Taking Care of Teenagers in the Sixties

According to Papa Panknin’s Critical Comments

“I don’t have to worry about anything with Walter. He is very economical and can save money. Unfortunately, Bienchen is a lot like my dear wife in this regard. For them, the money is there to be spent. Now I have to admit that we have had to live very, very frugally compared to our fellow citizens. We’ve been through bitter times. Cottage cheese slices are healthy and digestible, but for a change, you would also like to have a sausage sandwich. We still can’t afford butter.

Children today cost a lot more than they used to. Our parents weren’t so unreasonable as to spoil their children like they are now. If I get my hair cut once, my son goes to the barber twice. If I buy a pair of shoes, my son will need two pairs and my daughter will of course need three pairs and that’s how it is with everything.

Little Walter hardly worries me. I enjoy him. At 16 years old, he is mentally very advanced, but sexually still completely harmless. He is still a good boy. Biene, who is actually a lovely girl, is at the craziest age. She has no other interest at the moment than dancing. This is the starting point of an abrupt, violently groundbreaking development. There’s nothing you can do about it, at least not much.

All of this has always been like this. But I don’t think there has ever been a generation in which adolescents are made the main characters and adults completely take a backseat to their demands. It is natural law. You have experienced it yourself in a similar form. The most you can do is slow it down a little. What’s the point of living in a beautiful area, if you can’t dance? The two children have absolutely no interest in forests, trees and mountains. All of this has always been like this.”

Papa Panknin’s Criticism of His Son

Gleaned from Papa Panknin’s Correspondence with Friends and Family

1963-11-13 “Walter, my son, received a very good report card and Biene also received a satisfactory one. But Walter also sometimes worries and annoys me. He had asked for an umbrella from Mom for his birthday and of course, received it from Mom. The thing about the umbrella gave me a stab in the heart. In the years that I have stood in a hail of bullets and breathed iron-rich air, my son wants to protect his head from raindrops. Of course, I hope he will have a better life than us parents, but an umbrella for a German boy is going too far for me. I find this difficult to come to terms with. Walter is a bit small. But he has brains and a strong will and has also grown well and strong. So he could one day become a whole guy, a whole man.

Yes, I don’t like the education system anymore, the upbringing of our young people, I think everything in the world has gone crazy and I can no longer understand it all. As it is well known, children are more likely to take advice from their teachers than from their parents. So my son says that he has to wear sunglasses. Of course, he wants expensive sunglasses, cheap sunglasses are no good. He also believes that after a bath in the salty ocean, you should shower yourself with fresh water. Indeed, he can prove this scientifically. His school constantly asks the students to buy new books, especially brochures, with my money. When it comes to literature, the students don’t live in the age of supersonic speed, but in the age of Romanticism. The poems I read in their books are mostly trash in my opinion.

They deal a lot at school with so-called modern literature and art. I’ve written it before. Some of their most frequently used words are the words interpret and interpretation. They indulge in the use of these words and feel very important. In the past, it was considered correct to train a person linguistically so they could express themselves clearly and unambiguously. Today you are looking for something to interpret. And so many of our laws are so unclear that they can be interpreted in multiple ways. In an otherwise completely sensible history book there are illustrations of modern art that can only be described as totally incomplete and idiotic. These are presentations that cannot be interpreted even with the greatest imagination.”

While I was waiting …

On May 1st, I took my car to Nakusp to get it serviced. There is no better way to bridge the one-hour waiting time with a little stroll down to the beach at Arrow Lake with your camera handy. Spring has now sprung very noticeably. Hyacinths and common stork’s bills have spread from nearby gardens onto the steep embankment at the lake. With Saddle Mountain looming high above the lake in the background, I also captured some impressive driftwood sculptures and a willow tree in its verdant glory. The cheerful German folksong “Komm lieber Mai und mache die Bäume wieder grün.” emerged from distant childhood memories. You find a few of my photos below. Enjoy.

My composition “Among May Flowers” uses five tracks to create a polyphonic effect.

In Search of Wildflowers

I must declare I cannot compete with the fascinating images of wildflowers that my blogging friend from Texas has posted in the last couple of months. The fields where they grow are so huge that I call them heavenly carpets. On April 22, my wife and I drove 3 km south of Fauquier to our favourite wilderness location overlooking Arrow Lake in search of wildflowers. Luck was on our side. Well, bending and even lying down helped a little to capture these tiny beauties on the ground. Here they are. Enjoy.