Krefeld, Germany

First day for kids back to school. Heather stayed home to get stitches out of her head. Nina was up very early and not feeling well — pretty tired. Went to Audi garage and they came and picked up the car. Took tram to work about noon and rode in with Peter and Paula (Chasterneuf). Had good visit on tram. Deposited $700 in bank account and brought diary up to date at office. Asked Fr. Koglin to get train and boat scheules for Paula going back on Wednesday:

Bratheway family was supposed to come over for Family Home Evening, but didn’t show up. We were quite disappointed. Postponed FHE until Tuesday nite. Peter and Paula got lost in Düsseldorf and ended up walking to the Neuss train station. Apparently had a good time in Köln, saw cathedral, and brought back 2 Big Macs from McDonalds. Took Peter home about 11 and talked with Paula until about midnite.

Had Audi fixed. Garage found broken wire in the ignition. Paid 366 marks to get repaired. Hope it runs.

Transcribed from my journal.

Krefeld, Germany

Had Branch Presidency meeting. Everyone there. Started 15 min late again. Br. Trautmann may not be here next week. Will recommend Sister Ingeborg Van Royen as companion to Sister Rachel Hansen as Stake Missionary. Brother Oestreich (Elder’s Quorum President) didn’t show up for Priesthood Meeting. No notification. Br. Hoppe, Br. Rudloff, Br. Trautmann, Br. Smith, Br. Hansen (late!), missionaries, Br. Ostler, Br. Schroeder, Br. Hart, Br. Miller. No Aaronic Priesthood. Br. Trautmann is conducting today. Song #81 “Herr, Unser Gott” for opening song in Priesthood. Sunday School – Song #107 “Lobe den Herren”, #45 “Oder Held des Wahren Glaubens”. I gave 2-1/2 minute talk. English class over ministry of John the Baptist. Testimony meeting: 40 present, including 20 who speak English as native tongue. Opening 73 “Die Sach ist Dein, Herr Jesu Christ”. Sacrament: #5 “Jesus, Einstens Schlicht Geborn”. Second fast meeting in a row that Brother Wright has born his testimony.

Drove with Mervyn and Br. Trautman to visit Sister Buch in Hinsbech. Had a good meeting. We take the sacrament to her each Fast Sunday. She is 86 years old and can’t travel any more. Stopped at Sister Deutsch’s on way back to get some clothes for Hansen’s. She appears to be living with somebody. Glad I’m not a Bishop! Sister Rachel Hansen was set apart today as a Stake Missionary. Lynn and Mervyn came over and stayed until about 1 a.m. Had a great visit and ate a pancake supper. First time for everyone except Paula for maple syrup. They normally put orange juice or lemon juice and sugar on pancakes. Very late in bed.

Transcribed from my journal.

Krefeld, Germany

About 1 a.m. Paula called. She was in Aachen. Travel agent had booked lousy train connection. Drove to Aachen in Audi to pick her up. Car ran there and back to the swimming pool, 5 minutes from home, and quit. Got Nina out of bed to come and get us. In bed finally about 4 a.m. Slept until 9 when telephone rang. Missionaries at church to work and no one there. Sent them home. Mervyn called at 11. He was at church to work and no one there. Nina sent him home. Got up about 3 p.m. Mervyn came over about 6 p.m. Signed receipts and talked until about 11. Learned that Mervyn had written a poem (after his mother died). Got a copy of it and it is in page just before January 1. Very good. Drove Mervyn home and prepared Sunday School lesson on John the Baptist. Audi wouldn’t start to drive Mervyn home.

Mervyn Wright’s Poem:

Question

Oh Father, Father, Father, dear
Please can you tell me why we are here.
They told me a story at church today
Jesus died for us or so they say.
For ever we will live or so they claim.
Oh Father, Father, please explain
God forgives us all they say
If we kneel to him and pray,
God gave us love a feeling true,
This feeling that I have for you.
But Father, Father, tell me why
Why did he let my Mother die?

