Tag Archives: Military Life

Church-Part 2

11 Sep

SUNDAY MEMORIES

We left San Jose, California to go to Wiesbaden, West Germany.  Because Fred’s father was a U.S. Air Force Chaplain, and Fred had grown up attending the base Chapel wherever they were, we decided we would attend the Chapel on base but contribute our tithe to the local Baptist Church.  We had checked, before we left the States, and found a Southern Baptist Church meeting in Wiesbaden – Immanuel Baptist Church.  It was the first of what became of the European Baptist Convention (now the International Baptist Convention). We met with some of the people from that church, telling them what we wanted to do.  They seemed to think that was a strange plan – and asked us to reconsider and worship with them each Sunday.  This church had at least 200 members.  And so we began our three-year membership with that Baptist Church.  This was not the pressured appeal we had with the church in San Jose – it was just a “why don’t you give us a try” sort of thing. 

When we first met with them, they were meeting in the basement of a building at 17 Taunusstrasse.  It was not the glorious building that we envision when we think of “church” in this country.  And to get to the nursery, it was almost like going through the catacombs!  After about a year-and-a-half, the group moved our worship to another building – but not in the basement – 81 Adelheidestrasse.   I am SO glad Fred remembers these details!   As I remember, it was not actually a church building but an office building.  I began playing the piano then for that church, and so missed out on any Sunday School program they had.  I have no memory of where the Sunday School classes met.

Before we left Wiesbaden, our group, along with a German  Baptist congregation, went together to build their own building.  They together had purchased the property for the building.  We saw the plans for the building, and it was wonderful.  We wished we could be there for the building and worshiping that would take place there.

Immanuel Baptist Church – Wiesbaden, West Germany

Well, we returned Stateside after our three years in Germany, much to our sorrow.  We really loved living in Germany!  God played a trick on us as we came back.  Fred and I  had often said to each other – “if we ask the Air Force to send us to New Mexico, do you suppose they will send us to Maine?”  Well, that’s just what happened!  Fred was assigned to Loring AFB, Maine.

We found there were two Baptist churches in the local area, but only one had Southern Baptist connections.  It was a relatively small group, and they met in the Odd Fellows hall.  It was not ideal – frequently on Sunday mornings we would arrive to find there had been a beer-fest in that building the night before, and the place was in shambles!  We had to clean up everything so we could have church.  

And this is where I say again – the “church” is NOT the building – it is the “people” that make the church.  We met in that horrible place and worshiped our God together – THAT is the church!  We made some wonderful friends there – many of whom we still are in contact with after all these years.  Again, before we left, the group was planning on building a “church building” for them to meet in.  They did that very thing in the few years after we left Maine.  And again, we were only there for 13 months.  We didn’t know that at the time we arrived in Maine – we were planning on another three-year tour of duty.  Thank goodness God had other plans for us!  

WE…ARE THE CHURCH!

~~~~~~~~~~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 and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

Tags: , ,

I Love Carpet-Part 4

31 Jul

SUNDAY MEMORIES

continued

From Heidelberg, we moved to Virginia.  We purchased our second house,

Our Virginia House

which had loose-laid carpets in all the bedrooms, living room (now I was glad we didn’t have that rust carpet with us!), dining room and family room.  The padding wasn’t too good, so we upgraded that in later years, to find that the carpets were quite good quality, and were going to last a good long time with new padding.  They were all a light tan color, and went well with all our furniture.

1991 – our grandson taking the taste test of a new toy this shows the light tan/cream carpet

We later purchased some very pretty, very thick carpet to replace what was in the family room.  All the floors in this house were wood.  The kitchen had rolled vinyl.  I purchased bathroom carpet for our master bathroom in dark brown, and gold for the second bathroom upstairs.  For the bathroom downstairs, I just had bath mats.

After living there for nearly 13 years, we decided to move to Florida.  Both our girls were married by this time and out of our house.  We purchased a new house in Kissimmee, which is essentially a suburb of Orlando. 

There was either carpet or vinyl throughout the house, so we didn’t need to purchase any new carpets, thank goodness.

Looking from the kitchen into the family room – carpet and vinyl flooring

We lived in that house for three-and-one-half years before selling it and moving to Orlando proper.

This house that we live in now, has carpet in the living/dining room, and all three bedrooms.  Other than that, all the floors are ceramic tile.  We did purchase a loose-laid rug for the family room, just to make it a bit more comfortable.

 the rug we purchased

The bathrooms only have throw rugs or bath mats.  I did have a throw rug for the entry/laundry room, but recently I tripped on it and fell hard on that ceramic tile.  So it’s out the door!

Well….that’s my saga about carpet.  I still love to walk barefoot through the carpets in our house.  And when we go to Titusville to visit my brother Bill and his delightful wife DiVoran, I luxuriate my feet in the carpet in their living room.  It’s a gorgeous dusty rose, and feels so good on my toes! 

As you can see from this series, I take my shoes off as often as I can!

