Author: Peter Klopp

Walter Panknin (1898 – 1977) and His Family Ch5 Part 18

/ Peter Klopp / 14 Comments

Hiking and Other Outdoor Activities

Biene wrote this post

My parents protected and shielded us from their increasing hardships and sorrows. We had many friends and were allowed to play in our quiet neighbourhood without restrictions. After the war, only a few people could afford cars. There was hardly any traffic. Most people travelled by bike, streetcar, train or horse buggy. Special forest trams would take us out into the beautiful surroundings for hiking or other outdoor activities. On weekends my mom prepared a simple picnic lunch, and we would either go by tram or on the back seat of my parents’ bikes out into the forests.

A few relaxing moments for the family and friends

It’s incredible how far we could hike at an early age. My dad would goad us on by promising a pop-like beverage if we made it to the next village or any other destination he wanted to reach. Picking berries or mushrooms would supplement our diet. However, at that time, I was not too fond of mushrooms.

Biene and Walter enjoying the great outdoors

Located close to our home was a public outdoor swimming pool in a beautiful forest setting. My father was a passionate swimmer, and he taught us to swim before we even entered school. I inherited my dad’s passion and went to the pool every day during the open season, no matter how cold the water was. Even before I was six years old, I was allowed to go there on my own without adult supervision,

In the winter, we would get lots of snow. Every day we would spend hours tobogganing with friends down a steep street in our neighbourhood. At suppertime, we would trudge home tired but with glowing cheeks looking forward to our big warm tile stove and my dad’s nightly stories about the great explorers and inventors of the world.

Natural Splendour of the Arrow Lakes

/ Peter Klopp / 22 Comments

Wednesday’s Photos

Of Rock and Wood Sculptures

Lots of sunshine has been brightening up the landscape lately. However, winter isn’t quite over yet, but the warmth from the sun makes you feel that spring is just around the corner, even in our northern latitudes. Enjoy.

The Great Pyramid of Fauquier, BC
The Megalithic Lion Gate at the Arrow Lake
Rough Waters of the Mighty Columbia
Phantoms of the Koots (West Kootenays)
Minor Pyramid and Serpent Keeping Guard

Walter Panknin (1898 – 1977) and His Family Ch 5 Part 17

/ Peter Klopp / 14 Comments

The Golden West

Biene contributed this post.

To share some of their newly acquired wealth, West German people would send precious items to relatives and friends. We received large gift packages from my mother’s relatives at Christmas time. There were delicious sweets, chocolates, beautiful toys, well-made, stylish clothes and shoes for us. Fragrant “real” coffee beans for my mom and aromatic cigars for my father were some of the desired luxury items you could not get in the East. My brother and I were fortunate that we always had comfortable and well-made shoes because of my mother’s relatives who owned big footwear companies in the West.

Biene and her Twin-brother Walter at School

Books and other printed materials were forbidden because they could contain “propaganda” against the political system. Letters and parcels often were confiscated if they looked “suspicious.” My mom tried to keep a good relationship with the mailman so her letters and packages would not get “lost.”
In my imagination, the Golden West was a fairytale land where all the houses had golden roofs like the castles and palaces I had seen in the movie theatre. My father’s friend owned the “White Wall” movie theatre close to our home. My dad took us on many a Sunday to watch Russian fairytale cartoons and other movies. Since I had no concept of the “Golden West,” I thought it was a beautiful place in fairyland where you lived “happily ever after.”

Natural Splendour of the Arrow Lakes

/ Peter Klopp / 12 Comments

Wednesday’s Photos

A thirty-minute video of clouds moving across Ingersoll Mountain has been compressed to give viewers the impression of actual movement. Ingersoll Mountain has a relatively low altitude of appr. 1200 m. It is highly visible from across the lake at the Fauquier Golf Course on a clear day. Enjoy!

“Lilacs”

/ Peter Klopp / 4 Comments

I was so touched by Steve’s father’s poetic essay that I decided to reblog it. What his father said about the Soviet dictatorship that his family could escape from can be equally applied to the Nazi regime. The world is still amazed how it was possible that Germany, which produced Goethe, Schiller, Lessing, Bach, Schweitzer etc. etc., could turn into such a monstrous country. ‘Lilacs’ is a beautiful piece of writing. I read it to my wife, who was also deeply touched by it.

Steve Schwartzman's avatarPortraits of Wildflowers

In 1912 my father, Jack (Jacob) Schwartzman, was born in Vinnytsia, a town then under Russian control in the part of eastern Europe that is now Ukraine. In the 1920s his family escaped from the tyranny of the Soviet Union and came to America to be free. Upon his arrival here he spoke Russian but not a word of English. He learned quickly and soon became a craftsman of his new language.

The tyranny now engulfing Ukraine makes this a right moment for a poetic essay that my father published in the spring of 1966, when we weren’t even half-way through the original Cold War. Now that we’ve entered a second one, the essay is as timely as it was 56 years ago. Feel free to repost this in a spirit of solidarity.

 Solomon and Anna Schwartzman in eastern Europe in 1923
with their younger son Isidore and older…

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New Theme New Look

/ Peter Klopp / 23 Comments

In the shortest post since this blog’s beginning, I ask you, my dear readers, to evaluate the appearance of the various elements, such as the title, main photo for the header etc. If you have little time to write a comment, please indicate your impression on a scale of 1 to 10. Thank you! Did you notice that WordPress offers fewer themes than a few years ago? They tell me that the reduction has to do with the new block editing. Too bad!