“Travels to a Different Time ” : August 16, 1971: West Berlin, East Berlin; East Berlin Glum and Drab

A late breakfast of hamburger and off to East Berlin through Checkpoint Charlie. We arrive at the checkpoint and yes Mom forgot the passport so back we went to pick them up. We had to register and check out with the staff at Checkpoint Charlie and then we walked into East Berlin and into a control building where they stamped our passport and returned them to us. We then had to go to a bank and change a minimum of five deutschmarks each which we had to spend in East Berlin. Once we gave the money conversion slip we were free to walk into East Berlin. Compared to the vibrant and modern West Berlin it was drab and dark and quite depressing. There were very few people on the streets and virtually no stores. There was little to see so we headed back to West Berlin by checking out with the East German border guards. We stopped at the Checkpoint Charlie Museum which explained the history of the Wall and showed so many desperate East Germans trying to escape over barbed wire they quickly laid before constructing the Wall. Frightening. They also had a display showing how people smuggled themselves out including a car with secret compartments.

August 19, 1971: East Berlin: Back to East Berlin

I returned to East Berlin on my own. I walked around like crazy and again there was really nothing to see.

August 21, 1971: West Berlin: At The British Officer’s Club

This afternoon it was off to the British Officer’s Club to use the pool. As Michael, Heidi’s boyfriend, is in the diplomatic core he knows many important people in Berlin. We stayed until 7. The pool was great but the Adriatic it was not. There were lots of very pasty white British people sort of like me when I started this trip. They seemed to be drinking lots of gin and tonic!

“Travels to a Different Time” : August 13, 1971: West Berlin: The Ravenous Hamburger Attack by a Starving Teenager

We woke up today for our first day in West Berlin very refreshed. We went for a short walk to explore the neighbourhood and went to a supermarket to buy some meat, pickles and milk. I had a feast of 6 hamburgers and a litre of milk. I find it taking some time to get used to seeing all sorts of food in the supermarket unlike Yugoslavia with its line ups and food shortages. We met Heidi for a coffee break and on the way home we found the American Library where we took out some books and then without luck tried to find a cinema playing an English movie. We had a big dinner of beouf bourguignon, listened to some records, read and went to bed. A weird feeling being surrounded by communists on all sides and the East German ones are rather nasty. Although Yugoslavia is communist tourists are treated more like fellow human beings instead of enemies.

August 14, 1971: West Berlin: A Visit to the American Sector: Swim and Risk Being Shot

Heidi joined us for lunch and it was great to see her. I washed her car, a VW Beetle. We visited the American sector. I think West Berlin is divided into a British, French and an American sector. We took a boat to an island park with peacocks on it. Heidi showed us the other side of the river which was in East Germany. Many people have been shot and killed tried to flee to West Berlin by swimming across the river. The East German guards are cruel but if they do not shoot and kill East Germans trying to escape to West Berlin they are severely punished. By 1961 it was estimated that 1,000 East Germans were crossing into West Berlin so the Wall was hastily constructed to trap East Germans in East Germany. What an embarrassment to communism!

“Travels to a Different Time” : August 12, 1971: My 15th Birthday in Three Countries and The Communists Throw My Passport In My Face: “Kennedy” is Not Appreciated in the DDR! A Birthday Present of Memories!

We woke up today in our hunting lodge in the Black Forest and Fritz was in bad shape with a runny ear and a bad headache. We have been disease free in Yugoslavia for two months and we come to Germany and Fritz and Mom are sick! Have we imported a Yugoslavian plague?

We went to Albert the Farmer’s for a breakfast of ham and eggs. The German’s know how to get to my stomach! We returned to the hunting lodge and the two invalids and I went for a walk in the forest which was beautiful. After our walk into the speeding bullet Alfa Romero through the Black Forest and up in the mountains of Switzerland to Basel. We checked into the Continental Hotel which was very nice with HOT SHOWERS and for $11! We bought two train tickets to West Berlin. Fritz said good-bye after that. We loaded up on provisions for our trip to Berlin and I had a can of cold ravioli and a litre of gorgeous cold milk for lunch. After dinner we had a surprise visitor Fritz! He stayed for 15 minutes and we said good-bye to him again. Early to bed at 9:15.

August 12, 1971: Up at 3:00 a.m. for our Berlin Trip!

