Friday, February 10, 2012

Berlin Memories For My Daddy







"Look this up for me, Kay"...that is what my Daddy will call and say.  What I am asked to look up is usually pertaining to a recipe he is making or a food that he planning to can or freeze.  (He usually knows the answer, but he likes to verify it sometimes!)  I have talked of his memories from Germany before He was stationed in Germany, just after World War II ended and he has never forgotten his experiences there. He said that the German civilians would come into the army camp and clean and sweep until everything was spic and span.  This week he told me that they also came in and played a song called "Ein , Zwei, Zufa!" and the men really enjoyed it and he has never forgotten it.  He asked me to find it and I have done the best that I could so I have a couple of versions on here. The first one was filmed in Germany but the second one looks as if it was filmed in the USA, right down to the fake yodeling at the beginning! But I loved the oompah of the tuba!  I see why my Dad remembered this, it is very catchy...I have been singing it all day!  (It looks as if it is really a drinking song, and I am afraid that most of everything I found on Youtube involved a lot of  drunken noise!)  The Germans that played for the American soldiers did not not play for money but for cigarettes.  "Didn't you give them any money for the music?", I asked him.   His reply was, "No, they didn't want money, they wanted the cigarettes. They could sell the cigarettes for $10.00 a piece!"  He said that a pack of cigarettes sold for $150.00.   If I am not mistaken, the American GI's would have gotten cigarettes for free as part of their ration. 
Recently on the news, I saw the story about the German who still had lard as part of a package sent to Germany just after the war.  He decided to open it and try it.  After all these years, it is still edible. I don't know anyone who eats lard now.  I know my Grandmother, my Dad's mother, did use lard in her cooking.  It is so unhealthy I know but guess what, she lived to be 96!

 My Dad says that he really enjoyed sailing on Lake Wannsee in Berlin.   I have found a few photos of the lake and posted them here.  Hopefully, he will enjoy this post and the memories they bring back.  There must have been very few moments of fun while he was there.  Maybe that is why these  remembrances are so fond for him.  Oh, and by the way, when my Dad calls and asks me to do something for him, you know I will, he's the best!  LOVE YOU DADDY! (If I knew how to say it in German, I would!)

22 comments:

  1. Wow, what an interesting post for me to read! I know that drinking song well Have heard it many times in Germany... If your dad went back to Berlin now, he wouldn't recognize it!

    I think here in the south, many people still cook with lard. And I don't really think it's lard that's bad for us per se - I sometimes think it's unhappiness, stress and anxiety coupled with unhealthy foods that's so bad.

    Hope you are doing well!! Love, Silke

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    1. Dear Silke,
      My husband has been to Berlin too but since he was there when the Berlin wall was still there, I think that it would be a much different place for him as well!
      We need to create more ART to help combat the stresses of modern life, oh wait, YOU are already doing that!

      Hope you enjoyed those 70's last weekend. In Atlanta, it will be the 20's on Sunday night...

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  2. Both my Mum and her mother used lard for all sorts of things - cooking and baking - and both lived into their nineties. Perhaps we're missing something; but as for eating lard on its own - Ugh.

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    1. Scriptor,
      I was very surprised when that lard was spread on that brown bread and eaten. When I described this to my Daddy, I told him I could not have been more surprised if he had taken it and rubbed it on his bald head!

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  3. Kay, tell your Dad, "Ich liebe dich, Papa!" ("Ich liebe dich, Vater" sounds way too formal) The song is Bavarian, actually, and is "Oans, Zwoa, G'suffa" which means "One, Two, Drunk" as in "drink up". Frankly, it is not the kind of song I would like to hear, because it usually is associated with groups of heavily drinking men, but if it means fond memories for your Dad, maybe it was different in those days.
    Lard is actually part of my recipe for Yorkshire Pudding, and that is the only time I ever use it; in moderate quantities I don't think it is that unhealthy :-)
    Speaking of recipes, has your Dad had occasion to make the Sauerkraut?

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    1. Hey! Somehow my reply do you is a comment all by itself (See below). Sorry, don't know how I did that!

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    2. Oh! And Richard just read what I wrote and he said, "No, I told you that I learned what was called High German in the 70's, not that Bavarian is High German"...I do somehow get things muddled up. Sorry!

