Last week, my wife and I visited the Nakusp Hot Springs after a more than two years hiatus because of Covid-19. The snow indicates that we still experience winter conditions. But the sun shone brilliantly from a blue sky and the temperature was hovering pleasantly around the freezing mark. On this hour-long trip, we frequently stopped and took these pictures. We even caught a sunset photo on our way home. Enjoy!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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!
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!
The Peter and Gertrud Klopp Family 