About Us


Hello! My name is Peter. My wife Gertrud and I have been living in the small community of Fauquier BC for over 35 years. Here we raised our five boys in the beautiful environment at the Lower Arrow Lake surrounded by lush forests and snow-capped mountains. If one considers that I changed residence at least a dozen times in the first half of my life, one must conclude that Fauquier in spite of its remoteness from the major population centers must have plenty of things to offer to attract people and make them stay. I discovered to my dismay that very little had been written about our small community of some 200 people, its points of interest and attractions not just for tourists traveling through, but for its residents as well. On a separate page I will attempt to fill this gap by talking about its wonderful location, natural wonders, genuine four-season climate, its friendly people who have chosen to live here either to raise a family or simply to retire in a peaceful rural setting.

My wife and I originally come from Germany and have made Canada our home. The fascinating story about our plans to begin a new life so far away from parents, relatives, and friends will also form an important part of this blog. I will write about our family history in book form beginning with my grandparents, who lived in the former German province of Pomerania. Then I will tell the story about my family and their ordeals during the closing days of World War II and their new beginning in postwar West Germany.

My wife’s nickname is Biene, a German word, which means ‘bee’. As a little girl she was very much afraid of bees. So they gave her this name, by which she has been and still is well-known to family and friends. Biene is presently writing about her side of the family in her own blog ‘This Miraculous Life’, which she had started a couple of months ago. You can read about her exciting life experiences at bieneklopp.com, a site, which I think is truly worth visiting often.

As to me and my blog, I would like to emphasize that apart from a photo gallery that will highlight my passion for nature and God’s wonderful creation and apart from showcasing the beauty of our community located in the West Kootenays, I will focus with few exceptions on what the title of my blog and the header are suggesting: thoughts, dreams, reflections, and stories on everything that is worth sharing with family and friends.

Arrow Lakes

My Wife and I Relaxing at the Beach

 

81 thoughts on “About Us”

  2. Stumbled here via Emma’s blog (bluchickenninja) and now you’ve got me intrigued. We seem to be sharing a lot (including how far away we live from our roots) and I will be back to explore your blog.

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    • Ja, du hast schon recht. Doch darfst deinem Opa nicht böse sein. Nicht alle haben das Talent oder den Willen zu schreiben. Vielleicht kannst du später einmal eure Familiengeschichte schreiben. Viele liebe Grüße aus dem verschneiten Kanada!

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  6. I am so glad I stopped by to visit. Your area sounds wonderful. I just retired from teaching German and studied in Heidelberg and taught twice as a Fulbright teacher in Germany. We make Upstate NY our home where I too enjoy four seasons.

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  8. I have a Vaki batik 5 ‘(lateral) x2’ given to my father ,Dr Henry Copps, by artist Jack Wise before he moved to the NW from Florida in the early to mid-60’s. I will try to upload an image of the work if you are interested in viewing it. I look forward to finding out more about Bill Laux and his work. I am thinking also that you may have been acquainted with Jack Wise – he created mandalas in his later works before he passed.

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  9. Nice to meet you and Biene, Peter. Thanks for following The World according to DIna. 🙂
    I’m a Norwegian living mostly in England and Germany and Klausbernd is German, living in Norfolk, UK.
    Greetings from two expats,
    Dina 🙂

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  10. Glad to meet you and know about your way of life. About a year back I read a book titled “A Brutal Telling” that is set around a small community in a remote place in Canada amid lush surroundings. Your blog reminded me of that book.

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  14. It looks as if you have found an idyllic place to settle. The journey of your family from Germany to Canada will make excellent material for your blog, I have no doubt.
    Many thanks for following my own blog, which is much appreciated.
    Best wishes from England, Pete.

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    • Wesel’s claim to fame is not only the mayor of Wesel, whose echo came back as Esel (Ass), but also the depressing fact that Wesel turned out to be the most thoroughly bombed out city of WW2. Less of 2% of the houses were still standing. Due to Nazi propaganda as an impenetrable fortress on the Rhine, the Allied forces took no chances and gave the weakly defended city a taste of the infamous carpet bombing. Even more than 10 years after the war, I was still playing with my friends in the ruins. Your master will know this for sure. Thanks for taking the time to respond!

