I have been reading an old school mates blog and realized I hadn't discuss in my blog my earlier life. I shall begin with Dan Lieberman who was my first husband. I met him in San Francisco, we went to Europe together back in 1965 - 1966. We spent a whole year there. We had saved $1000. There was a book out then entitled "Europe on $5 a Day" We prided ourselves on living in Europe for less. We flew into Luxenburg on Icelantic Airlines. We first drove a car for a company that we were to deliver in New York. Then we took Icelantic Airlines to Luxenburg. It was less than $200 for one of us. We got to Luxenburg and hitch-hiked to Paris. We didn't stay very long in Paris, maybe a couple of days, because we were going to go back, so we thought later. It was in late April near Easter. We got picked up by 2 Greek guest workers who were working in a Sacandinavian country. It was a Mad Hatter drive to Paris on two lane winding roads at what I felt was 50 miles an hour. We left Paris and hitch hiked to the south of France. While in Bieritz we decided to stop taking chance with rides and bought ourselves this Vespa.

I have been reading Gunter Grass’s biography. It is an open window into the soul of a young Polish/German Nazi and his repentance, slow rebirth, and maturation as a great German writer and intellectual. I read the Tin Drum, many years ago and still remember its gnome protagonist. I see where Gunter took scenes from his life and used them in the Tin Drum, and as he notes does in his other novels, which I now want to read. The tragedy of the biography, is that his experience as a true believer describes so many of us, and how I doubt we will learn from his and other German’s lives, who thought they were free while they followed Hitler and his propaganda machine. Will we have to suffer total defeat, before our fellow Estadounidentes learn that war is not the answer? His writing is detailed with introspective descriptions of his life as 14 years old Nazi Youth, 16 year old German soldier, 17 year old wounded prisoner of war, culinary student, miner, and grave stone cuter. This is where I am in his life now. His language describes German life in human detail and made me realize how much we all are the same. Most profound for me was how mundane the Polish Germans were as they slid into genocide. I once knew a German young man who said to me, there is a little Nazi in all of us, and I can see that in Grass’s biography. One learns of German life after the war, now he is discussing the change in the German money from one species to another while working on repairing the marble facade of bank. He notes, “They changed the money to make us consumers.
I have also included my photos of my backyard patio. I did them last year. I worked hard to create this little garden. Most of my plants are in pots including and orange tree.