I only stayed in the BOQ a short
while before it got crowded and I wanted out. I found an apartment
downtown, in a private home. I found a 5 room basement apartment,
with kitchen and full utilities for $75 a month, a carton of American cigarettes,
and a chess game once a week with Joseph Huhn, the head of the 4 member
family that lived there. Seems Joseph only rented to single American
Officers because of the American cigarettes and the fact that he had a
unique experience with Americans.
Joseph had been an officer on
a U-boat that was sunk off of the American coast and he and his crew were
captured and put in a prison camp in Maine. He said he never had
it so good while being a prison. He was able to go into town, had
good food and the guards treaded them very kindly. After the war
all the prisoners were put on busses and taken all around the U.S. on a
big tour. They ended up in Chicago or Detroit I believe and were
given the option of returning home or staying in the U.S.
and starting up their old professions for so much money but they had to
stay for 5 years. Joseph elected to stay and earn a lot of money
because he figured post war Germany would be in pretty bad shape.
If I was in the apartment on
Sundays I was expected to eat the big noon meal with the family.
Mrs. Huhn was one heck of a cook but could only speak about a dozen words
of English. The dinner always consisted of a salad with a rich milk-base
salad dressing. When the salad portion of the meal was over I was
dished out a very healthy portion of meat and the ever-present German potato
dumplings. The leftover dressing was used to mix with the meat gravy
which made a meal fit for a King. There was just one problem for
me and that was that the Germans do not drink anything with their meals.
When I brought up this fact to them and pointed out the fact that I sure
could use something to drink, they broke with custom and gave me a beer
or two. I was soon addicted to the potato dumplings though and went
from 135-lbs to 175-lbs in just 9 months.
After the meal I would sit with
Joseph and play him in chess while he enjoyed his cigarettes. I won
every game but one and when he won that he was so proud. I had been
there about 3 or 4 months when he decided to show me the rest of the basement.
My apartment was in half of it and the other half was locked up as I recall.
I guess he had figured that I was now "OK" in his book. When I entered
the room I was stunned. The room was apparently his private den.
Along 3 of the 4 walls were at least a dozen very expensive oil paintings
that were all originals. Each one was different but depicted the
same type scene, that of a single survivor that was desperately trying
to stay on some small piece of floating wreckage. Each scene also
showed sharks circling just waiting for the rough waves to knock him off.
Each scene also showed the survivor frantically waving something, trying
to get the attention of a far away ship that was going away from him.
Though Joseph did not show it, the mental strain of being on those submarines
must have been enormous. I guess that is why he was so happy to be
out of the war.
Because it rained so much I
had a lot of time off during the week so I would hide out a lot at the
apartment. If
they needed me they would call. Every time I
would come in, no matter how quiet I was, Terry, their black male poodle
would come down the stairs for company. Mrs. Huhn was always getting
on me, in a nice sort of way, for not knowing German. So, with
the aid of a box of dog biscuits, I began teaching Terry dog tricks, via
English.
Terry was a fast learner.
When the time was right I sprung him on Mrs. Huhn. With the next
Sunday dinner Mrs. Huhn got on me again about my German, which was coming
along but at a much slower pace than she would have liked. Between
her scantly English and what little German I knew we got a conversation
going and I told her that even Terry knew more English than she did.
She gave me a very emphatic "NO" in German. I had set her up perfect.
I sneakedly reached into my
pocket and carefully pulled out a dog biscuit that I only let Terry see.
That was his cue and over he came with tail wagging and eyes almost bulging
out of his head. I said "sit" and he sat and for the next several
minutes Terry would have made a trained circus dog blush with envy.
When Terry was through I gave him his biscuit and said "See!"
It left Mrs. Huhn speechless as I walked over to sit next to Joseph.
Joseph couldn't believe his eyes either but did appreciate the fact that
I had pulled one on his wife and he joked about it. Mrs. Huhn then
said something scoldingly to Terry and Terry went over to his bed.
Joseph said she had just called him a "trader". The dog biscuits
came in handy in a another very unexpected way.
The section of town that I was
living in had quite a few older folks living there as well. Some
would say hello to me and some would not. Joseph said that they didn't
give the Americans a chance to prove that they were good people and that
some were
still remembering the war.
Right across the street were 2 little
dogs that would bark like heck at me whenever I went in or out. Feetsbie
was the mother and Nero was her son. They were little dogs, only
about 10" high at best. Those 2 dogs wanted at me in the worst way
it seems so they dug a little whole under the fence and would come out
after the car. As soon as I got out though they would make a hasty
retreat to their side of the road. Since I already had the dog biscuits
for Terry I figured that they would rather eat then bark so I threw 2 over
to them. It worked. Within 2 weeks I had both of them eating
right out of my hand. Both Joseph and Mrs. Huhn were amazed that
I could pet them and even rough house with them a little. The locals
soon saw this also and from that point on I started getting greetings form
virtually all the neighbors.
About 1/2 way through my tour
I was ordered to take part in a German language course. It was only
to be 2 weeks long but was designed to give us the basics of the culture
and language. While taking the course I learned that it was custom
to bring flowers to the lady of the house when invited to dinner.
So, the next Sunday I bought some flowers and hid them behind my belt as
I came up the stairs to take part in their Sunday dinner. I said
my greetings in German then asked Mrs. Huhn to come over to me and she
did. I then reached behind me and gave her the flowers. She
took the flowers then stood very still and quite for a moment while looking
at the flowers. Then, before I could even move, she grabbed me and
about squeezed the breath out of me with probably the longest most sincere
hug that I have ever received. Now you have to understand that Mrs.
Huhn was your typical German older lady, not fat mind you but sort of large
and muscular yet still retaining a nice figure. When she finally
let go and pulled back she had tears in here eyes. I had no idea
how much it meant to those folks when they saw an American go out of their
way to learn their ways. Those people treated me like a son.
The End