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    • Dear beetleypeter, you may have wondered about my comment and perhaps even questioned my sanity. The comment was meant for another blogger located on the list below yours. My sincerest apologies!

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  15. Es ist eindeutig von Vorteil, wenn man Eltern hat(te), die auch bereit waren, über die Vergangenheit zu sprechen. Ich hab leider nur viele Fotos (beginnend in den 40er Jahren) aber keine Hintergrundinfos. Was hat mein Vater als Soldat in Danzig getan während des 2. Weltkrieges oder in Riga, wo er auch war? Ausser Fotos ist mir nichts geblieben, denn diese unsäglichen 50er-Jahre (und danach genauso) waren gezeichnet durch Verdrängen, Schweigen und Schwelgen im Konsumrausch. Immerhin der Ahnenpass meines Vaters und Ariernachweis (noch nicht behördlich abgestempelt) ist noch vorhanden – ein Mysterium, das jetzt nicht mehr so einfach zu lüften ist.

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    • Bei mir war es nicht anders. Als ich die Gelegenheit als junger Mensch hatte, mit meinen Verwandten über Familie und deren Schicksal zu sprechen, war ich noch nicht interessiert. Gesprochen wurde über die Ereignisse im 2. Weltkrieg sehr wenig. Doch habe ich das Glück, ein Buch, das ein entfernter Vetter von mir über die Klopp Familie geschrieben hat, zu besitzen. Das übersetze ich nach und nach für unsere Nachkommen in Kanada ins Englische. Vielen Dank für deinen lieben Kommentar!

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      • Ich hatte letzthin einen Film über Israel gesehen, und da war das mit der Verdrängung noch schlimmer, weil den Überlebenden des Holocaust wurde quasi unterstellt, dass sie sich nicht gegen den Nazi-Terror gewehrt hätten und quasi selber schuld an ihrem Schicksal wären. Ziemlich krass! Das Ergebnis: in der israelischen Gesellschaft konnte jahrzehntelange nicht von direkt Betroffenen des Holocaust über das Erlebte und die Zeit gesprochen werden – eine traumatisierte Gesellschaft.

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  17. I’m so excited to start following your blog! Not only am I interested in family history and genealogy, I also have a touch of wanderlust and enjoy learning about new places (and hope to travel some day!). I look forward to learning from you.

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    • Dear friend of my family blog, I would be very happy to assist you with your blog some time in the New Year. It is truly rewarding to search and find old family stories and photos and put them together into a cohesive and interesting piece of writing. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Good luck on your adventure into your family’s past!

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  18. Your story sounds fascinating! I am already so far behind though—what’s the best way to catch up? Where in Germany are you from? We will be heading there in a couple of weeks!

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    • Amy, I realize that there is a lot of reading on my blog. It all depends. If you are interested in a true and at times brutally honest love story, click on the Klopp Family tab and navigate to chapter 21. You find it easy to catch up with the story still in progress. For your own writing on your family journey I recommend compiling your work on a separate page in chronological order. Each time you write a relevant post, copy and paste it to the family page. My wife and I have been in Canada for the past 50 years. Thank you very much, Amy, for your interest!

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      • Thanks, Peter—I will check out chapter 21. Your suggestion is a good one, and I should at some point do that. Right now I am so busy doing the actual research and writing up before I forget what I’ve learned that I’ve no time for reorganizing what’s already been done. But some day….

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  23. Hello Peter,
    I am so sorry that my post was not sent to you, I have no reason why. I checked to make sure I was following you. Let me know if that happens again and I will try to check with WordPress. Thank you for your wonderful comment. Have a great Sunday and coming week. E.

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    • Hello Elisabeth,
      sometimes one needs to take the initiative. I clicked on your link to your blog, which I am following. I am so glad you took the time to reply. I will be looking out for the notification from your blog, Elisabeth. Thanks again!