Answer

My son your mother died that she might live,
No better answer can I give.
For many years she suffered pain
But Jesus suffered just the same.
Knowing this just made her strong,
Knowing that she did belong.
Our God a miracle has performed.
He gave her back her body strong,
A mind and heart that can do no wrong.
So my son one thing I ask of you
Please remember the gospel is true.

Transcribed from my journal.

Krefeld, Germany

Got up early enough to leave 5 minutes after 8 to pickup the Wrights to go to Amsterdam. Ulerike Trieschmann came to babysit. Drove Venlo – Eindhoven – Utrecht – Amsterdam. Parked right downtown. Car stalled a couple of times in city traffic. Drove right by McDonalds. After parking, took a round trip boat ride on canals and harbor. Nina thought it was funny that there are 100 canals and 1000 bridges, and not 89 canals and 987 bridges. Then ate lunch at McDonalds. Nina fell upstairs. They were quite steep. Walked to Madam Trussard’s Wax Museum and went through. Quite interesting. Would like to see the one in London. Bought a bunch of books at the American Book Store right next to the Wax Museum. Bought 9 books for us and 6 for the kids. Went to Flea Market but it was closing as we got there. Quite a place with lots of strange people. Took a picture of a guy with a motor scooter. He looked like a junk collector. It had a plastic roof built over the scooter … from plastic sacks. Rather comical. Ate at McDonalds for super, bought a scarf and necklace for Ulerika and started home. Audi quit between Amsterdam and Utrecht. Mervyn and I walked 2 hours to get help. Car repaired and drove home. Went to pick up Paula at Train station and she wasn’t there. Drove Peter back to camp and went home.

Transcribed from my journal.

Krefeld, Germany

Took Audi 80 (company car) in to get fixed again. 4th trip. They replaced contacts and tuned up the engine. Said it should run. Brought it home and let it run for a couple of hours. Drove it to Düsseldorf to get some checks and check mail at office. No mail. Nina drove Audi to Relief Society and it ran OK. Peter came over late afternoon and spent the evening with us. Relief Society rather sparsely attended. Nina, Sister Wright & mother, Sister Trautmann, Sister Hansen (President), Jarianne Janssen. Several regular attenders not there. Must have thought that we wouldn’t have Relief Society so soon after the holiday.

Bought the rest of the TV antenna amplifier at Radio Shack and coax cable for the new antenna, and a wireless AM mike kit. Built the mike … didn’t work very well. Needs some more stuff to it!

Transcribed from my journal

Krefeld, Germany

Had MIA party last night — Ruth Hansen stepped on a nail and bloodied up the floor. Party broke up early and while we were cleaning up, Rebecca Hansen had Heather on her shoulders and ran through one of the doors in the Relief Society Room and clobbered her head (Heather’s head), splitting it open. We made a trip to the hospital (Stadt Krankenhaus Krefeld) emergency room where she was sewed up. Mervyn and Lynn Wright and Peter Chesterneuf went with us. After the hospital we went over to our house for games and such to celebrate New Years. Mervyn beat me at darts. At midnite we went out to bang pots and pans and found that at least half the city had bought fireworks and set them off at midnite. The entire sky was lit up — sounded like a war! Heard on news today that the Germans spent over $52 million on fireworks for New Years. This will probably be forbidden soon. Hamburg had more than 300 fires from fireworks last nite.

Peter came over this afternoon, and stayed late. Paula (his sister) called tonight to say that she’d arrive in Krefeld on Friday evening at 12:57 p.m.

Transcribed from my journal

Written Monday, 10 December, 2007

When I was cleaning out a box in the storage room downstairs, I found several old journals that I had sporadically kept over several years. All the entries dated 1975 come from one of those journals.

I turned 30 years old in 1975.

