to go and visit with my relatives in Dresden. However our aunt was allowed to come and see us "Westerners", once she had reached the age of beeing a retiree. Those people the communist system was not afraid to loose. -Even as a child, I had been fascinated by that beautiful Frauenkirche, which had been totally destroyed in that awful bomb raid of February 1945. But now it has been reconstructed as beautiful as ever, and...hold on to your seats, folks, we will be there for a concert coming Saturday! Great? You bet! -
We will take a flight very early Saturday morning and we will be coming back on Tuesday, which will give us time to look around. Unfortunately there were no more tickets to be had for the "Grüne Gewölbe", which must be a marvellous sight in the new, old setting in the castle. We had seen the exhibition in the interim settings in 1994,the first time we had been together in Dresden after the war.

So, my new camera will be in action again, hopefully to produce great pics!

September Song

September 07/06 4:02 p.m.

No, I'm not talking about that great song by Sammy Davis, Jr., from whom I still hold a most cherished 45 single, dating back 1956, but about my own ,personal September song about Birthday party, Pflaumenkuchen ( the translation prune cake of this deleecious pastry just won't do justice) sitting in the last warm rays of sun in my parents' garden and of wasps, enjoying "Pflaumenkuchen" alongside with us. And, of course the cake had to be topped with whipped cream,nice,yummy, fattening! - Also used to be a day of family gathering, the kids still small and romping around in the garden. My father had set up a swing and the sandbox for the small fry. - Nice memories! - My mother, having been a very stern mother for us three kids, ( I had been into the subject) turned into a marvellous adoring grandmother, probably the lack of resposibility did the trick. -
The weather always had been great, we had such a day yesterday, and have been promised more for the weekend by the weatherman. Had been a long day for me yesterday, a patientpick- up at 8:00 a.m. at the clinic in beloved Krefeld, and had to walk the dog before. Woke up very early and decided to get up instead of dozing off again, would have never made it then in time. I think it's keen, kicking out patients at such an early hour. Took the opportunity to visit a nice at the maternity ward, who has to wait out her time for the arrival of her baby-son , he wanted to show up too early into this world, now the little mom is stuck and claiming, that she is outliving her own "groundhog" day -time. So, all of you, keep your fingers crossed for her!

And we are planning on a small trip (hopefully), in two weeks time. I believe it, when I'm there, more about it some other time!

Scents, a Childhood-Reminiscence or How to kill a Rabbit

August 29/06 7:04 p.m.

Scents can, at least with me, trigger off memories. Think, I'm guided a lot by my sense of smell. Today I was cutting tomatoes for a salad. Had bought them at the local market at a farmers stall, and that fruity, genuine fragrance reminded me of the garden of my childhood, where we grew vegetables, fruits and also those delicious tomatoes. In this garden, we also had a box with two rabbits, not for us kids to play with, by no means! You must know, that it had been war time, with not so much to eat (especially meat) anymore, so the rabbits were no cuddly playmates, but food for the Christmas dinner. Of course we kids loved to take them out and stroke them, but were only allowed to do so under surveillance. So, one afternoon mother had to go shopping into town, that beeing a half hours walk to get there and back, no folks, no cars at that time! Strict orders, to leave the rabbits alone, were disobied as soon as mother turned her back. My brother and myself thought, that we would be very smart, building a little arena out of bricks, so the rabbits, beeing still babies, could not get away. Everything went fine, till my brother, by stepping over the "wall" knocked over a brick,which, -plum - fell upon one of the rabbits. It fell over, twiched for a bit, blood ran out of its nose and it was a goner. We tried to revive it, by shacking it and massaging it, no deal, it stayed dead. So then we tried begging a replacement off neighbours ,(everyone in the vicinity had rabbits) but people were stingy (wartime, remember) ,so we had to face our mother and confess, which led to beeing locked into the bathroom and beeing beaten with a whip. Must have been at that time, that I made that oath, that ,should I ever have kids myself, would never lay hand on them. And I kept my promise. Well, once a while my hand probably slipped, but I never did beat them up. - Well, in defence of our mother, I must say, that she was suffering all her life from a nervous condition. For her, raising us without my fathers help (him beeing an officer in theGerman army and at war), must have been a handful, and we were rascals! - The picture shows little Landfrau in the garden, all dressed up, tomboy- pics were not taken at that time.

So, up to today, I wont eat rabbit, neither horse, but there is not the traumatic experience of killing one!

Singing`in my Head!

April 9/06 3:54 p.m.

I tremendously admire people who can sing, and the ones,who can play one or several instruments to boot seem out of this world to me. I can sing every song in my head, but what comes out of my mouth could empty arenas. Well, my parents had the brilliant idea,when I was about 8 to 9 years old to "gift" me with an accordeon. I got privat lessons too! Had to walk and drag that heavy thing once a week to the place of the teacher, ( half an hours walk!) while I rather would have climbed trees or gotten into other mischief. Well, that guy wasnt so bad, he put me in front of the music sheet and went to smooch with a piano pupil in the next room, I must have been his alibi pupil. Unfortunately I told my mother and from then on it was an elderly lady,and group instruction, I have not been the pet pupil,you can imagine. My Waterloo came at the X-mas performance,me ,of cse. far from having a solo, but in the group presentation. After a few chords I lost somehow the connection to the other players, but was far to embarassed to stop playing and kept pushing the chords pulling the thing open and closed, stupid me,instead of just pusing the air button. That has been the end of my musical carreer! - Which leads me to my promise about the story and the website of that brilliant coutry music girl from Texas,who now lives in Düsseldorf,(has followed the call of love, so it says) and she also is a stewardess with LTU. Go and visit her website, its great and dont fortget to play the music machine in the saloon! Its a website,you really can have fun with, and its in english too! www.missbehavin.de

P.S. for above...click the pic! -or article,right in, twice,then it will get big.