| Rosemarie Karl Ellen Haufler and !! Gisela Grusa !! [the names are all maiden names] |
| Elke and I at my Confimation |
 |
| if someone reads this and remembers please |
 |
| It's funny how hard it is sometimes to start a new page. specially this one! But... I think it's ok now.......... Ahh well we will see, 'here goes'��..!! |
 |
 |
| We now lived with this old lady in her flat in the 'Friedrichsring" long enough that I could go to the same school for a while and hopefully make a few friends.This was made rather hard if not impossible by me not speaking the local dialect. Children can be very intolerant of that. Also, for reasons which took me most of my adult life to figure out, I felt different to the other girls in my class. Tolerance of the �different� was not a very high priority at that time! |
| Here now I have to explain something! As in many countries there are different dialects in Germany. (Just think of Great Brittain with the Scottish and the Welsh) Bavaria, where I grew up, has a very distinct dialect. In the north of Germany there is another very distinct dialect and if you are not an initiate of either one you would not be able to understand or speak this dialect. Offenbach is in Hessen also a very distinct dialect. |
| First of all the kids thought I had come from another 'planet' then they laughed and when I then tried to speak in 'High German' they laughed even more called me 'toffy nose' and labled me 'queer' and that stuck for most of my schoolyears. Tolerance of others was less at that time then it is today and parents and teachers didn't help with it at all. But one girl in the class took me as I was and she became my best friend troughout my school years and for a while later but we have lost contact and for that I am so very sorry Her name was Elke Hoffmann [I don't know her married name even] |
 |
| We finaly, after a few years, found a flat in the Bismarkstrasse. A street away fom my Aunty Toni. My mother was happy. |
| Rosemarie Karl and I |
| Again I had to change school, this time it was the Bachschule. I can not recall that I made one friend there and I was at that school for 2 years |
| I had trouble with one teacher at that school. I had become a bit troublesome and needed some understanding and guidance but this one teacher only saw the worst in me and would not help, only chastise and punish, which made me worse. My parents decided to take me to another school. This time to the Mathildenschule [M�dchen]. Suddenly my life changed for the better!! |
| Mit der Gisela war ich befreundet bis ich sp�ter nach Australien ausgewandert bin! Dann habe ich Verbindung verloren, es war meine Schuld und es tut mir sehr leid !! |
 |
| The teachers at that school were the best I could have. specially one Mr. Thormann. Understanding, accepting, praising, demanding work and discipline and getting it from every one!! I was, for the first time accepted for what I could do and not for what I looked like. By that time I had no trouble with the local dialect. But could not change my looks. I have red hair, at that time flaming red!! and as is usual with people like that very fair skin! I always say I am one small step away from being albino. I can not go into the sun, even 5 minutes will burn my skin. So a child not being able to play outside too long... well just imagine! Today it is very fashionable to have red hair, but at that time .... In deepest bavaria they burnt people on the stake only 150 odd years ago as witches for having red hair. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| So, picture the new kid in school, speaking a �funny� language which is still German but nobody can understand. When pressed she comes out with this very posh �High German�, skinny, painfully shy, red hair, white skin, funny (for that time very funny) haircut and a few other hang up's�. yep!! That�s me!! I was very lucky that I found my best friend very early on otherwise it would have been a very lonesome school time. |
| Elke Hoffmann sitting on the lion in the B�sing Park |
 |
| There is also a universal �High German� which everyone understands and speaks, but is considered �posh� in most places and children and most adults would think you 'uppity' and make fun of you! My Mother insisted that I spoke this �High German� at home, she came from an area where this was spoken as the local dialect, but with my friends in the playground I could speak whatever! This stood me in good stead later on in life but at that crucial time it was my 'bane'! |
| This is only in German and doesn't translate very well. It's in the dialect and roughly means: 'damn Offenbach, they let the dogs off and tie the stones [frozen to the ground]up |
 |
| I even made friends |
| click the postcard there is a poem in the local dialect |