SUNDAY MEMORIES
Judy Wills
My husband and I (and later our daughters, as well) were blessed to have spent six years in Germany. Except for a couple of short trips with my Aunt Jessie to Mexican border towns, I had never traveled outside the United States. So the prospect of spending YEARS in Germany was quite an adventure for me. Fred had never lived in Germany, but had spent some time in Italy and Japan with his parents in his growing-up years.
It’s very hard to say “where” our favorite place in Europe was. So many places we were able to visit, and they all delighted us.
And yet, one of our very favorite memories is of the town of Oberammergau, Germany. It is beautifully situated in a valley between mountains. On our travels, we had visited there occasionally, but since we were in Germany in 1970, we decided to go see the Passion Play that the town presents every 10 years, on the even year. We had always enjoyed staying in B&B’s on our trips, rather than fancy hotels, so we were pleased to be able to get a “package” that included two nights stay in a home with a German family. We learned that the man of the house had played Jesus in the 1960 performance. We would have breakfast in that home, but the other meals were to be taken in the restaurant at one of the hotels in town. The Passion Play was an eight-hour production, with a lunch break. That gave us some time to explore the town and it’s shops, mostly appealing to tourists.
We found the house where we were to stay, and found that half of the house was the barn for their animals, with only a wall between it and the residency. Made for some interesting sounds and smells! Our room was on the top floor – essentially the attic – with a shared bathroom down the hall, and a balcony outside our room. The bed was comfortable, with an comforter to keep us comfy and warm.
We had reserved seats in the huge theater, especially built for the Play. All the seating area, except for about the first 10 rows, were under cover. But those rows of seats and the stage was open to the air. Our tickets were for the first regular showing of the Play of the season – May 22, 1970. And we were quite glad that our seats were half-way back the theater, since we had a snow fall during the performance! We were amazed to see the actors, including the children in the play, remain in their assigned positions even with the snow falling on them!
The entire play was spoken in German, but we had a handbook that gave the dialog in English. Actually, we didn’t need to refer to it too much, since we knew the story line!
It was an extremely moving and wonderful performance. It touched our hearts, and brought us again to our Savior’s feet. We are so thankful to have been in that place at that time, and able to experience that Play.
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What a wonderful experience!
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