Our train departed at 4:30 a.m.so we went downstairs to check out and our breakfast had been prepared to our surprise by the night clerk. We gobbled down our breakfast and the porter called a taxi and after our tip to the porter we had 10 Swiss Francs left. Call it cutting it close we arrived at the train station with the meter at 8 francs! Mom was sick as a dog and we stumbled into a car with a sign saying “Berlin”. We transferred into another train at Frankfurt and we hit the East German border and there were guards with ladders, mirrors, snarling dogs and machine guns to greet us. An East German soldier checked my passport and saw my middle name as Kennedy and he snarled in German and threw the passport in my face saying in German “fucking Kennedy”. It was President Kennedy who ordered an airlift to West Berlin in the 1960’s when the Russians had blockaded West Berlin. President Kennedy spoke in West Berlin saying “Ich Bin Ein Berliner” which means I am a Berliner. The communists hate him for that. By the way I am named after my godfather Kennedy Jones who was a Minister of Finance in Nova Scotia. That East German border guard got it all wrong. Pardon me but I felt like saying fuck you to that piece of shit guard but at 15 I have enough experience to hold back. How many 15-year old’s in Canada have been through such an experience?

We arrived in West Berlin and met our friend Dr. Boden who was so very happy to see us as we were happy to see her! She is an incredible and kind person who speaks an impeccable and “kind” English. She had a beautiful flat and we talked and talked like dear friends. We met her boyfriend Michael a West German diplomat and he took us out for a delicious meal of Chinese food. My goodness hot food I love and not swimming in Yugoslavian grease. He took us to the Berlin Wall at night which is something I will never ever forget. Floodlights in East Germany with soldiers and dogs patrolling. Michael said they don’t even trust the border guards in East Germany as many are killed trying to escape into West Berlin. Heidi stayed the night with Michael so we had her flat to ourselves.  I am in another strange world and I dream of the Berlin Wall and its guards, dogs, machine guns and an incredible sense of the evil of communism. Happy 15th birthday. No chocolate cake but memories that will be a gift for years to come.

RKS Poetry: “Yet More Emergency Orders from Our Premier Doug Ford”

Yet More Emergency Orders From Our Premier Doug Ford

Unfortunately we have become used to “emergency orders” to face
the circling “enemy” of COVID as defined by the politico-medico elite
as the opposition to incessant curtailing of liberties mounts in Ontario..oh…oh.
Doug gets tough with another order slicing into the trucker convoy
praise be the auto manufacturers say
as democracy may surface some other day
what is a little inconvenience to democracy!
Get those Fords built
has the Ford Nation put democracy on ration?

Robert K. Stephen

Passage of the Day: Symptoms and Mindfulness

“When you look into a symptom with the full power of mindfulness, whether it is muscle tension, a rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath, fever or pain it gives you much more of a chance to remember to honour your body and listen to the messages it is trying to give you. When we fail to honor these messages, either through denial or by an inflated and self-involved preoccupation with symptoms, we can sometimes create serious dilemma for ourselves.”

“The result is that a lot of a certain kind of attention is spent on your symptoms, but it is likely not to be helpful or healing attention, so much as anxiety driven self-absorption and preoccupation. More often than not, that kind of attention is reactive, judgemental and fearful. There is little room in the mind for acceptance, or for recognition of a larger field of possibilities for relating to one’s circumstances and challenges. This is the opposite of wise attention.”

Jon Kabat-Zinn “Full Catastrophe Living” Bantam Books

August 10, 1971: Munich: Letter from Margaret Mary Stephen to Her Mother-in-Law

At last we are in a civilized country. We arrived  in Munich from Bled after a 9-hour train trip and both Robert and I are exhausted. We both had showers and I washed our clothes. The water was black. The train had started in Athens. No food and the toilets were sickening. Our friend took us on a tour of the Olympic grounds. We then went to the famous beer garden where Hitler started his speeches. The band was fun but I came home with a big headache. I awoke at 5 with a horrible cold and sore throat and had breakfast with eggs the first time in two months. Robert went out for breakfast. We are going to a hunting lodge in the Black Forest. The scenery in Austria on our way here was spectacular but I would not like to live there. I can imagine how solitary it must be in the winter. We saw so many Austrians in Tyrolian clothes.