~~~~~~~~~~The End~~~~~~~~~~

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 and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

Tags: , , ,

I Love Carpet-Part 3

24 Jul

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

continued

From Tyndall AFB, Florida, 

Photo credit WJHG.com  Credit Google search

we moved to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

Credit Google Search and Fort Leavenworth website

We were to be there for only one year, for Fred to have training at the Army’s Command and General Staff College.  Again, we made use of the large rug for our bedroom.  The celery-green shag carpet went in the downstairs living room. 

We had some left over celery-green carpet, so cut it in pieces large enough to be tacked down on the stairs to muffle our going up and down those wooden stairs.  The gold shag carpet went on the upstairs landing and Janet’s room.  Again, we had a white rug for Karen’s room.  However, when people moved from that base, they had large garage sales.  In one of those sales, we found a gorgeous white rug that we purchased to put in Karen’s room in Heidelberg, Germany (our next assignment).

One more note about Kansas before we moved to Germany:  the mover came out and inspected all our belongings, so he would know how many boxes, etc. to bring to pack up our stuff.  He also took note of our carpets.  When the day came for packing up, when it came to the carpets, he told the inspector that he hadn’t brought enough boxes for the carpet.  Two things could happen: 1) he could drive back to the warehouse (about 50 miles away, as I recall) and bring the boxes, or 2) they could just take the carpets with them and pack them at the warehouse.  The inspector agreed to #2.  As they were driving off, one of the packers was sprawled out on the rolled-up carpets on the truck.  I told Fred then that we would never see those carpets and rugs again.  And we never did.  I am sure they are still sitting on someone’s flooring in Kansas!  They were all gone, with the exceptions of those pieces we had cut to tack down on the stairs.  So when we arrived in Heidelberg, that’s all we had to work with.  I wanted to go to the authorities and complain, but Fred said they would probably tell me the boxes with the carpets were at the bottom of the ocean.  Oh well…

Okay, on to Heidelberg.  The government apartment we were assigned there did have a rug in the dining room – another of those really heavy rugs.  But it worked.  The kitchen and bathroom floors were terrazzo again, but not squares – solid floor.  I left the kitchen that way, but purchased a bathroom rug for the bathroom, in a rust color.  Then I purchased sheer curtains for the bathroom in rust, 

The bathroom curtains

and cream-with-rust trim for the kitchen.

The kitchen curtains

I liked the way both of those curtains looked.  We purchased a somewhat-white rug for Karen’s room.

Karen in her room with the somewhat-white rug

I can’t remember what we had for Janet’s room, but I have vague memories of having enough scraps of the gold shag to cover her room.  For our bedroom, we found enough pieces of the celery shag to go around our bed so we could step out of bed onto rug rather than just floor, and mostly fill in the rest of the room.  Nothing under the bed.  We found two sort-of-green rugs that fit together for the living room.  

Fred’s parents with Karen and Janet – the green rugs we bought

Later, we found a large amount of rust-colored carpet to replace those celery green rugs, and found it went quite well with our blue couch and chair.

