THE GIRL WITH THE WHITE HAIR

When I was about 10, I had a strange girl in my class. She was tall and skinny, had a very pale face and white hairs. Really white, not light blond but white like an old woman. She hardly spoke with us and was always apart.

What draw my attention too was also the fact that the teacher who normally wasn't very friendly was very nice with her, which was quite unusual. Teachers at that time were teaching and that was it, they weren't interested in pupils psychological conditions everybody had his own worries.

Adults were busy with sorting out their lives, it was only 5 years after WWII and Bonn where I lived was to 80 % in ruins. A few of my classmates were still living in the basement of their houses.

This girl intrigued me more and more and finally I tried to become friend with her. But it was very difficult, she seemed to me as if she had built a wall around her and it was difficult to find a hole and get through to her.

The fact that she had white hair made me so curious that finally I asked my mother. My mother told me that the girl was probably an albinos and asked if she was wearing sunglasses or had red eyes, but I had looked and she had not. She had blue eyes. Finally the curiosity won and I dared to ask our teacher.

To my surprise she answered me I thought she would send me away. She told me that this girl lived in Berlin. Her house was bombed while the whole family was inside. Her parents were killed and she was a toddler and buried under the rubble for 3 days until she was discovered. She was so shocked by this experience that her hairs turned white.

I was shocked too, when I heard this and during the night I dreamt that I was buried under a house and screamed to get me out. My mother tried to explain and comfort me, but I could never forget what had happened to this girl who was my age, while I lived happily with my grandparents on the countryside.

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THE STORY WITH A FUR COAT

During the 80th I worked for an Iranian business man, who had fled Iran in 1971 when the Shah was overthrown by the Iranian Revolution. As he had married a Belgian, he had established his family in Brussels in a big house, unfortunately for her without servants.

He created an export company to buy everything possible in Europe and ship it to Iran. Now Europe and America didn't export anything anymore to Iran, but as usual there is always a hole somewhere and this time it was Sweden which didn't participate in the blockade. So what did my boss do, he shipped all the goods from bicycles to buttons, from clothes to machinery to Sweden to his brother who had an export company too and from there the goods were shipped without any problem to Iran.

The wife was quite special and very posh. She had poor education but was or had been a beauty. She was always dressed in very expensive clothes and amongst her various fur coats she also had a baby seal fur coat. It was just the time when the demonstrations against the massacre of the baby seals started.

One day she came into my office which was an apartment with kitchen, bathroom, living room and two bedrooms. I had one room the accountant the other and our boss the living room as office.

When I saw her my eyes almost popped out of my head ! Her so well combed hair was hanging around her head with something red and yellow sticking in it, the furcoat was red and yellow spotted and her face looked as if it was bleeding. She screamed and yelled and was furious and I tried to calm her down which wasn't easy but I managed with a cognac and a hot bath !! (my work was very various) and while she was sitting as God had created her in the bath,  she told me she had been to a market and when she walked around like a queen in person, people started to insult her and worse, threw eggs and rotten tomatoes on her and the precious coat ! She had to run away and save herself in her car, otherwise the people would have been even more violent. Now she complained to me, that these people were completely crazy that they had nearly killed her because she had that beautiful coat, and when I tried to explain her why they had behaved like this, she didn't understand what fuzz was made because of an animal !!

I was singing of joy inside but made a face full of compassion, it was useless to explain to this woman anything, with her IQ level she didn't understand anyway. She mumbled that now she had to throw this beauty away, and I told her it would be better for her not to wear her fur coats anymore on the street. As an answer she called home and asked her husband to bring her another coat and complained bitterly about what had happened to her, and that now she would go to the hairdresser to have her hair fixed. She had another cognac put on the coat her husband had brought meanwhile and disappeared. My boss smiled to me, he was used to worse and I returned in my office.

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SoCS - YES WE CAN ... OR NOT ?

Yes is a tricky word ! It can bring you in the most unpleasant situations. Imagine you say yes with sparkling eyes and a happy smile on your face in front of the pastor, and 3 month later you say "yes" with a sour face to a divorce. Maybe it will last a bit long or even forever but still it is a dangerous yes and has to be thought over very carefully.

Then you have the politicians they say "Yes we can" and then after a while they realize they can't because there is the opposition which says "No" to everything which seems to be a good idea. Others promise "Yes I will make America great again", forgetting that we are not in the wild west anymore and immigrants are not welcome at all, before they needed it to win land, kill the natives and look for gold, but these times are gone. That's the same with "Yes" I am for the Brexit, forgetting that the UK is all alone without its Commonwealth and therefore there is no common wealth anymore and we all need each other.

Since I was a child I have learned that it is better to say "No" first, think the question over carefully and change your mind into "yes" if convenient. That's far better than to change a yes into a no. That doesn't sound so good.

Saying "yes", the opposite to "no" is far easier. No problems, no discussions, no fights with yes ! and the opposite of course with "no". Therefore those who want to stay always in peace with everybody and agree to everything, they should always say "yes". But please note that it can be dangerous !

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