1. Happy birthday day after tomorrow to my youngest daughter, Katie! We've had our ups and downs, but it feels to me now that it's all been an up. She's a beautiful, smart, talented woman, and we've loved her to bits since she arrived the day before New Year's Eve back in the middle of the 1960s.
2. Just finished reading Laura Hillenbrand's amazing book Unbroken. My NJ grandchildren's dogs gave it to me for Xmas, and it was a revelation. It also made me very thankful that none of my brothers, who were all in the AAF during WWII, never got sent to the Pacific theater and were never killed or injured in an accident in training--surprisingly prevalent and deadly. My pal Cathy's dad, too, was in the AAF and was sent to the same place in Florida for training as my oldest brother, John. Dunno if they met or knew each other, but he escaped the accidents, too. If he hadn't, there would not be a Cathy.
3. Was talking with C yesterday about Westphalia, where my mother was born. We got to reading Wikipedia about the various treaties named after that place. When I studied History of
Modern Europe in college, I got my one F on an exam in that class. Could not figure it all out. Holy Roman Empire and all of that. Amazingly complicated! I would love to find a really good book that covers that place and time.
4. Time to turn off the lights and get back to sleep.
So where exactly was your mother born? When the weather improves in the spring I could get on my trusty motorcycle and go take a few photos for you there :-)
ReplyDeleteHere are some basic travel facts about Altengeseke in a single report for your convenience.
ReplyDeleteDecimal Coordinates (Latitude, Longitude):
51.57 and 8.25 (Lat./Lng.)
Coordinates by Time:
N 51° 34' 0" and E 8° 15' 0"
Currency and Currency Code:
Euro - EUR
Spoken languages:
German
Local electricity:
230V - 50Hz
Mobile phone / cellular frequencies (MHz):
900, 1800, 3G
Local Time: 03:41 AM (Saturday)
Timezone: Europe / Berlin
UTC/GMT offset: 2 hours
Sunrise and Sunset:
5:44 am and 9:23 pm
Antipode Coordinates (Decimal):
-51.57 and -171.75 (Lat./Lng.)
This is a very kind suggestion, Stu. You did ride over there a few years ago in search of my grandmother's grave (which was said to be "right up against the wall of the church". A priest in the garden told you that they recycle the graves every 20-25 years or so, so Grandma Redder's grave was no longer marked as such. Who knows who is piled in there now??? Remember this? I don't know if I can resurrect the photos of the houses (two: one for Redder, one for Piek). My grandpa's last name was hyphenated when they left Germany: Redder-Piek, but after they arrived here, they dropped Piek.
ReplyDeleteInteresting!!
I'd forgotten I did that for you.
ReplyDeleteBTW, Amazon sells a jigsaw puzzle showing Altengeseke from the air :-
http://www.amazon.de/fotopuzzle-de-Fotopuzzle-1000-Teile-Altengeseke/dp/B008CE50O2
Wow. a PUZZLE?? That's very cool. Thanks for the info, Stu.
ReplyDeleteAnd I was going to ask from which Westphalia your mother haled. Oh! The one in Germany!
ReplyDeleteCop Car
P.S. Obviously, I had forgotten Stu's previous research, too.
Good question: Michigan, Missouri, or Iowa??? (save for the 5th comment back on this post...) :)
DeleteI was looking for you in the wrong blog.
ReplyDeleteYup....here I am. Thanks for taking the trouble to find me!!
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