Judy and a friend – the “new” rust carpet

I wanted badly to bring that carpet back with us Stateside, but a friend said he really, really needed it for his office.  So we sold it to him.  Eventually, we found, that was a good thing.

~~~~~~~~~~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 and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

Tags: , , , , ,

I Love Carpet-Part 1

10 Jul

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

I am a carpet person, that is, I prefer carpet on my house floors rather than wood or tile.  I like to walk barefoot on the carpet.  In the house where I grew up, we had carpet on all the floors, except in the kitchen and bathroom.  The kitchen floor was a patterned linoleum. 

My Granny holding Trixie, My Mother, Boots our cat and the patterned linoleum flooring in the kitchen – 1959

I don’t exactly remember the bathroom floor, but I suspect it was linoleum, as well.  Other than that, there were wood floors throughout the house.  Mom and Dad had some gray carpet installed (dining room and hallway), but the rug in the living room was “loose-laid.” 

Mom, Dad and me – Christmas 1964 with the blue carpet in the living room

I’m not sure whether or not anyone knew about carpet padding in those days, so I don’t know whether or not there was any under that rug.  In the short space between the living room and dining room, then between the living room and hallway, the bare wood was exposed.  Mother had some throw rugs in those spaces.

Boots and Trixie on the throw rug between living room and hall – 1959

I had a loose-laid aqua rug in my bedroom.

Trixie “fighting” with my fiesta skirts – 1958

Here is a picture of my brother Bill, in his bedroom.  The floor is hardwood.  There may have been a loose-laid rug, but I don’t see one and don’t remember whether or not Mother had one in there.

Bill-1956

Because of all that, Fred and I have had carpet or rugs in our apartments/houses wherever we could whenever we could.  We have lived in 12 different apartments/houses in our married life, and not all of them were carpeted.  And so we purchased either carpet or throw rugs for those that were not carpeted.

Our first apartment – in Fort Worth, Texas – had vinyl tile flooring throughout – it was a very small apartment.  So we had a fairly large throw rug for the “living room” there. 

Our rescue cat, Tommy, sleeping on our throw rug – 1962

The next apartment we lived in, was mostly my apartment, in San Antonio, Texas.  Fred was going through OTS, and was only home one night a week.  It was a small apartment with only wood floors.  We only lived there three months, so I don’t remember even putting down throw rugs.

The next apartment we lived in was in San Jose, California.  The owners had a commercial-grade carpet installed throughout the apartment, except the kitchen and bathroom.  Not too soft on the feet there, but at least it was carpet.

Our next apartment was in Wiesbaden, West Germany.  We lived “on the economy” for the first year we were there, which means we were not in government quarters. 

We had the entire top floor – with balcony – 1967

This house had wood floors throughout, except – again – for the kitchen and bathroom, which were like a ceramic tile.  It was a furnished apartment, which was good, as we didn’t have any furniture of our own to bring with us.  Fred purchased a rocking chair for me after our Karen was born.  We still have that rocking chair.

1969 – Wiesbaden, Germany Fred and Karen playing/rocking chair in background

We lived in that apartment for one year, then moved to government quarters.  It was a fully-furnished apartment.  Here, the floors were all wood, except for the kitchen and bathroom, which were like a terrazzo tile – very hard.  The government had loose-laid rugs in all the rooms that were quite heavy.  We lived there for two years, before heading back Stateside.

1969 – Karen in our apartment-he floors are polished wood

~~~~~~~~~~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 and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

Tags: , , ,

The Sailboat

26 Jun

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

REBLOG

Credit Pixab

Growing up in New Mexico, there wasn’t a lot of water around – no swimming pools (except at the public ones), no ponds or lakesides, no oceans, etc. So, consequently, I was not really familiar with boats of any kind. That really didn’t bother me too much I had a lot of other interests.

If you have ever lived in government quarters – as we did on any military base where we were stationed – then you know that, when you leave that posting, you are required to have those same quarters absolutely immaculate! Better than when you moved into them!  And there would be an inspection of those quarters by an official inspector. If they found anything wrong – you were required to “fix” it before you were allowed to leave the base.

We had lived in quarters on Tyndall AFB, Florida for five years. That’s almost too long, actually. Our usual moves were about every three years. I told Fred that we needed to leave soon, because I was beginning to put down roots – in a government duplex!!

He was finally given orders to relocate. So then the work of packing up and moving out began. After the movers had taken our belongings away, we started cleaning the unit. We had always thought we could do that ourselves, rather than hire someone to come in and do it for us. So I set Fred and the girls to cleaning, 

Credit Pixabay

and I thought I would tackle the kitchen. I had planned on the weekend to do the entire kitchen. Unfortunately, the stove was so old that, in taking it apart and cleaning it – it took the entire weekend just for the stove!

By the time we had finished, we were exhausted.

Now….you may think there is no connection to cleaning and boats…but wait….

There was a gentleman who worked in the Weather Station with Fred, who LOVED boats! And especially sailboats. Not being able to purchase one for himself, he had contracted with another gentleman from Alabama to care for his sailboat.

It was a 33-foot Hunter that would sleep six people. It had a full galley and full shower. It had a small auxiliary engine to get us in and out of port. It was set up for ocean voyages and was one-person configured. Whenever the owner wanted to “play” with it, he would call and come down and retrieve it. That usually only happened once or twice a year. The rest of the time, our friend could take it out whenever he wanted.

