SUNDAY MEMORIES
Judy Wills
Our oldest daughter, Karen, was born in Germany, just two months after we arrived in country. We, of course, doted on her. The German lady who was the church nursery worker doted on her, as well. On our last trip in Europe before heading back stateside, Frau Katie stayed with Karen while we were gone. They both had such a good time together, that we weren’t missed at all.
As Karen was learning to speak/talk, we discovered that she was not only speaking English, but she had some German words mixed in there as well! Apparently Frau Katie was speaking to her in German! That was quite a revelation.
I really don’t remember Karen’s “first word” the way many children do. But I do remember her first phrase. Here’s how it came about:
My Mother came to visit us in Germany, while Karen was just 22 months old – a good time to be learning to speak. We squired Mom around as much of Europe as we could in the time she was with us, and usually took Karen with us. We had a great time together. As we would be driving along, Karen and Mom – in the back seat together – would be “conversing” together. And every now and then I would hear Mom say, “Karen, look at that flag!” We would be passing a building or house that was sporting a flag of some type, and Mom was pointing it out to her.
Mom’s time with us came and went far too quickly, and she returned to New Mexico. We had another year of our tour in Germany, and we returned to our routine. And as we would drive here and there, we would hear Karen say, “Look at that flag!” as she saw flags on buildings, just like when her “Oma” was with us. Gave us quite a chuckle to hear her say that, with the same inflection that Mother had given the phrase.
And that is what Karen’s first phrase was. What a fun memory that is!
Old Things R New 