Old Things R New

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Getting ready for our move to Heidelberg, West Germany, we sold our car and traveled by train to Albuquerque.

Sandia mountains, East of Albuquerque – Credit Google Search

We spent some time with my Mother and Aunt Jessie before flying to Washington D.C. for some time with Fred’s parents.

1980 – The White House – President Jimmy Carter in residence

We then flew to Frankfurt, where our sponsor picked us up and drove to Heidelberg.

There were no housing units available at that time, so we were placed in temporary quarters – for one month!  It was, essentially a hotel room.  We arrived in time for the 4^th of July celebration.  There were to be fireworks, but at that latitude (same as Labrador, Canada), the sun didn’t set until nearly 10:00 p.m., so the fireworks didn’t start until about 9:30 p.m.  But we enjoyed it, none-the-less.  

We were finally able to get into government quarters.  Again, we were in a stairwell, with six apartments to each stairwell, with three stairwells to each building.

The building across our courtyard – same as our building – the inside courtyard

We had requested the third floor again – yes it’s inconvenient to drag groceries up there, and lug laundry down to the basement, but in the spring, summer and fall, when it gets hot (no air conditioning at all), we could open the windows and get a lovely breeze blowing through.  It was well worth it.  Our apartment was on the end of the building, and we could see the high school across the street, as well as what was going on down on the street.  I liked that view.

Our building.  Top left is our unit.  The white Mercedes was our car

Walking in the front door was a short hallway.  Immediately left was our bedroom – a fairly large room.  It held our dresser, chest-of-drawers and two night stands along with the bed and a furnished wardrobe.  The full width of the room had windows with a marble sill, facing the side street.

Immediately right from that hallway was a “swing” door into the kitchen.  I actually closed it off with a bookcase across it, and set the telephone on it.

Front door and short hallway.  Bookcase in the hallway – our bedroom across from it.

Doorway to the kitchen to the left in this picture

Proceeding down the hallway you entered the “great” room – dining room first, then living room in one space.  Again, as in Florida, I “divided” the room with our large sofa.

1983 – Judy and friend in the living room, looking toward the dining room and into the kitchen. One alcove to the left.

Turn right into the great room and you are in the kitchen.  Again, I blocked the swing door with a small table and used the table for other things.

The blocked door, the dishwasher, the narrow pantry doors.

I kept the plates in there so they were easy to reach by our girls when setting the table.

Big, tall cabinets on one side, with a narrow pantry with shelves near the swing door.  A window at the end of the room, and on the other side was more under-cabinets and the stove.

The sink and stove

The window at the end of the room

Within the great room we had two alcoves – one with closing doors.  I left them open and placed a desk in that area, with my typewriter usually set upon it.  In the other alcove was my piano.

1981 –  Karen in front of the piano in the open alcove

We had the TV set under the end-of-the-building window,

Christmas window treatment, and decorations on top of the TV set  with bookcases and stereo equipment on the opposite wall.

From that room left of this picture, you walked down a very short hall directly into the bathroom.

Bathroom window treatment

To the right of that was one bedroom, and to the left was the third bedroom.  The right bedroom had two windows – one at the end of the building, the other facing the side street.

Karen’s bedroom – window to the right, another to the left

One window covering in Karen’s bedroom

The third bedroom had windows and a long, marble window sill.

1982 – Janet’s bedroom – windows to the right

Windows in Janet’s room

In the basement was the laundry room – washers and dryers furnished, and a room with clothes lines if you cared to dry your clothes that way.  Opposite that were “cages” that held items such as our bicycles, etc.

Above our particular apartment was empty space.  I frequently held my aerobic classes there when I was unable to use the gym on base.

Opposite that was another bathroom, and six “maids” rooms.  Ours held twins beds, a dressing table, and a wardrobe.  When we had guests, they stayed there.

~~~~~~~~~~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.