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  24. Hi Peter,
    I’ve read a bit about your father’s history. Such hard and sad times. So much suffering! My own family history has elements of the same. I wrote about it in a fictionalized novel about my mother’s life. It’s called Julia’s Violinist. In case you are interested, it’s available on amazon and smashwords.com Or if you are on my wordsfromanneli blog, you can just click on the image of the book cover or on my website.
    What a time to be alive. It was all about staying alive! We are so lucky today.
    All the best,
    Anneli Purchase

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  26. Especially at the last days of a year is some time to remember. So I am glad that I found your blog which brought me back to certain wonderful moments of my life. Thank you for that. Note that two pictures in chapter 25 of the Klopp book I are mirrored. That is the one with the sheep and the one with the new church of Watzenborn.

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    • I am glad to hear that you like my blog. The photos of Watzenborn were scanned from slides and were most likely flipped in the process. I wonder how you know this little place near Giessen. Happy New Year!

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      • I lived in the Liebigstr. 12 at the time the photos were made. The dog the photo of which is in chapter 22 part V was my mothers dog. I spent some 40 years in Siegen and worked mostly for Philips and DEC. Now, after I am retired I moved back to Liebigstraße 12. I found your remarkeble blog by chance. Since I always look for postcards of Watzenborn I found one announced at ebay. There was a senders address at the back of the card: Günther Kegler, Liebigstraße 10! So I searched for that name and found your blog.We should know each other but I can’t remember.
        I wish you a happy and healthy New Year 2018.

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      • Jochen, this is not the first time that someone stumbled upon my blog and discovered we had something in common. But your case is quite remarkable in that my uncle, mother and two aunts lived next door. You might know the little girl who played Memory games with me in 1964 and always beat me. I believe our neighbour’s name was Uhmann or something close to that. Where did you learn, if I may ask, such a flawless English? Who received my uncle’s card? Again what an amazing coincidence that you found my blog. Happy New Year!
        Peter

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  27. Thank you for the unique (to my experience) blog and the number of engaging autobiographical stories therein. It’s a pleasure to read.
    Of great interest to me is Bill Laur’s STEEP AND CROOKED: THE MINING RAILROADS OF THE CANADIAN BORDER. Thank you for presenting it in its entirety. I wonder if it was ever printed in hard copy?
    What a fine storyteller was Mr Laur, and what a wealth of information contained in his story.
    This narrative ties together for me the snippets of information I have found to date, and presents the motivations and actions of the people involved in a manner that permits the readers understanding. Don’t we fall into the practice of seeing the pre-electronic age as uncomplicated, and isn’t that presumption so far off base? 🙂
    Thanks again.

    Mike Stuart

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    • Me, redux. I see I somehow misspelled Bill’s last name in my former post, Where it ought to have read ‘Laux’. Just recently I encountered a web page explaining the castle home the man built, correctly presuming that if the address was Fauquier then this mist be the same man.
      Only today did I find a site that described how you, Peter Klopp spent the time to decode Bill’s works from floppy disk Apple to a modern format and host them on your fine blog. Had you not done so these would surely be lost and would never be appreciated by such as myself. Thank you for that. I find the writing style pleasing and rewarding, nd the information is presented in a very entertaining manner.

      Thank you very much for your work, and your fine blog.

      Mike Stuart

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  30. Hello Peter,

    I discovered your blog, search for pictures of the RAD Lager Buttlar. There was a special picture posted on your story of Rolf barges, showing a gate and some mountains in the background in winter.

    Could you please send me the picture in higher resolution ? It is a rare picture of the “Kalisalz” production facilities. I currently creating a cronicle for Buttlar and would like to use the picture.

    If you are interested in the topic, please have a look on my blog.

    http://rueckblicke-rhoen.blogspot.de/

    Greetings from Buttlar
    David Ißbrücker

    Liked by 1 person

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    • Hello David,
      I passed on your question to Klaus-Dieter Barge. The picture that you are interested in was part of a guest post. If he gives me permission, I will give you his email address and you can ask him directly about that photo.
      Kind regards,
      Peter

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  33. Hallo Peter I was looking for your story ; leaving
    Germany and finally
    Settling at Arrowlake.
    It interests me so very much!
    I also left Germany
    for New York and ended
    up in Argentina.

