Roland returned from America in 1954, two years after he and his family left. At some point we had renewed our “pen-pal relationship” and I learned that he was lucky enough to have drawn a tour of duty in Germany. He was to be stationed in Aschaffenburg, located about thirty kilometers southeast of Frankfurt. IContinue reading “Katharina’s Story – Chapter 22: Roland Returns”
Category Archives: memoir
Katharina’s Story – Chapter 21: Karlheinz
You will recall that in May of 1952 Roland, my schooltime sweetheart, and his family left for America. I was seventeen at the time; we promised to write to each other, feeling that somehow things would ultimately work out for us. Originally, the family’s sponsor had arranged for them to move to Togo, Minnesota. AsContinue reading “Katharina’s Story – Chapter 21: Karlheinz”
Katharina’s Story – Chapter 20: Love Found, Lost, and Revisited
My Mutti once wrote a poem to Papa, when she was young, at home with small children, and he away serving the German army in World War II, possibly in Greece at the time, circa 1942. I would have been about eight years old then, and the family living once again in Kalthof with Papa’sContinue reading “Katharina’s Story – Chapter 20: Love Found, Lost, and Revisited”
Katharina’s Story-Chapter 19: At Odds
Here was the time in my life when my teenage attitudes started to get me into trouble. I had always been a bit bull-headed, and the tiniest bit of a black sheep. I had the idea that when I graduated, I would be running off to America to join Roland (which I did eventually do,Continue reading “Katharina’s Story-Chapter 19: At Odds”
Katharina’s Story – Chapter 18: Roland
I was sixteen when I met Roland, in the summer of 1951. Our school celebrated its 350th anniversary, and this event included several days of sports and recreational activities for the students. A special train excursion for the upper classes to the cavern in the Sauerland was part of it. This train, the Samba-Zug, featuredContinue reading “Katharina’s Story – Chapter 18: Roland”
Katharina’s Story: Chapter 17 – Growing Pains
Altenstadt. Being a small village there was little offered in the way of entertainment; there was sort of an improvised movie house, upstairs in an older building, with rows of plain chairs. Once a year there was the Kerb, short for Kirmis in the Hessian dialect. The Kerb had initially been, as I had beenContinue reading “Katharina’s Story: Chapter 17 – Growing Pains”
Katharina’s Story: Chapter 16 – Wanderings
I have always been curious about the world around me. Rarely was I intimidated, and if I was, I forged ahead anyway, just to see what might happen. I was eager to learn about anything and everything. I tried to take charge of my environment; succeeding I think, but at the time of the challenge,Continue reading “Katharina’s Story: Chapter 16 – Wanderings”
Katharina’s Story – Chapter 15: High School Years
Now that I have my bicycle I can start riding to school, the fourteen kilometers to Büdingen, during the warmer Spring and Summer months, instead of having to take the train and getting up before six in the morning. From Altenstadt, my route takes me through Lindheim, Düdelsheim, Büches then Büdingen; the beautiful, quaint villagesContinue reading “Katharina’s Story – Chapter 15: High School Years”
Katharina’s Story: Chapter 14-First Kiss
1948 brought an important change: the Währungsreform, the currency reform. The Reichsmark, which had been the currency during Hitler’s time until now was declared valueless and replaced with the Bundesmark, or the Deutsche Mark. This meant that any cash one had was worthless, savings accounts were inaccessible, and this money might (at some unknown time inContinue reading “Katharina’s Story: Chapter 14-First Kiss”
Katharina’s Story: Chapter 13 — Our Life in West Germany after the War
1945: The German government had collapsed, and the occupying forces ruled. It is too complicated to try to figure out how things kept going at all; people just carried on the best way they knew how. Cows still needed to be milked and the milk needed to be processed. Fields still needed to be plowedContinue reading “Katharina’s Story: Chapter 13 — Our Life in West Germany after the War”
Ingrid Petty 