And that’s what happened with us. He had offered to take us out for a sail, on the last day we were in town. And so we did. I was a bit confused when we motored out of port, thinking “what does this have to do with sailboating?”

But then he cut the engine and unfurled the sail. It was the most wonderful thing – so very quiet, and peaceful, and RESTFUL…just exactly what we needed after all that cleaning.

Fred and Judy on the sailboat

He even let our 8-year-old handle the wheel for a while. She loved it!

Picture by Judy Wills – Janet at the helm!

We’ve never purchased a boat of our own – never felt the need to. But it was an experience that we savored and have remembered all these years.

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 and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

Tags: , , , ,

The Seamstresses in My House-Part 8

1 May

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

During the one year we were in San Jose, my father had a terrible accident, just before Christmas, and we all – Bill and his family – and Fred and I flew to Albuquerque for Christmas.  I was there three weeks, Fred for the middle week, and Bill’s family for about one week, as I remember.  It was to be Daddy’s last Christmas, as he died four months later.

The whole gang – Mom, Dad, Granny, Aunt Jessie, Bill, DiVoran, Renie, Billy, Fred and myself

Since I was pregnant with our first child, I began looking for fabric to make maternity dresses.  As it happened, in San Jose, the couple next door to us in the apartment building were also Air Force people.  The wife was a home economics teacher, and was teaching in a relatively poor school in San Jose.  She went to some upholstery stores, and begged them for any scraps of drapery fabric they could/would donate for her students to learn to sew on.  She gave me the first choice of that fabric, and I took several pieces.  Some of them were large enough to make several dresses.  Here is one example of a dress I made.  

While we were in Albuquerque, before we headed to Germany (our first assignment), I was given a baby shower.  Here is a picture of one of the dresses I made.  Mother had told me to make a “dress” rather than a “top and bottom” and that I wouldn’t look so big.  Well, that didn’t work, did it?  I look as big as a house!  Perhaps the fabric was just that flimsy, suppose?

Mother and me

Another dress I made from the drapery fabric was a really pretty, off-white, silky, shiny fabric.  It made up into a lovely dress.  Unfortunately, it was quite heavy, and had a “backing” on it.  Great for drapery, but not so much for hot-weather wearing!  Again unfortunately, I don’t have a picture of that dress.  Also again unfortunately, my passport had not come through, and we had to stop in D.C. at the Pentagon to pick it up before I could accompany Fred to Germany.  He had been told that all personnel in the Pentagon wore Class-A uniforms, even in the summer.  That included his wool uniform, with long-sleeved shirt and full jacket.  So in hot hot hot June, we were in D.C., with me wearing that hot hot hot dress, and Fred in full uniform – only to find that ALL the military personnel were in short-sleeved summer uniforms!  No wool and no jackets!  We were both about to melt!

