Wiesbaden-Part 3
SUNDAY MEMORIES
Judy Wills
Shortly before we left Germany to return Stateside, Fred and I (without Karen who was only two years old at that time) went to Oberammergau to see the Passion Play that was being presented that year (1970). It is only presented once every 10 years. (Please see my post of November 12, 2012, titled Oberammergau) We stayed in a B&B in a packaged deal – breakfast and a bed. The other two meals of the day were in a hotel restaurant. It wasn’t a terribly large house, and we stayed in the “attic” room – bathroom down the hall, and a balcony outside our room. But it was comfortable.
The B&B where we stayed – top with the balcony
We thought it was funny that we stayed in one part of the house – and there was a partition to the house that separated the “house” from the “barn.” In other words – the cattle were on the other side of that partition!
One of the fun things that happened (we called it a God-thing), was that there were other Americans staying in the house with us. As we gathered for breakfast that first morning, we discovered that the other Americans were the pastor of the Faith Baptist Church in Kaiserslautern (K-town) and some of his church members!! WOW! How did THAT happen?
Faith Baptist Church – Kaiserslautern, Germany
We also had assigned seats for the Passion Play, and they were seated beside us. As I recall, I had made some cookies to take with us on our trip (probably chocolate chip), and the final evening of our stay, we all gathered in the kitchen of the house – along with our host and his family – and shared the cookies and coffee and conversation! So much fun!
We discovered, in that conversation, that the man of the house had played the part of Jesus in the Passion Play in 1960! All the actors were from the town of Oberammergau and none were from outside the town.
Purchased slide – 1970 Passion Play
To read the reason for the Passion Play, please Google “Oberammergau Passion Play” and click on the site for the History of the Passion Play. It is quite interesting.
We realized that much of Oberammergau with its stores and all were geared for all the tourists that came through, whether for the Play or just to visit, but we learned to really love that town.
One of the “famous” stores in Oberammergau, with fresco
I believe they’ve built a new theater for the Play from the one where we saw it. If we ever get back to Germany, perhaps we can go and take a look at it. Perhaps the new one is relatively enclosed, as the one where we attended had the stage and the first 10 rows of audience in open air…and it SNOWED during our May 22 performance!! But not one of the actors – even the children – moved a muscle during the snowfall! And that was during a tableau scene – so everyone was standing stone-still!
Purchased slide – 1970 Passion Play
So we hope the new theater is enclosed!
More on that trip next time….
~~~~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~~~~~
Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .
Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.
After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.
Old Things R New 
That was a nice post. It’s amazing that you can even spell the name of that town. I won’t even try.
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