Chapter 4. Challenges and Celebrations

Chapter 4. Challenges and Celebrations

Those times were BP, Before Penicillin, and there were a number of serious childhood illnesses, which were expected for most children, like rites of passage. I only know from being told that my first severe illness, which had to have included some pain, was a kidney infection when I was just a baby. I don’t know how this was treated, but the after-effects would follow me into my teens due to my mother’s lifelong concern for my plumbing

Chapter 3. Coping With Change

Chapter 3. Coping With Change

1943 – The shelves in German stores may have been bare, and everything was on ration cards anyway, but an under-the-counter market existed for those who could afford it. My father was genuinely interested in keeping his business connections well-polished, and he...
Chapter 2. Here comes the Son

Chapter 2. Here comes the Son

One of my earliest memories is running naked through the house after my evening bath to find my father, my Papa, for the nightly ritual of his taking me into his arms, and calling me his little “Naktfrosch” (naked frog). But it was not the frog label that stuck as a...
Chapter 1. How it Started

Chapter 1. How it Started

I have been an elder or, speaking politically correctly, a senior citizen for some time now, taking advantage of discounts for concert and movie tickets and playing the age card when all other attempts at persuasion fail.