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    • Thank you for the additional comment, Carola! It is incredible to find someone after all these years who is the great-granddaughter of me grandmother Emma Klopp. Would you happen to have any photos of your grandmother Anna?

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  34. Dear Mr.Klopp. With great interest I have read the wartime story of Oberst Kegler. My hometown Eindhoven was occupied during the 2nd World War and thanks to the diaries of the towns Quartermaster I have found out more about the German forces which were based here. One of them was Infanterie Regiment 27, it arrived around the 25th of October 1940 in Eindhoven and some surrounding villages. It was commanded by Werner von Bülow who took command of IR 252 in November 1940. Gerhard Kegler became the new commander and had its quarters at the Leeuweriklaan. He and his staff used houses 6, 8 and 10 and took up their quarters at the 27th of November. Around the 24th of May 1941 IR27 left Eindhoven. Often it is very difficult to find out more about German units, its men and what happened to them. Thank you for his story and great to see a pictures of him. Best regards and Merry Christmas and a happy New Year. Hans

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    • Dear Hans, this is very interesting information on my uncle Gerhard Kegler. I will pass it onto his son Dietrich Kegler. I am happy indeed that you found my post useful. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Peter

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  35. I suspect that my brickwall ancestors could have been from Pomerania (immigrating to the U.S. in the 19th century), but it’s not clear as they might have been itinerant estate workers as their children were born in different places. Very interesting project, Peter.

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  36. Hi there. I am doing some research and I came across an article by Bill Laux. While searching for info on him I came across your site. The research I am doing is centered around Byron Riblet of the Riblet Aerial Tramway Company in Spokane. Mr. Laux wrote an article about one of his trams on the Pend Oreille River in Washington State. I wanted to use a drawing from the article in my work and was trying to find out how to get permission to do so. Can you help? Thanks so much.

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    • The information I used comes from Bill’s archives stored at the Fauquier Communication Centre. The person to contact would be the president. You can contact Al Brown on FaceBook. Good luck!

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      • I found the book Tramway Titan by Martin J. Wells to be a very enjoyable historical treatment of the Riblet brothers Byron and Royal. I have visited the sites of several of Riblets’ trams. Are you planning a similar work?

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  37. My apologies, I thought I was addressing TyBrown and it appears I was seen to be addressing the site owner. That said please allow me to express my pleasure at reading your material, and for your rescuing and presenting the works of Bill Laux.

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  38. Hello!
    You are using a photo of me without authorization, as well as without author information. This is a photo of a classroom. The photo has the designation TSF3645. Please remove this photo from your website immediately. Otherwise I will be forced to take legal action. Please contact me.
    Tom Schweers

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    • Dear Tom,I am very sorry about a possible copyright infringement. Please tell me where I can find the classroom picture by providing the post’s title. Then I will immediately remove the photo in question.Thank you, Peter

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    • Dear Tom,
      You will be pleased to know that the classroom photo has been located and permanently removed from my website. Perhaps you did not notice that the caption gave proper photo credit to your name. My wife attended school in a classroom like yours in the picture, which she described as austere but functional.
      Kind regards,
      Peter

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      • Hi Peter!

        Thank you for removing it. I will now log out of your site again. The file name in the image description is what made it possible for Google to find my photo. The right thing to do is always to ask the photographer beforehand whether you are allowed to use a photo for your own purposes. And under what conditions this can be done. Minimum is besides the request to put the author under or next to the picture or to note him in the imprint. That can go badly into the money, if one does not make that correctly. Have fun with your site anyway!

        Greeting Tom Schweers

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      • Thank you for your explanations, Tom! When my wife wrote this post on her childhood experiences, she thought providing photo credit to the author would be sufficient.
        Kind regards and greetings from Canada!

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