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arminmersmann2 In reply to undefinedreference [2015-09-15 16:30:48 +0000 UTC]

ive seen those freeze frames of a nuclear bubble that your speaking of i think by the time you would see it your already dust, scary thought ...thank you....Armin

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undefinedreference In reply to arminmersmann2 [2015-09-15 17:59:08 +0000 UTC]

Haha, no it was more as if that dome was rising from the ground, and all the secret underground stuff they were doing finally coming to life. I was just waiting for it to open up and some doomsday device being launched towards the East - those were the Cold War days! And all that would be left would be to wait for the "reply" from the USSR, and turn to dust after all indeed

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arminmersmann2 In reply to undefinedreference [2015-09-15 18:27:52 +0000 UTC]

Spent a lot of time in my teens bike riding in Germany i rode form Amsterdam to Vienna one what a great time i love Europe so much....your scenario  is like the song neunundneunzig luftballons   Armin Mersmann

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undefinedreference In reply to arminmersmann2 [2015-09-15 20:10:37 +0000 UTC]

That's quite a respectable bike ride indeed! My max was something like 100 km on a single day, though more typically 50-70 km at a very leisurely pace. Never anything competitive or physical condition-related, though I definitely was an "all-weather" type of cyclist. Couldn't be bothered much with cold or rain, the restlessness I felt from sitting at home outweighed all that. I grew up about 5 km from the German border, which I always felt put me in a luxury position. Crossing a border instantly and automatically changes ones view from that of a subject and contender to that of an observer, very liberating. The German villages I came through had a weird kind of eerie magic of their own: they were both very neat and pretty and just plain dead. Never any people in the streets, except for the odd old woman vigorously sweeping her own personal stretch of pavement, just briefly looking up in what seemed suspicion rather than curiosity. In particular there never were any children outside, it seemed as if they were kept in the confinement of their rooms and the (out of view) back yard all the time. I think about the only children I ever saw outside in Germany were being rushed to a car. It's as if those people had this incredibly hostile view of the outside world, or maybe they were still feeling collectively ashamed about what they did in WWII. I know from German family of my own that in Germany they wouldn't shy away from keeping their kids under a blanket of valium for their entire childhood in order to keep them "sweet". A weird country, but yes, beautiful indeed, lots of geraniums

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arminmersmann2 In reply to undefinedreference [2015-09-15 20:30:13 +0000 UTC]

  You are correct about a lot things I was born in Remscheid Germany in 1955 move to the states when I was seven.  Every German including me has treble guilt although my grandmother helped Jew escape.  Yet how can basically decent people be driven to commit that kind of hell on others?  I can never get that out of my mind nor should I. Germans are stoic people when I would ride by a person and say Gutten Morgen they looked at me like came from a spaceship. But when you get to know them eat a meal drink a beer they can be warm and wonderful.  Now I live in a new county and we have Donald Trump running for president and I have more shame…  

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undefinedreference In reply to arminmersmann2 [2015-09-15 21:04:28 +0000 UTC]

Then we have a kind of shared background because I'm 3/8 German and my family is from NRW as well (Düsseldorf). I know about the warmth very well, I think NRW people are the best in that respect, up North they're more cold-ish and down South they're too corrupt. But really, I do miss that sometimes, that specific homely kind of Deutsche Gemütlichkeit. I had this extensive collection of aunts, things always got pretty noisy when they got together. And of course never without their Kaffee un Kuchen!

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