After Hof we moved to Frankfurt, where we lived in an apartment.
the Malloys
Our friends, the Malloys, with whom mom had been living in Texas when I was born, lived not far away in another apartment biilding. Ray, their youngest child and I took the same bus too school, and always sat together, which made the other kids sing:
Two little love birds,
sitting in a tree,
k-i-s-s-i-n-g
first comes love,
then comes marriage,
then comes a baby
in a baby carriage
Even at five years of age, I had no problems with the concepts of kissing, or love, but was skeptical about marriage and didn’t like the sound of having babies.
four leaf clovers
It was in back of the Malloy’s apartment that there was a patch of tall grass in which most of the clover had four leaves. I was quite torn between believing us lucky to have found the patch, and skeptical if they would work as good luck charms if it was all of them that had four leaves.
a balloon
I have a clear memory of getting a wonderful, large, spotted helium filled balloon, and wanting to take it outside to play. Dad told me to be careful not to lose it, but when I got outside a bigger child wanted to hold it, and after he took it from me he let go of the holding stick, and my baloon flew away. How I upset I was at him for that!
a poor bee
I also remember the time I did a flip over the metal support beam of the clothes line, and landed foot first in the tall grass, and got stung by a bee. First I cried because it hurt but then, as mom pulled the stinger out of my foot, and explained that it had pulled out of the bee, who was going to die from it, I cried even more, I hadn’t meant to hurt it, I didn’t even know it was there.
Previous home: 05. Hof, Germany 1970
Next home: 07. Irakelon, Crete 1972