It is my grandmother's 87th birthday today. A few months back, I got her a book that's called "Oma erzähl mal" - basically "Tell me your story, grandma". It contains questions about family, life lessons, and simple things about daily life back then, and you are actually supposed to fill them out by hand.
Now, as I said, she's 87, and she gets very tired when she has to write these days. So today I took the book and started asking her some random questions, filling it out myself.
For better understanding: My grandma grew up in the German part of the Czech Republic before World War II, so she was German, but actually didn't live in Germany. She wasn't on the Nazi's side of the story either ... which at some point almost got her in trouble. But that's another story. So when the War was over, she, her parents and her grandma got kicked out of the Czech Republic by the Czechs and they were taken to a small village in Bavaria, with nothing but their suitcase and the clothes they wore. For a few years, her and her husband (my grandfather, who is a full blood Czech, he died more than ten years back) lived in a 10 square meter room on a farm.
They could only get married after they had left the Czech Republic and finally got married in Bavaria. Their wedding day: Mass in the morning and their only wedding gift: Flour, eggs and some meat from the farmer lady they were staying at. When I asked her about her honeymoon she laughed and said: One walk around the cow stables! :)
What a different world we live in today, preparing for weddings as if a life depended on the color of the table decoration. Ridiculous in comparison!
A few other highlights:
- I always knew that my grandfather had lots of siblings, but I never knew that there were 3 real brothers and another 10 (!) half-siblings. Wow! I was trying to imagine my great-grandmother preparing dinner everyday...
- She said it was love at first sight when she saw my grandfather. He came to her house as he and another Czech guy were checking for animals who might have been left behind by Germans who had already had to leave the Czech Republic, and so he knocked on her door. She wore a red dress and was ironing clothes! :) Cute!
- Her advise for life: Always listen to your heart :)
Soon all the contemporary witnesses of the time around World War II will be no longer with us... Time to ask more questions!
Dani, this is great stuff, keep writing, lets not loose these stories and wisdom! Why not make this a bigger project?
Navin
Posted by: Navin | October 12, 2009 at 07:01 PM
An age of entitlement. We live in an age of entitlement. The further away each generation gets from the "difficulties" of the prior one, and the more we encourage Amerikaner individualism and "pursuit of choice and self expression" the more we complicate our own lives. I was at a cafe today, with some friends. It was hard enough navigating each of their "preferences" (they are all urban hyperconsumers, conditioned to enjoy the short walks, ample cafes, and myriad tastes of NYC and SF) and princess syndromes, and all these become critical while looking for places to eat, or destinations to hit up. Wait for a table? No way! Everything must be instant, and perfect. One of the gals ordered a hot chocolate, and by the time I got to the front of the line, I forgot what she wanted, and just got a cup of tea instead. Its only when I got back to the table that I realised I had muddled up, but she did not skip a beat. We were there to hang out as friends, not to indulge specific princess preferences... she just let it slide, and I heaved a sigh of relief. I sometimes feel like everyone (in the west) should be sent to Cambodia or Ethiopia for 6 months to have their "I, Me, Mine" comfort-entitled princess nature beaten out of them in the last year of college, with a 2 week refresher course every 3 years. This is especially necessary for investment bankers, consultants and other varieties of predatory uberkapitalists.
Call me a princess regulator :)
Posted by: Tatashri | October 19, 2009 at 01:25 AM
Hey princess regulator :) Thanks so much for the comment! Turns out: I just was at my grandmother's yesterday - which makes me realize how much time has passed since my last post. Anyways ... I also had dinner at a new Indian place yesterday. The waiter wsa from Calcutta and he told me how strange he found it to sit on the train to Munich (he goes to school in Munich) everyday and see all the depressed and stressed out faces. He said most of those people don't seem to know what a comfortable life they lead. Well... thing is, you are right: we all need refresher courses every once in a while. This guy also made me sad: He said he misses his family a lot. There are 31 one of them and they celebrated Diwali without him. The Western response to this would have been "Well, be glad, how awful, all the family broohaha..." I'm thinking - might not be so bad after all. Have a great day!!
Posted by: twinga | October 19, 2009 at 01:37 AM