Over the last couple of years, we have been collecting driftwood from the lakeshore and decorating the skirting of our modular home. Recently, I started to see bizarre animals and strange-looking faces in these wood sculptures. To enhance the effect, I applied with my photo editor Gaussian blur to the background. This adjustment made the fantasy creatures stand out with no distracting elements. For your viewing pleasure, I selected the following five images below. Enjoy!
My latest composition with Logic Pro DAW: Dancing around the Campfire
Papa Panknin’s Efforts to Thwart Biene’s Visit to a Morrocan Pen-Pal
In Biene’s final high school years, her school started an international penpal exchange program, whose main purpose was to promote peace and mutual understanding among teenagers in the world. Since English was developing more and more as the lingua franca, a secondary aim of the program was to give students the opportunity to improve their English skills
Being romantically inclined, Biene pursued this new form of connecting with other mostly male penpals with vim and vigour. Papa Panknin must have wondered about the disappearance of his postage stamps. She entertained her friends with her endearing letters as far away as Brazil. One fellow came paddling down all the way down from Hamburg to visit her. She described him in her correspondence as her future fiancé. There was also a young man from Morocco, who enticed her with glowing descriptions of his country to come and visit, meet his parental home and explore Morocco beautiful landscape.
Then there was also me with whom she also kept up a passionate correspondence and shared so boldly all the details of her latest virtual relationship, and which she was hoping to soon become a reality. Her dad’s letter to the German embassy in Morocco, and the ambassador’s reply will provide some insight into this particular event in Biene’s life.
Papa Panknin on a Hike with Biene (1963)
To the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Rabat Morocco
“My 18-year-old daughter, a high school student, maintains a correspondence with Mr Mohammed Nouari, which is generally supported by schools. To my dismay, this correspondence has degenerated into a so-called pen-pal relationship. Now Mr. Nouari, who is apparently unable to come to beautiful Germany for work reasons, has invited my daughter to visit his parents’ house and to tour his country. I now have doubts about the sense of responsibility of the schools and also of the international organization mentioned: the schools and organizations promote and arrange such youth acquaintances and do not care about the effect that the romantic and idealistic ideas that grow in young and inexperienced girls can have. The schools touch on such things, but they leave it to the parents to deal with them and to clean up the mess.
I, therefore, consider myself entitled to ask the embassy for information and a statement before I even consider my daughter’s request to accept the invitation. Personally, I think all this is nonsense. But my views are not decisive; the prevailing zeitgeist is. People say, schools too, that my views are no longer up to date, that they are backwards, that everything is different now than it was in my time.
Given the delicacy of the matter, allow me to comment briefly on this. I am very tolerant and was not a racial fanatic during Hitler’s time. That is why, as a police officer, I did not join the SS at the time, which meant that I was not promoted to any higher ranks and I am still suffering from it now. However, I consider the mixing of the white and coloured races, if not exactly an offence against the divine order, to be improper for all parties and only justified in exceptional cases.
I cannot judge the mentality and the plans of a Moroccan of an unknown race and religion. Therefore, I cannot know the reasons for this invitation to my daughter and whether it is of an unselfish and honest nature. Ultimately, the question arises as to whether parents can take responsibility for sending a young and completely inexperienced girl on such a journey.”
The embassy’s reply:
Dear Mr. Panknin,
In response to your letter of April 30, 1963, the Embassy would like to urgently advise you against allowing your daughter to travel to Morocco. Even if Mr. Mohammed Nouari – who can only be a Muslim by name – had no bad intentions, such a visit to conservative Morocco, where women almost without exception still wear veils, would inevitably lead to clear conclusions.
As the unfortunately very numerous examples known to the Embassy show, a marriage between a European woman and a Moroccan man should be strongly discouraged, not for racial reasons, but because they are two fundamentally different cultures. In terms of the way of life and marriage, there are simply no bridges between the European and the Arab-Islamic cultures, so marriages between European women and Muslims are almost always doomed to failure.
Last week, my wife and I travelled to a historic site an hour’s drive south of Vernon BC. It turned out to be a pleasant trip along the shores of Okanagan Lake. Our son had told us that there is a spectacular waterfall in addition to a beautiful campground ideal for camping, boating and swimming. What attracted our eyes were the old buildings that were in a state of decay but still radiated the glamour of a bygone era. I found the fascinating story of the founder of this great estate on a tourist information board. Captain James Cameron Dun-Waters was a Scotsman who came to Canada in 1909. When he arrived at Fintry, he discovered a piece of land that he instantly recognized as having the potential to be transformed into a paradise of natural splendour. He harnessed against the advice of European engineers the power of a nearby creek and waterfall. To the latter, we tourists could climb very steep wooden stairs that led to the thunderous source high above the valley below. Here are a few photos and a video I took on my iPhone and an informative YouTube documentary on this amazing pioneer from Scotland.
Biene standing in front of what is left of the old Fintry estate
Peter ready to climb the staircase to the waterfall
“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.
Mutti Panknin Going Shopping with Biene (Gertrud) and Walter
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.”
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.
The Panknin Twins Biene (Gertrud and Walter)
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.”
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.
Starch Grape Hyacinth
Driftwood Sculpture
Common Stork’s-Bill
Willow Tree
Saddle Mountain Fire Lookout sits on top of Saddle Mountain elevation 2304 m / 7559 ft, to the North is Upper Saddle Mountain elevation 2330 m / 7644 ft. The view is spectacular of Arrow Lake and Nakusp BC.
My composition “Among May Flowers” uses five tracks to create a polyphonic effect.
The Peter and Gertrud Klopp Family 