It All Kind of Blurs Together...

I have been wracking my brains the last few weeks trying to remember a particular barracks, with no luck.

When I was living in Soest circa 1973-74 I often used to travel by train up to see an old British pal of mine (Bill Black) who lived upstairs above an old gasthof, directly across the street from a British barracks where he and his roommate (one of them) worked as civilian drivers for the ambulance corp, if I remember correctly.

I cannot remember the name of the town, despite peering at maps of the region and trying to reconstruct the route I'd have taken from Soest to their place. Seems to me it was northwest of Soest, perhaps a couple of hours by rail? Maybe less. All I've come up with is Hamm, but I don't think it was Hamm.

I don't recall much of the architecture of the barracks. They were the usual 3-storey former WWII (if not actually WWI) German barracks so many of the British regts and units took over (as did the Canadians). The main gate was right off the street separating the barracks from the old gasthof my friends lived above. They had a small flat up there consisting of a sitting room, a couple of bedrooms and a kitchen. The loo was out on the landing, if I recall.

If one stood facing the main gate, the ambulance/medic area was to one's right. Not that helps any, but it may! Down towards the end of the front wall before it turned the corner.

That's about it.

Oh, and the gasthof, or at least the area upstairs where my friends lived, was reputed to be haunted. In fact, one weekend I was up there, crashing on the sofa in the living room and something (nothing eerie, just something) attracted my interest outside and I was looking out the window clad only in my white Jockey briefs when Bill's mate came home.

He opened the door to the darkened sitting room, spotted me over by the window with my white Jockey glowing in the light of the street lamp just outside and nearly had a heart attack! LOL

"Who's there??" he cried out in a wavering voice, convinced -- he later said -- he'd seen the ghost.

"Oh for crying out loud Malcolm (I think his name was)...settle down! It's only me...." I chuckled. He had no idea I was coming for a visit, apparently.

"Crikey...you nearly gave me a seizure, you did!" he gasped and flicked on the light looking for a bottle of schapps to get his heart going again LOL