After securing my passport, we were scheduled to fly to Philadelphia, PA, and spend the night with Fred’s Aunt Anna and Uncle Lyn.  I could hardly wait to get there – and into that air-conditioned house!  And perhaps take a nice, cool shower, as well.  Well, to our surprise and dismay, when we got to their house, we found it to be a row-house:  no air conditioning, and no shower – only a tub!  But I made the best of that situation, and got into a cotton dress I had made.  Here is a picture of me in that dress alongside Fred’s  Aunt Anna and Uncle Lyn.

~~~~~~~~~~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 and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

Tags: , ,

Random Memories of Germany-Let’s Eat Part 2!

27 Feb

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

I guess what I’m about to write about includes food, so the “Let’s Eat” is still a good title.  You see, I didn’t grow up drinking wine or beer or any hard alcoholic drinks, even with my meals.  So I have never “acquired” the taste for any of it.

And, as a matter of fact, when I was teaching aerobics, I was appalled at the horrible sweat odor oozing from the pours of women who had been drinking beer.  Blech!  That would NOT have encouraged me to drink beer in any form!  So I haven’t.

I must admit, that I have tried – many times – to accompany my evening meal with a glass of wine.  And I just can’t do it.  The taste turns me off.  When I have mentioned this to friends, the usual response is “oh, you just haven’t found the right wine yet!”  And so, when we were in Heidelberg, by invitation I went to a “wine tasting party” in an apartment near where we lived.  After sampling several different wines, I finally found a wine that I thought I could enjoy, and so purchased a bottle to take home with me.  Days later, when I opened the bottle to enjoy with my meal – I found that, once again, it turned me off.  So that bottle of wine was used later in my cooking.

Photo Credit:Pixabay

And that brings me to another topic of wine.  Many years ago I was given the recipe for making French Onion Soup.  A friend had made it for a meal, and I was quite taken with it.  Her husband had been a soldier in Vietnam, and had eaten French Onion Soup in a restaurant in Saigon.  He told her it was the best French Onion Soup he had even eaten!  And he had her try every recipe for it that she could find, and then tweak it until it tasted like what he had tasted in Saigon.  This was the recipe I was given.

Credit Google Search and Sharon Uzell-Meek

Well, that recipe called for “cooking sherry.”  Being a good non-drinking Baptist girl, I thought that I should use the “cooking sherry” instead of regular sherry.  When I tried it in the soup, I found it to be quite distasteful!  And as someone once told me – “If it isn’t good enough to drink, it isn’t good enough to cook with!”  And I have to agree. 

So from that point on, I have been cooking with regular wine.  The alcohol is burned off by the heat, and the flavor is left in the food.  I find it enhances the flavor of the food deliciously. 

And I still don’t like the taste of wine!

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 and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

Tags: , , , , ,

Random Memories of Germany-Aerobics Part 5

6 Feb

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

One time, we had a joint time together, and invited our spouses and children to attend, watch, and dance with us.  It was great fun.  Lots of people attended, and we called it “Celebration.”  Some of my readers might be “old” enough to remember the song “Celebration” by Kool & the Gang.  That was one of our favorite dance routines, and we used it as the “theme” of that evening.  On one of the easier routines, we asked any and all of those attending the celebration, to join us on the floor and dance.  We had quite a few who joined us and attempted to dance. 

I apologize for the quality of this picture

Here I would like to sort-of re-blog something I wrote that is related to my time teaching aerobic dancing in Heidelberg.  It all started in Germany.  I wrote it in 2013…

[...there was one lady in my class who always stood in the front row and to my right (I was facing away from the students). As we conversed, I thought she had a speech impediment.  After we got to know each other a bit better, she told me that she had been born with some hearing loss. She wasn’t totally deaf, but enough so that she couldn’t hear the way most words were sounded. That explained her speech.  But she had hearing aids that helped her so much, and she could understand all the cues I shouted out in the class.

As interesting as all that is – to me anyway – that’s not the end of the story. We returned stateside and began our life in Virginia.  Our oldest daughter had met her future husband while in high school in Heidelberg (his father was our American pastor), and he had returned to the States to attend college – where she was attending, of course. They married a few years later.

One evening, around Thanksgiving time, I received a call from our son-in-law, saying that, on their way to see his parents in South Carolina, our daughter had fallen asleep at the wheel and they had crashed.  I was furious that he would only say that she was “in with the doctor” and wouldn’t give me any more details – like…..is she still alive???!!!

I asked if he wanted us to come and take them back home (they were only about an hour from their apartment).  He agreed.  He then said, “wait, here is the paramedic who will give you directions to the hospital.” This young man came on the phone and gave me the directions – with the very same intonation that my aerobic student had!!  I knew at once that he had hearing loss, and not a speech impediment. And, by God’s grace, I was able to understand every word he said – the first time!  No repeats.  God had prepared me, all those years ago, for that very moment, when I would need my wits about me, and to understand this young man’s instructions.

I could end the story there – that is the main thrust of it – but I want to tell you of God’s gracious hand in all this. You see, when our daughter fell asleep, the car drifted, and our son-in-law looked up and screamed, which woke her, and she drastically over-corrected. That caused the car to roll several times. Amazingly, there were no other cars around them – just down the road a bit – no other cars involved in the crash. There was an off-duty ambulance behind them that stopped, and the paramedics gave aid. They could have rolled off a bridge and crashed onto the road below them – but they didn’t – they just rolled to a stop on an embankment. While the car was totaled, our children only suffered a few cuts and bruises.”

~~~~~~~~~~The End (Perhaps?)~~~~~~~~~~

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 and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

Tags: ,

Random Memories of Germany-Aerobic Part 4

30 Jan

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

Just a random memory – As we were doing the cool down in one class (it was always done on the floor, to a relatively slow song and involved stretching), I asked one of the students if she liked that particular workout and song.  Her response: “Yes, but I’m still waiting for Perry Como!”  I’ve had a good laugh from that through the years.  I think my favorite cool down song was Lady by Kenny Rogers – and I’m not a huge fan of Country/Western music!

