Page 45 - My Story
P. 45

and greeted us, in German of course, but these children were mainly American, attended the International
               School, appeared to have never been disciplined and didn’t understand German.  The warden finished
               with, “I’ll get you some cocoa.”. Helen translated, and they caught the coke of cocoa so there was big
               disappointment when  the  hot chocolate  arrived.  Meanwhile  some  of  the girls had discovered the
               beautiful oak staircase and were sliding down the bannisters.  Janet and I hustled them all into a corner
               and gave them a huge lecture on respecting other peoples’ property.  It was a nightmare of a weekend
               and I vowed, “never again”.   Sure enough, when she had the great idea of a weekend camping trip it was
               Tom who bravely went with her.   My children went along and said it was great, so that was fine with me!


                         I remember early on, before the men had met, being at the Bryan’s house and Tom breezed in
               and said we were all going out to get a pizza.  This was a totally new thing for us – we rarely went out to
               eat and pizza?  But off we went to a little Italian restaurant and were served with a delicious pizza – well,
               there were ten of us, so it must have been several delicious pizzas.  The friendship blossomed, the men
               liked each other – who couldn’t like Tom?  He was funny and erudite and respectful with a wonderful
               sense of the ridiculous.  Janet was more serious and always striving but not always successfully and you
               loved her for it.  Through the Bryans I met more of the international community.  We went to something
               called the Frauenring and at one of their meetings discovered Helen Senior whose husband, Derek, was
               working for ICI – we women were all camp followers in those days.  Not one of us was there because of
               our jobs, it was all, “What does your husband do?  Who is he working for?”


                       Helen and Derek had three children – Robert and Dinah who were just either side of Toby, “und
               ein Baby” I can hear Helen saying in her careful German.  The baby was Susannah, then about a year old.
               Helen and I got chatting and became good friends and she introduced us to Jean and Gerry Baptist, who
               was then in advertising, whose two children, Polly and Mark were about the same age as Robert and
               Dinah.   With the Bryans the eight of us became inseparables and we went to all the fun fairs and festivals
               and celebrated all the processions together.  We have a photograph somewhere of everyone on our
               balcony with large glasses of wine watching the girls of the Gymverein parading by.  Helen and Susan were
               members of this Verein and the mothers had been told only twenty-four hours before that the girls had
               to be dressed in white tunics with big red sashes at the hip.   Thank goodness for my mother’s old linen
               sheets.  One of them became two tunics, the red sashes were provided, and my two girls were the only
               ones with the bows over their left hip.   We didn’t notice until they were parading but all the other girls
               had the bow over the right hip!

                       Helen being the oldest of the Seniors, Baptists and our children was often put in charge during
               our parties and revels and occasionally even baby sat while we went out.   Our men played tennis every
               Saturday  evening and this was followed by dinner  at  one  or other of  our houses.   Later the Bachs
               introduced us to another American couple, Dorothy and Henry Retter, an architect.  This was Henry’s
               second marriage and he was a good bit older than the rest of us.  He loved to play tennis and was very
               competitive with these younger men who would laugh at him and give him a hard time.   What my children
               remember about Henry was his old Mustang with its distinctive horn with which they would announce
               their arrival.  Henry’s full name was Heinrich Helmut Retter von Haydn and he spoke not one word of
               German!

                       They later had a baby, Claudia, and Dorothy called me some days after she got home from the
               hospital to ask whether I would take the baby and give her a bath!  She was too scared to handle her.  I
               took the baby and gave Dorothy lessons in bathing an infant, but I think what she really needed was
               counseling to give her some confidence.

                       It was also through the Bryans that we met Liz and Adolph af Jochnick at a party one evening.   She
               was very beautiful with dark curly hair and he was a handsome young Swede who was with Hueblein and
               seemed to be introducing Germany to Kentucky Fried Chicken.  They are still part of our lives.


                       There is one more story to be told about the Bryans.  Janet had been in hospital and was perhaps
               released too early.  I dropped her girls off after Brownies one evening and she was covered in hives and
               breathing with difficulty.   I called the hospital and said we were on our way, called Tom to meet us there,
               threw a few toiletries in a bag, put Carrie and Helen in charge and set off.  It was a horrible journey, not
               too far but the weather was awful, the roads under repair and Janet was groaning and obviously having


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