At the beginning of the year we were living in Krefeld, Germany and I was the Branch President of the Krefeld Branch of the Church. Nina was driving the kids to and from school every day, about a half-hour drive each direction if the traffic was good. Mid-year we moved to the Munich area.

James was 10 years old as this journal started. Heather was 8, Dawnmarie was 6, and Trevor was 3. Traci had died the year before. The older three children were attending the Düsseldorf International School on the north side of Düsseldorf.

Locations of interest:

We were living in Krefeld, Germany about a half-hour west of Düsseldorf. I was on an expatriate assignment to the TRW plant in Düsseldorf, Ehrenreich. In addition, I was working to set up computer systems at the TRW plants in Alfdorf, German (Repa) and Munich, German (BLW). Alfdorf is a little east of Stuttgart near the city of Schwäbish-Gmünd which at that time had a large U.S. Army supply depot. On a good driving day I could drive from Alfdorf to Munich in about two hours thanks to the unlimited speed allowed on the autobahn.

Cast of Characters:

Work-related people:

• Gordon Plummer: he was my boss (and good friend). Gordon was at the Automotive International Group Headquarters of TRW in Cleveland, Ohio.
• Dick Schneider: the Finance Director at Ehrenreich. Dick spoke fluent English, almost without an accent. The EDP (electronic data processing) department at Ehrenreich reported to Dick.
• Henry Heinrich: The EDP manager at Ehrenreich.
• Bill Stevens: The Finance Director at Repa. Bill was also on an expat assignment originally at Ehrenreich. His wife divorced him and went back to the States and Bill took this assignment at Repa after that. He was also seriously looking for a steady girlfriend (whom he eventually found, married, and brought back to the U.S.)
• Hans Hettich: The EDP manager at Repa
• Bill Hoerner: The Finance Director at BLW. Bill resigned in 1976 to go back to the U.S. and go to law school.
• Busch: a programmer at BLW. When his wife decided not to move to Munich after he took the job at BLW, they divorced and he married a Yugoslavian girl he met in Munich.
• Werner Gantner: A programmer at BLW. He succeeded me as the EDP Manager there.
• Sherry Burnette: A programmer at BLW. She was originally from San Antonio, Texas and had been living for several years in Munich.

Church related people:

• Rudi Trautmann: My counselor in the Branch Presidency. His wife Susann Trautmann had a beautiful singing voice.
• Dietmar Rudloff: The Branch Clerk. Br. Rudloff suceeded me as Branch President.
• Mervyn and Lynn Wright: Mervyn was the financial clerk for the Branch. He was a soldier in the British Army stationed at the British Army Post in Krefeld. Mervyn and Lynn became our very best friends while we were there and sadly, we’ve since lost complete contact.
• Peter Chasteauneuf: That’s how I’ve got his name spelled in the address book of the journal, but I’m sure it isn’t correct. I’ve not been able to find anyone in England with that name! Peter was also in the British Army and was a cook at the same post where Mervyn was stationed. About a year after we returned to the U.S., Peter came to Chardon, Ohio for a summer and stayed with us.

Many other names will come up in entries having to do with the Krefeld Branch. The Branch was very small and struggling. I was called as the Branch President probably in desperation. The previous Branch President along with some others in leadership at the branch were excommunicated the same day I was sustained as the Branch President. I spent most of my first year as Branch President getting the finances of the Branch straightened out and cleared up with the Presiding Bishop’s office in Frankfurt.

I kept the journal pretty faithfully until about June, 1975. By then we were moving from Krefeld to Neuried (a suburb of Munich) and I was spending all of my time in Munich and Alfdorf. The move was necessary to maintain a family relationship! After that there are only a couple of other entries.

The journal probably isn’t interesting to anyone except me. However, by entering it into the blog, I’ve been able to revisit the past and resurrect some of the memories of the cars, scarce finances, people at work and in the Branch, and just life as it was for me as a 30-year-old kid with a large family living in a foreign country.