Memories Of Times Gone By
By M.-L.
@MALUSE (69413)
Germany
February 27, 2022 8:48am CST
I'm going to tell you something about my early childhood. It may make you and other members post something about their experience, too.
Why should anyone be interested in strangers’ memories? Maybe of two contrasting reasons: some people enjoy the feeling that they experienced just the same and others that they experienced nothing like it at all. Prepare yourself for the latter case...
When my birth was due in January 1944 my mother left Berlin because of the bombardments there and went to her parents living in a small town in the east of Saxony where it was quieter at that time. My father wasn’t a soldier because he’d been wounded in WW1. He visited us whenever possible, but not for long as he died of leukaemia when I was only 10 months old. I’ve never missed him consciously. I’ve never known him.
My mother had a job, so I was raised more or less by my grandparents. Life in the post-war GDR (German Democratic Republic) was hard and poor - once my only birthday present was half a pound of sugar cubes, my mother couldn’t find anything else - but we were lucky considering the circumstances. We weren’t refugees. We lived in a house my grandparents owned (some private property was allowed), had an allotment/garden plot out of town and two sheds behind the house with animals, a goat, some hens, some rabbits. My grandfather also had a ferret with which he caught wild rabbits, which meant more meat for us and exchange goods for the very active shadow market.
Does this sound very exotic to you?
21 people like this
22 responses
@kobesbuddy (74669)
• East Tawas, Michigan
27 Feb 22
You had a stable family unit, people who cared about you and displayed love. Myself, I had the same, minus the war experience. WorldWar II had ended, my father had served in the US Army in Okinawa. He never killed anyone. I grew up in a poor family, we had a small house grandpa& my father built, clothing and food to eat. I grew up poor, never knew anything else existed. We worked hard for everything, that was my heritage. Grandma's garden kept our cupboards full. You were a very beautiful child!
7 people like this
@kobesbuddy (74669)
• East Tawas, Michigan
27 Feb 22
@MALUSE When a person grows up poor, they learn lessons about economizing. Nowdays, most children have everything the easy way, they seldom have to work to earn anything.
4 people like this
@MALUSE (69413)
• Germany
27 Feb 22
@kobesbuddy That's certainly true. The good thing in my generation in post-war Germany was that nobody we knew had much. So there was no reason to be envious.
Nowadays, many children have too much and the ones from poorer families who can't buy the latest sneakers and other stuff for their children can have problems if they have got classmates who show off and ridicule them.
5 people like this
@1creekgirl (40576)
• United States
27 Feb 22
It's certainly different than my childhood! But sounds like you all were blessed in ways.
5 people like this
@1creekgirl (40576)
• United States
27 Feb 22
@MALUSE I had both parents and we lived in the suburbs of a medium sized city in Virginia. This was in 1947 so the war was over.
4 people like this
@MALUSE (69413)
• Germany
27 Feb 22
@1creekgirl A big difference concerning the war was certainly that WW2 wasn't fought on the American continent so that no cities were bombed and people killed.
5 people like this
@sweetashoney (3594)
• United States
27 Feb 22
I like listening to and reading about peoples memories for the past. I think it gives you a lot more insight into how things were back then and even now a days. We also grew up with not having a lot, I remember my father would sneak into big fields during the night so he could pick some cabbage or whatever else might be growing there and bring it home. He also would go behind the bakery and get day old stuff. The bakery would put their day old baked items in a big round barrel type container,with a lid. The container looked like it was made out of thick cardboard.
I don't know if they give my father one of the containes to bring home or if he snuck behind the bakery and got them.
3 people like this
@sweetashoney (3594)
• United States
27 Feb 22
@MALUSE They have places here that sells the left over bread from the grocery store. After it sits on the shelf for so long the grocery store can no long sell it, so the bread compant will remove it and sells it to these bread stores real cheap, along with other items that are about out of date, I don't know the bread stores call the bread "day old bread" heck some of that bread is going on a week old. But if a person wants a bargain, it is real cheap.
After this, what the bread store can't sell, they sell to the farmers by the truck full to feed to their farm animals.
3 people like this
@sjvg1976 (41131)
• Delhi, India
27 Feb 22
NO, it doesn't sound exotic. I understand how difficult life would have been after WW. No war is good for the people. I wish the present situation doesn't convert into a world war otherwise it will create poverty and starvation in the world.
