December, 1976
Jim Gross was my roommate at Rockford College in 1968-69. He and Linda were both German majors at Rockford, and moved to West Germany after they got married. In her diary, Gloria says: "Jim and Linda are the only Americans in Borken. Jim teaches English at the gymnasium. The gymnasium is the college (rather, university) preparatory school, with students from 6th to 13th grades."
"Last Saturday a friend of Jim and Linda, Tom Hatzenbuhler (originally from Silver Springs, Maryland, now living in Heidelberg with his wife Eva) arrived. He was quite a personality." Here we are sitting around the kitchen table, learning from Jim and Linda on how to play bridge...
"Last Saturday a friend of Jim and Linda, Tom Hatzenbuhler (originally from Silver Springs, Maryland, now living in Heidelberg with his wife Eva) arrived. He was quite a personality." Here we are sitting around the kitchen table, learning from Jim and Linda on how to play bridge...
"That Saturday night we all went to a small town to hear Linda play bassoon with an orchestra. I enjoyed it."
"Monday morning [we] decided to take Tom to the Arnhem train station, since Borken connections are so few. Jim and Linda were without passports though -- because of their [upcoming] trip to Russ over Christmas, the Russians were holding their passports for the visa red tape. Jim had a letter, however, explaining all this, and we felt that would be enough to cross the border for one afternoon. The Dutch border patrol agreed with us, but the Germans didn't. Jim came back to the car irate, saying the damned German didn't even care to read the letter or hear an explanation. We took off into Holland anyway. We'd cross another border crossing on our way back into Germany. To hell with the Germans. But we sweated it out all day."
"Finally, afternoon ending, we approached the border -- the Dutch waved us by -- the Germans... the Germans didn't even look at us, just waved us by... the guard was eating and obviously didn't care to disturb his dinner. Jim breathed one huge sigh of relief."
"Monday morning [we] decided to take Tom to the Arnhem train station, since Borken connections are so few. Jim and Linda were without passports though -- because of their [upcoming] trip to Russ over Christmas, the Russians were holding their passports for the visa red tape. Jim had a letter, however, explaining all this, and we felt that would be enough to cross the border for one afternoon. The Dutch border patrol agreed with us, but the Germans didn't. Jim came back to the car irate, saying the damned German didn't even care to read the letter or hear an explanation. We took off into Holland anyway. We'd cross another border crossing on our way back into Germany. To hell with the Germans. But we sweated it out all day."
"Finally, afternoon ending, we approached the border -- the Dutch waved us by -- the Germans... the Germans didn't even look at us, just waved us by... the guard was eating and obviously didn't care to disturb his dinner. Jim breathed one huge sigh of relief."
"Yesterday Russ, Linda, and I accompanied Jim in three of his classes. Russ stood at a huge relief map of North America describing our journey across the states and Canada; we passed around selected photographs we had taken; we answered questions of all sorts; and Russ topped off the hour off by singing The Boxer, Blowing in the Wind, Jamaican Rum, and Buenos Noches Roches. The pupils seemed interested in our travels, but were delighted by Russ' music."
"Tomorrow we leave Borken for Mannheim, to see Gloria Curry Rohrer and meet her new husband, Lou."
"Tomorrow we leave Borken for Mannheim, to see Gloria Curry Rohrer and meet her new husband, Lou."
"After a scenic train ride through the Rhine River valley (Köln, Bonn, Koblenz, Mainz, Worms) we arrived in Mannheim and made our way via straßenbahn to Sullivan barracks, where we succeeded in surprising Gloria Curry Rohrer to the point of near-hysterics. Needless to say, it was great seeing her again after nearly four years. After work (she teaches American history to GIs at Big Bend College) we rode on to Worms, meeting Lou and Duncan (their jumpy-but-lovable female cat). We were hoping we might travel somewhere with them over the holidays, but they had plans for Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania from December 17th through January 2nd. They offered us the use of their apartment during their trip, which was a wonderful surprise and a tremendous savings to us!"
"Saturday the 11th Russ and I went to Heidelberg to see Jackson Browne. It was a great concert, without a doubt the best J.B. show I've ever seen. He played a wide variety of songs -- some from Late for the Sky, some from [his] new album The Pretender. The band was really tight, and it was obvious that J.B. was enjoying himself."
December 17th through New Year's Eve
"Gloria and Lou took off for Kenya -- we were left with Duncan and last-minute Christmas shopping. The entire time they were gone we shopped for food, for gifts, wrote letters, read (Sherlock Holmes!), cooked, watched TV, planned our trip (in part) to Spain, revisited Heidelberg, visited the cathedral in Worms where Martin Luther read his edict, and walked through the Jewish cemetery which dates back to 700 AD. It was a wonderful fifteen days of leisure."
"New Year's Eve we spent at a party at Dan & Irene's [Lou & Gloria's friends, who invited us to their party], a rollicking 8pm to 5am affair. At midnight we all went outside and down the street to watch the local Germans go crazy with fireworks. Russ and I learned a few games, most memorable of which was 'crossed or uncrossed.'"