We are assembling Bakelite plugs and I am lost in my thoughts from yesterday. It is summer 1975 ...
I have barely gotten used to my new home, school, and after-school care when everything changes again.
My brother and I are swimming in the Pappelgrund in Teutschenthal.
Mom and “Uncle Rudi” come tanned by sun to visit us. They got married on their vacation (without us).
We can call him “Vati” (dad).
Now that we are a family and a third child is on the way, due to be born in December, we are considered as “kinderreich” (rich in children).
That means we are entitled to a bigger apartment, which we move into.
It is on the 11th and 12th floors of a Y-shaped high-rise building near the Russian barracks.
Upstairs is a huge living room with panoramic windows, a kitchen with a serving hatch, and a pantry.
There is a bathroom with a toilet, a hallway, a hall, and a long staircase leading downstairs.
On the lower floor is a small children's room with a window to the balcony and a second living room with panoramic windows.
Instead of the kitchen, there is an extended living room and a storage room.
There is also a second bathroom with a bathtub and toilet. On a top corner, there is a heating sun that can be switched on and off from outside.
A hallway with a storage room under the stairs leads to the bedroom, which has a walk-in closet.
And finally, there is access to the balcony with a window to the children's room.
But that's not all.
In the garage complex next to the Russian barracks, “Vati” has managed to get a garage for his brand-new Lada.
Of course, we have a telephone. I have no idea how he managed to do it all.
Very few families with even more children achieve such luxury in a prefabricated concrete silo.
Andi and I can keep our last names. We just have to change schools.
And the stress we had with “Uncle Rudi” won't be any less with “Vati.”
That reminds me of “Emanuel Flippmann und die Randale-Söhne” (Emanuel Flippmann and the Rioting Sons) by Udo:
“Es fing schon an im Krankenhaus (That's how it started in the hospital) /
Kaum zog man ihn aus der Dame raus (No sooner had they pulled him out of the lady) /
Krakeelte er seinen ersten Rock (Than he screamed for his first rock song) /
Doch seine Mutti stand mehr auf Rudolf Schock (But his mom was more into Rudolf Schock) ...”.