Credit Pixabay

Related to aerobic dancing, but not directly to the classes – between sessions, my partner and I would print up flyers with our logo and the dates and venues for the next session’s classes.  Our sessions usually were 12-weeks long, with an occasional 9-week session thrown in, if the longer one would have run into either summer or a major holiday.  The two of us would go to both housing developments and pass out the flyers by putting them on the “bulletin boards” in each stairwell, or in the doors of the individual houses for upper ranking personnel.  During one of those times, we were standing in front of one of the single units, when I felt such a horrible pain in my foot that I began groaning loudly – essentially screaming! – and jumping up and down!  Looking down at my foot, I realized there was a bumble bee on my foot – and it had stung me! 

Credit Pixabay

C

Oh the pain!!  I was ready to hand my partner my set of flyers and head home, but she insisted that I help her complete the mission!  It took me a while, but I finally made it home and made a poultice of baking soda to cover the sting.  I am just thankful that I was not allergic to bee stings!

One thing I tried very hard to do, was to recognize/remember my students by name.  I didn’t want to be the kind of instructor who only smiled and said “hello” as they came into the gym for class.  I wanted them to know that I was actually interested in who they were and that I knew them!  In that way, we had made attendance cards for each session.  The card held our logo, a place for their name, and a number of squares for how many classes we would have in that particular session.  We marked the squares off each class.  And so, I would mark the square, hold the card up to them, and repeat their name – matching name and face – until I had it firmly in mind.  I would like to think my students enjoyed the fact that their teacher made the effort to remember them as individuals!

And along that line, if I were to see one of my students outside of class, I would greet them by name and say something like “do you recognize me with clothes on?”  And then we would both laugh – because they usually saw me in shorts and T-shirt!  I’m sure that my question gave pause to anyone my student was with – until we explained the situation to them.  

~~~~~~~~~~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 and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

Tags: , ,

Random Memories of Germany-Aerobics Part 3

23 Jan

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

Another fun thing was that the high school coach learned that I was teaching aerobic dancing, and asked that I come to several of his classes and demonstrate the program.  Our Karen was NOT impressed!  When I asked why she didn’t want me to do that, she replied, “Mom, you are in your SHORTS!!”  Most embarrassing to a high school student!  But I went anyway.  I was in pretty good shape at that time of my life, and during the demonstration, I mentioned that the kids could still be in good shape, as I was, at age 40!  They were astounded!  Karen later told me that one of her classmates asked her if her mother was 40?  So that classmate had been in one of those classes.  We had one dance that was relatively repetitive, and quite easy to learn.  I had the students line up and we danced it back and forth.  Then I had them dance it turning on each repeat.  Then I had them form a large circle (facing each other) and dance it around.  So much fun!  Later, the coach said that he wished he could get his basketball players to dance like we were doing.  It would give them rhythm and make them lighter on their feet, which some of them needed to be better basketball players.

One thing sort-of related to those classes, was that I had to walk from our apartment (just outside the base gate) to the classes on the base – summer or winter, rain or shine, sometimes in the snow.  And I carried my big boom box with me.  In warm weather, I was in my shorts and T-shirt.  In winter, I wore boots and my heavy coat – all the while, carrying my boom box.

Somewhere along the line, I was asked to demonstrate our program to a joint German/American group.  I thought it would be something that appeal to the Germans.  So when it was my turn, I started with “ich habe nur ein bisschen Deutsch” (I only have a little German).  That brought some laughs – so then I stated that “and so I will speak in English.”  More laughs.  I described our program, our steps, what we were doing was exercise, but was made more fun with the dance.  I then asked for volunteers from the audience to join me on stage and performed our easiest routine.  Later, as I watched a square dancing group,

Credit Bill Lites – Bill and DiVoran on the right, in their square dancing finery

I realized that all the “instruction” was done in German, but the dance calls were in English!   WOW!  Why couldn’t our program reach the German community the same way – instruct the teaching of the steps in German, but “call” the actual dance routines in English.  We left Germany before we could suggest that to the teachers who followed us.  I think it would have been a great connector between the two countries.

Credit Pixabay

We usually had one week off between sessions, to find new music and perhaps some new steps to those songs.  After a few sessions where the dedicated students were bored with my teaching the old, standard steps to the new students, I decided to use those between-session weeks to teach the old steps to the new students.  That way, when the official session began, only any new steps to teach were taught to all the students, and we could proceed with the routines.  That worked out quite well.

~~~~~~~~~~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 and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

Tags: , , , ,

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →