A Walk Down Memory Lane

I mentioned yesterday that I’m TDY to Ramstein Air Base, Germany, for a few days. What some of you may not know is my parents were stationed here in the 80s. We were here for 3 years and lived in a town about 20 km from here called Gerhardsbrunn. Over the years, I’ve wanted to go back just to see how/if things had changed any in the 25ish years since we lived there. I mentioned it yesterday to my co-worker, but we nixed the idea because it was getting too late. Today, I had a few hours to kill, so I decided to see if I could find the town again (armed with my trusty GPS, of course (what in the world did we ever do without GPS? We’d be lost without it right now!)).

As I drove the winding road up the mountain (well, I don’t think it’s really a mountain, but it IS a really, really, really big hill!) a flood of memories came back. The road was exactly as I remembered it. I even remembered the dream I’d forgotten I used to have (I used to dream that our car went flying off one of the curves into the trees, then we’d be falling down a cliff and I’d wake up right before we slammed into the ground). This is the turn we took to get to the town. I think the turn itself has changed a little, but I’m pretty sure the sign is the same (if not the same, very similar!):

 

This is the road leading up to the town. This is EXACTLY as I remember it (as you can see, the Germans are much like the Italians and don’t believe in wide roads!):

This is the sign marking the beginning of town. On the right (behind the trees), is the town’s church and on the left is where one of the other American families lived when we lived there:

This is the sign for the main street in town. That tree branch is actually holding the sign up right now, so I couldn’t get a better picture. The street is named for Gerhardsbrunn’s most famous resident:

This is a view of the other side of the church:

This is the house we lived in. I think the only thing that’s changed is the satellite dish on the side of the house.

I can’t tell you how tempted I was to knock on the door to ask if I could look around! I did sneak a picture of the backyard though!

This is the farm right next to the house we lived in. The family that lived there were dairy farmers and they used to invite us over all the time. It was here that I learned how to milk a cow (by hand AND by machine!), saw a calf being born (which is completely disgusting!), and spent much time learning about our German neighbors. They kept us supplied in milk too! The barn is on the left and the house is on the right.

This is the house across the street from the one we lived in. If I remember quickly, three generations of the family lived here. One of the daughters had a son roughly the age of my brother and I. He spoke no English and we spoke no German, but that didn’t stop us from playing together for hours on end.

This is the town’s cemetery. It’s right at the entrance to the town, kitty-corner from the church. My brother, stepbrother and I used to play in this cemetery for hours, making up stories about the people buried there:

This is a view of the town from the road leading up to it (I found a safe place to stop on my way back to the base). The water tower is close to the church. If you look closely, you can see the church steeple hidden amongst the trees to the left of the water tower.

And this is the valley we used to play in all the time. There was a road not too far from town that lead down into the valley. My brother, stepbrother, and I would ride our bikes down the road and play in the woods.

This last picture I took mainly to ask my mom if this house was there when we lived there. It is directly to the left of our old house. I remember a house being there, but I think this is brand new (or at least was built in the last 25ish years). If it is, I’m pretty sure this is the only thing that’s changed about the town. Everything else is just as I remember it being 25ish years ago. (So, Mom, is this different??? There’s an American family living there now and I know there wasn’t one back then.)

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