3 people like this
@MALUSE (69413)
• Germany
28 Feb 22
Yes, I do. I passed through Ukraine when I and five other students went to Moscow by train to take part in a language course. Our professor told us not to go there by plane in order to get an idea of the dimensions of the vast country. It was still the Soviet Union then.
3 people like this
@vandana7 (98896)
• India
4 Mar 22
Absolutely exotic. I am really sorry you went through so much, and you lost your father so early. I would gladly exchange my mother for my father under normal circumstance. But my father makes me feel safe. I have not seen any of my grandparents because none of them lived long enough. Your life was tough and interesting. You once mentioned you had painting for stockings.
What did you all wear during winters? And how did you all keep yourselves warm. Nowadays we have power and gas. Back then, did you all have all these things? Stockings were necessary but you painted those, right? Those couldn't have kept you warm.
I would like to know more about Post WWII Germany to understand what was the mindset and what people did to recover from the devastation.
2 people like this
@RasmaSandra (73603)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
7 Mar 22
My mother's parents lived in Riga, Latvia. It was the 1800s my grandfather was in the Russian army, There was something the army did not like about him he resembled Tsar Nicholas, They sent him, his wife, and their daughter over the Urals. My mother was about four. The Russians take care of things themselves they shot my grandfather to get him out of the way to make sure there was no double of the Tsar walking about, My grandmother went to bed after that night she woke up with white hair and left my mother to be looked after by neighbors until she could return to Latvia. It was not a good time at all, Therefore, I was lucky to have come into the world after WW II and when my parents were already in NYC, The stories are many and different,
1 person likes this
@RasmaSandra (73603)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
8 Mar 22
@MALUSE it was quite an experience but back in Riga, Latvia things took a humorous turn, My mom decided to help her mom and placed a sign in their apartment window, Gypsy fortune teller, Guess who? Elvira, my future mom decided at age 5 she could tell people the future,
@LindaOHio (156717)
• United States
28 Feb 22
I like hearing about members' lives because it gives me a chance to know them better. That's a lovely picture of you. You had a much harder childhood than those of us in the United States. Thank you for sharing a part of your life with us.
2 people like this
@ihasaquestion (8274)
•
24 Mar 22
I do feel that you have an exotic childhood. Do you spend a lot of time in the garden?
1 person likes this
@MALUSE (69413)
• Germany
24 Mar 22
Yes, I did. Now I don't live in the same town anymore.
Exotic is certainly not the right word to describe my childhood. It was quite normal for me and other children my age who lived more or less in the same way.
In which country did you grow up and where do you live now?
@ihasaquestion (8274)
•
25 Mar 22
@MALUSE I grew up in Asia, Malaysia. I certainly think that the way you described your childhood is exotic. You know.. the era in which you were in and all that.
1 person likes this
@SophiaMorros (5046)
• Belews Creek, North Carolina
28 Feb 22
Definitely a far cry from the childhood memories of more recent generations!
2 people like this
@Meggan (337)
• United States
18 Mar 22
I was a military brat, born in Germany, and moved around a lot. We hardly ever seen family and so I always craved a big family and that closeness. My family was never close and we all had our mini lives and rarely supported each other Eben though my parents had 4 kids. Sounds like you grew up rich in family memories.
1 person likes this
@PatZAnthony (14752)
• Charlotte, North Carolina
8 Mar 22
While life may not have been exotic, you made in through. Many just don't know the hard times people had. We often wonder who will be here to tell the stories of what happened in those days. That is a lovely photo.
1 person likes this
@LadyDuck (458673)
• Switzerland
28 Feb 22
You surely had a lot harder life than I had. I had both parents, the war was over when I was born. Dad was back home, he had a good job. Mom stayed at home to take care of my younger brother and myself. The parents of my father lived with us. I have good memories of my young days, we were happy even if we had a lot less of what children have in our days.
1 person likes this
@Tampa_girl7 (49067)
• United States
16 Mar 22
I especially enjoy your discussions about your childhood. You were a very pretty little girl.
@just4him (306710)
• Green Bay, Wisconsin
5 Mar 22
It sounds like your family had a hard life after the war.