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    3. Never mind, Kay :-) My German is, by the way, Swabian; I understand Bavarian well enough, it being our neighbouring state, and I can even speak proper (High) German. In fact, customers I have from those parts of Germany where High German is spoken have even asked me how I ended up in the South, and where amazed when I told them that I was born and raised here and actually a Swabian :-)

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    4. Interesting! It reminds me that when I worked in England, people would ask me about my accent. "You don't sound American", they would say. (They would usually guess I was from New Zealand!) I told them I had to do a "Dick VanDyke" accent in order to be understood. Most of them laughed.
      I worked with a very funny girl from Rugby, England and when she heard Richard speak, she said, "Oh, he has a nice accent. He's not dead common like me!" (He has a nice accent, but don't get me wrong, it's not that upper class accent that sounds so odd to my ears.)
      We used to have very distinct accents in the USA, but now, because of TV, most of the young people sound as if they are all from California...

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  4. Your Dad must be a mine of memories, how wonderful!

    SP

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    1. SP,
      The wonderful thing about my Dad is that not only does he remember interesting things from his past but he keeps up with everything happening NOW. If you think about it, that is a lot stored in the brain when you have been around almost 85 years. I hope to take after him!

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  5. What a great post! Your dad must have so many terrific memories to share. Don't you just love to listen to their generations as they share all the things they experienced. They have such amazing stories to tell.

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    1. Dear Martha,
      I love to hear people's real stories, especially my Dad's!
      Did you see my posts on "The Leopoldville Disaster" and "Louis Zamperini"? My time as a travel agent gave me a unique opportunity to meet a lot of World War II vets who would come in to make arrangements for their reunions. Mr. Zamperini, I have never met, although, I feel as if I know him... talk about an amazing story!

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  6. Librarian,
    Thanks! I will call my Daddy and say it! Richard says that Bavarian was called High German when he learned German in the 70's. Like you, I don't relish being around or even listening to heavily drinking men. Some of those videos that I saw on Youtube were painful. I only put the most restrained on my post. I can just imagine the German civilians nervously standing up in front of the American soldiers, wondering what kind of reception they would receive, earnestly playing their music hoping for cigarettes that they could sell for food...
    My Daddy's sauerkraut should be ready this week and I hope that he will make your Mother's recipe. I will let you know. :-)
    C. is getting ready for work now, and when he came downstairs, I said "Ich liebe dich" to him and asked him if he knew what it meant."I love you" he said, 'everyone knows that". NOT EVERYONE!

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  7. Enjoyed your post, we remember Germany well, we were stationed there 3 times for nearly 10 years in all.

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    1. Lucky you! I didn't mention it in my post but I have never been to Germany! My Dad has and my husband has, but not me.
      So happy that you have become one of my followers! Thank you!

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  8. Lovely post Kay, it's always nice to hear about other people's experiences. Those tunes are catchy and I bet I have that second video swimming around in my head all day as well - I already do in fact :) Those were the days when cigarettes were part of the ration kit - I wonder how it works now for soldiers - do they need to pay for them out of their pocket beforehand? The tin of lard surviving this long is amazing, but things were made so much better years ago, made to last - not like nowadays - so in some ways, I'm not totally surprised! I hope your Daddy enjoys this :)

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    1. Hey Jane!
      Does the fact that the tune is swimming around in your head prove to you how much we are alike? ;-)
      I just talked with my Daddy and he has problems bringing up my blog so I emailed him this post. He seemed pleased at the idea of it, I will have to do a follow up post on my Dad's reaction!

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  9. Replies
    1. Dear Janice, Thank you for visiting.
      I love your art.

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  10. With regard to your comment on my blog, Kay:-
    Kay - I expect you have seen this library magazine. As you no doubt know, James Clover, did not agree any design plans for The Blade and told the sculpture committee "What you get is what you get!" According to another site "The whimsical forms are often a riotous chaos of white geometric shapes that climb into the air," which, I suspect, means a lot of them had no real meaning as such.

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  11. Scriptor,
    How pleased I am that you found that! Yes, I remember reading that article. I know Gibson Cornwell and his mother and most of those wonderful sweet people that were on that committee. They must have horrified. I think it is telling that the artist lives in Ecuador!
    I really love art but sometimes what passes for art surprises me.
    Oh, if you go far enough back (I guess it was 1990) the first person to check a book out from the newly built library...it was me, with my baby in a baby sling!) This library is where my sister works now, the one who never liked to read, go figure!

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