HODGEPODGE JUNE 29

1. What's one thing you're excited about in the coming month?

I wouldn't say that I am excited, but there’s nothing like a milestone birthday, I am turning 80 ! at the same time as Mick Jagger  from the Rolling Stones who still hops around like in his 20th only he looks a bit ridiculous and his companion Keith Richard. There are also the Beatle, Paul McCartney, and many others. 

I all knew them all when they started ! It's amazing that these artists who certainly  did not lead a healthy life, are still so fit ! They smoked, they drank, took drugs, went to bed late or not at all, maybe had little or no food before they got rich and are still active! Weed does not fade. And those who paid so much attention to their health have passed away !

2. What was your life like when you were ten years old? 

That's a difficult question for me, certainly completely different than all of you who read my post. I was 10 in 1953 and I lived in Bonn the capital of Germany after WW II. The city had been heavily bombed and the adults were busy rebuilding the city. We children played in the ruins and thought it was wonderful. It was our Disneyland. We found toys, dishes, etc., from people whose houses had been bombed out and often only the basement was still standing.

For me the 10 years old, it was a normal life, I didn't know anything else. I had fun, the adults had their worries. Our school was like a metal box and we were 80 in one class. The schools were in ruins too. It was only years later that I understood what had happened.

The adults were not so keen to explain anything to their children and at school nothing at all.

3. What's something from your childhood you still enjoy today? 

My liberty ! I could do what I wanted, the adults had no time to watch over their children, they were too busy with the reconstruction and hunting for food and clothes.

4. What state (that you haven't been to) do you most want to visit? Tell us why. 

Over the years we have visited my aunt, and we have been in so many States that I can only name the ones where we have not been ! But as I can't find the map where everything is written I will try to find it later. 

                                                        The grand Canyon

We have visited Utah in 1971, together with my aunt and uncle. What I loved the most and wished I could see  again was the "Bryce canyon"  ! I preferred it to the Grand Canyon, I had never seen red rocks in my life, and such a strange shape. I celebrated my 50th birthday under the "Sherman Tree" in the Sequoia Park, but at that time it wasn't touristic at all ! I ate an Hamburger !

5. Do you like to drive? Tell us how you learned to drive. 

When I learned to drive it was in the 60th, very unusual for a girl  in Europe. In Belgium you didn't need a driver license at that time, and my father had hired a guy who gave lessons in his private car in which there were two breaks, so he could avoid the worst. My father would never have let me touch his car and anyway he and I would have killed each other if he tried to teach me driving ! That seldom works with parents !

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

I have no special thoughts, just wonder how I will organize the summer ! I don't want to go away except to Eastbourne in August, maybe two friends will come and visit me, one from Eastbourne and one from Germany.