My Dad, Bernard Koorlander, also known as 'Corky' was based in Munster in the early 1950s and my mother, young baby sister, and I eventually joined him there in 1955. I remember a lot about the place, as a 5 year old, predominantly starting school in the Barracks, I think it was the large building on the left just inside the main entrance. I recall the playground had a slope downhill behind it onto an open field area, and the bank was planted with Silver Birch Trees. We live in married quarters off- camp in a street which was next to another part of the military base, which had a large hospital, marching grounds, and a chapel on the first floor of one of the buildings. I recall having a tooth removed at the dentist in the hospital. Where we lived, each flat had an area of garden. The gardens were very long and reached a row of trees which bounded the Hospital area. None of this shows up nowadays on the Google photos, although part of the Oxford camp still looks predominbantly like it did when I started school there. I remember we had military school busses to take us home, and our bus number was 54. I wonder if anyone has a map of Munster at that time, before all the new roads and building which now fills what was just fields and woods. One day, I mistakenly (misunderstood what I'd been told) walked out of the camp entrance and along Roxetter to go home for lunch. It was a fair walk, and I recall the local bus going past me and a spluttering motorcycle. A nice sunny day for a walk. I have no recollection of how long it took me to get home, but I was quite pleased when I finally got home to our flat in Vonbodelsvink strasse (I think that was how it was pronounced - but the spelling could be wrong). Mum was in tears, and I got taken straight back to school in a jeep - I think. I was put at the front of the class, and the teacher told the rest of the class they must NEVER do what I had just done. You tend to remember things like that!
So - hence the need for a map that relates to those days in the 1950s. If anyone has one, or knows where one may be, it would be fascinating to find. Thanks for letting me ramble ... very happy childhood days there.
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Today at 15:48 by alan8376
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