Reflections of Reggie the Egyptian Rescue Dog: The Benefits of Coffee

“Many people do not feel that they can get through the day, or even the morning, without a cup of coffee (or two or three). Having a cup of coffee becomes a way of taking care of yourself, a way of stopping, a way of connecting with others or with yourself. It has its own beauty, its own inner logic, its own culture, and in moderation it can be very effective at helping you pace yourself as you face the demands of the day. Such daily rituals can deepen a sense of pausing to take in the moment. “

John Kabat-Zin “Full Catastrophe Living” Bantam Books

Hello there. I am Reggie the Egyptian Rescue Dog and you can read about my exploits in this blog. I like this quote but it discriminates against tea drinkers like myself. I eat my morning kibble but Master Bob always gives me and my best friend Dillie the Westie a bit of organic jasmine tea and a bit of toast or bagel. My day does require this ritual. Without it I feel something is lacking!

Dylan’s Quote of the Day: Busyness as Self Destructive

“Filling up your time with busyness is another self-destructive avoidance behavior. Instead of facing up to your problems, you can run around like crazy doing good things until your life is overflowing with commitments and obligations and you can’t possibly make time for yourself. Despite all the running around, you may not really know what you are doing. This kind of hyperactivity sometimes functions as an attempt to hold on to a feeling of control or deeper meaning in your life when it seems to be slipping away. But it just may do the opposite by obliterating our opportunities for rest and reflection, for non-doing.”

John Kabat-Zin “Full Catastrophe Living” Bantam Books

Dylan the Dog has been featured in Robert K. Stephen’s “Reggie the Egyptian Rescue Dog” which has been serialized in this blog. He is a wise and seasoned dog and an inspiration for Reggie. You can read about him further in “Reggie the Egyptian Rescue Dog”.

“Travels to a Different Time” : August 9, 1971: Finally in Munich: Hello Fritz: Drinking Beer and Eating Sausages in the Shadow of Hitler: Hunting Wild Pigs in the Moonlight: 230 Kilometres an Hour in an Alfa Romeo Spider on the Autobahn

Bedraggled we got off the train in Munich at 2:30 in the afternoon. We made it to the Excelsior Hotel in Munich. In comparison to the barren accommodations of Yugoslavia this hotel was LUXURY but at $29 a night we could spend that on rooms in Yugoslavia for two weeks. We both had our first bath in close to two months. It certainly revived us. After my bath feeling like a million dollars I went out to buy some grapes and some pastry and when I returned ran into Fritz in the lobby of the hotel. I took him up to our room. It was difficult to get the conversation going but it got better as time passed. Fritz took us to the Olympic grounds and we went up to the top of the tower and what a spectacular view. After that it was to a restaurant for a snack and then back to the hotel for a rest. We both felt like we had jet lag as we had been up since 4:30 in the morning. Fritz picked us up for dinner and we went to the beer hall where Hitler had made many speeches. We had big plates of sausage and sauerkraut with an enormous mug of beer of which all of us could drink only half of it. I was happy to be back in the room where I read a newspaper while Mom and Fritz went downstairs to the lobby bar.

August 10, 1971: Mom woke up feeling very sick but went down to have breakfast with Fritz at 7:30. We were off to Fritz’s cabin in the Back Forest zipping along at 230 kilometres an hour in his red Alfa Romeo Spider. Things move up real quickly and Fritz said when there is an accident on the Autobahn it is usually very bad. However the roads are engineered for high speeds and Germans are good drivers. They must be as how can they pass a car going 230 kilometres an hour! Fritz had a meeting in Stuttgart so Mom and I spent an hour and a half wandering around a department store. We arrived around 7 p.m. at Fritz’s cabin and Fritz and I went to Albert the famer nearby for bread, eggs and ham along with fresh pressed apple cider and some beer. After dinner a couple of Fritz’s friends came and took me hunting but no luck. We returned to the cabin and we waited for the moonlight to come out so we could hunt wild pigs Again no luck.

Passage of the Day: “Workaholism”

“If you feel stressed and dissatisfied by family life, for instance, then work can be used as a wonderful excuse for never being home. If your work gives you pleasure and you get positive feedback from colleagues, if you feel in control when you are there, if you have power and status and feel productive and creative, it is easy to immerse yourself in work. In can be intoxicating and addicting, just like alcohol. And it provides a socially acceptable alibi for not being available for the family since there is always more work than you can possibly get done. Some people drown themselves in their job. Most do it unconsciously, with all the best intentions in the world, because deep down they are reluctant to face other aspects of their lives and the need to strike a healthy balance.”

Jon Kabat-Zin “Full Catastrophe Living” Bantam Books