WEST GERMANY, 1951-1954

We arrived in Heidelberg late in the summer of 1951, just in time for me to start kindergarten in the American school there.

The next spring, Mama took me out to explore the old city, which had been founded and laid out by the ancient Romans. She let me wear my favorite red dress, which also had the benefit of standing out in her photos.

The top shot above shows me sitting on the raised edge of the Hercules Fountain. I remember that a local man lifted me up to that spot for the photo, then helped me down, but that’s all that stuck with me. (A quick internet search as I’m writing this reveals that the fountain is an historic landmark in the heart of town.)

The lower photo shows me on a typical street, with the medieval Bridge Gate over the Neckar River at its far end.

Here’s Mama’s interesting shot of Heidelberg’s Market Square during the March 1953 Sommertagszug festival, welcoming spring and banishing winter. I was still just 6, too young to understand what was going on.

The one thing I clearly remember is what you see in the lower part of this photo: a pretzel with an egg inside, atop a decorated pole. I count four of them in this shot and recall seeing them all over the crowded square.

Just now, researching Munich’s Sommertagszug event on the internet, I found this wonderful article with recent photos.

After settling down in Heidelberg in August 1951, not much of interest to me (other than kindergarten) happened until February of  ’52, when we went to Munich, in Bavaria, to observe “Fasching,” a regional version of the German celebration of Karneval (Carnival), or Lent.

What I recall best was a group of teenage boys who came down the street where I was standing with my parents and joyously tossed rolls of confetti all over me. Naturally, Mama made a photo. It’s a fun, unique memory for me.

The photos above show a visit my family made to Schwetzingen Palace during our first year in Germany. Located near Heidelberg, it’s famous for its gardens and the fantastic statues — like this “hounds on a dying deer” — that serve as fountains.

Here’s a photo that Daddy made of Mama and me at another gorgeous fountain, located in Munich this time. Daddy did a fine job of getting the spouting fish, Mama, and me in focus, and it’s nicely framed-up too.

But still, neither of us looks happy, so there must have been an argument over something stupid… like who should take the shot. Such things happened a lot in our family.