THE DAY I FOUND A CAVERN

The day I found a cavern, it must have been 1950 just 5 years after WWII had ended. I lived in Bonn which at that time was the capital of Germany and had been badly dammaged by the bombs. We were a small group of 6 to 8 year old children all living together in buildings with very small apartments that had been built quickly after the end of the war for federal government employees in Bonn

Bonn just after the war



The Rhine valley with the Venusberg in the background

The Venusberg from far

There was a small mountain called Venusberg (Venus mountain) just besides the buildings.


With a fortress on the top

Steps were leading up to the top of the mountain where also a hospital was and American soldier families lived here in a sort of "Ghetto". We didn't have a lot of contact with them but when they saw us they always smiled and were very friendly and sometimes we got even some sweets, which was a rarity and it wasn't easy to buy.

We kids loved running up the mountain through the woods  playing cowboys and Indians what we had learned from the American occupation.

One day when we ran through the forest again, one of our group suddenly disappeared. We looked around but saw nothing but a hole from which suddenly screams came out.

We quickly looked into the hole which had been hidden with branches and leaves and into which the boy had fallen.

He shouted that we should come down too because he had found a cavern with a narrow path. We discovered a few steps carved in the sidewalls, leading down into the cavern where it was very dark.

It was a little scary and two children didn't want to go further. But I wanted to know where this path led and went on. A few others followed me. Suddenly I saw light coming from a hole in the ceiling.

We were in quite a big room. To the right and left were old camp beds which were pretty rotten. In the middle was an old table with rusty cutlery and Lead dishes on it. There were a few uniform jackets in one corner and some leather bagpacks. I was only 7 but I realized that we had discovered a secret cavern built in the mountain, where soldiers probably hid from the enemy or the other way around.

We were very proud of our discovery and it became our secret. We brought a lot of stuff there, which we "stole" from our parents, like an old blanket which we put on one of the beds.

We couldn't bring very much because our parents had only the strict minimum and nothing to give away.  But we found apples on trees which we ate with gusto and sometimes when we were really lucky a mother had baked a cake and we brought slices of cake in our cavern !

When I think today where and with what we played at this time, it was our Disneyland ! Adults had no time to to pay attention they had to built up the houses again and hunting for food. We were lucky we lived in this nice area outside Bonn, where houses still stood but people mostly lived in their basements, because there were no windows anymore or the roof was missing.

For us children it was a very happy and adventurous time !

Linking to Linda G. Hills SOCS - Cavern

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY - BLACK IS BLACK

Surprised !


Until I was 18 I never had seen a black person ! I am sure that I have seen some when I was two or three, but my memories are a bit fuzzy. It must have been in 1946 when American soldiers arrived in the little town where my grandparents lived, near Frankfurt, this part of Germany was occupied by American soldiers.

Of course there were also black soldiers, but I didn't realize, I only remember the helmets, the ugly uniforms (maybe since then I am allergic to all uniforms) and the awful cracking noise which the tanks made, when the chains broke the surface of the street and left deep traces.

That there was something strange going on I sensed because my grandpa hold my hand so tight and pulled me close to him. I was intrigued by the noise and the strange behaviour of the people around me, but then the soldiers threw sweets into the crowd for the children. My grandpa held me even stronger because the children hurried to pick up the sweets. I was not interested in sweets but in what was going on. The rest I don't remember.

When I started business school in Brussels I was nearly 19. In my class was a black girl. I had never seen a black person life and so close. I tried to avoid to stare at her and was impressed when she turned her hands that they were pink. I don't know why, but she choose to sit besides me and smiled at me with her sparkling white teeth in her black face. I thought before she thinks that I am a bit stupid, I chose the truth and told her that I had never seen a black person in my life ! She bursted out in laughter and said "Then look at me as you wish" I laughed too and found the white in her black eyes very strange or maybe funny. From that day on we became friends and at one point I didn't even see anymore that she had another skin color as me.

I had told her that I had lived in Germany until I was 14 and there I had never seen a black woman or man. Of course Germany had no colony and under Hitler it was better to be white then black and even that wasn't a guarantee people had to be white, tall, blond and blue eyed. He never had looked in a mirror, because he was small, had brown hair and brown eyes.

Belgium had the Congo and therefore there were a lot of black people in Brussels My son had a few friends and still has and now children are all mixed in a class. Black, white, asiatic, it doesn't matter they grow up together which is a very good thing.

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One liner Wednesday

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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