Sounds and Smells of Deutschland

Actually, thinking about it Mike. I'm surprised there were any pets about, but there were.

Cripes....I'd totally forgotten about the dog sh*t...not that I was in the habit of studying it or anything but, yeah, now that you mention it, it was!

Since, at least in the 70s, the concept of picking up after Mr. Pups was just not on the radar, I'm kinda half guessing the damn stuff fossilized or something!

Now that I am the Proud Papa of a dog (Bishon-Cavalier Spaniel, 9-1/2 years old, and smart as a whip....great dog!), such things are part of my daily, and certainly his daily, routine.

I've gone from getting the dry heaves every time I picked up to always checking the back pocket of my jeans to make sure I have a supply of baggies. It just doesn't bother me at all any more and of course he still gets praise whenever he -- finally! -- picks a spot to do his thing!!

What bugs me now are those who suddenly turn deaf and blind when their dog squats and wander off leaving it all behind then look at you like you're some odd life form from another galaxy if you dare confront them....grrrrrr.....

We have a Heinzs' 57 , it's a Jack Russell/West Highland / God knows what else cross. We have always picked up after him.....it not nice trailing dog dirt into the house.
The wife had a Collie Cross when we got married but had to leave him with her parents when she joined me in Germany, we couldn't afford to Insure him.I remember a neighbour in Germany who had a Jack Russell that was attacked by a Great Dane beloging to a German..what a bloody mess the wee dog was in. The Vets fees ran into thousands of DMs . The German had to pay all of it as he was at fault.........his dog should have been muzzled apparently ( never knew that was law)

Over here, at least in Canada, there is generally a mindset -- not always adhered to by all -- that if you have a dog you A) take care of it properly B) pick up after it C) ensure it is socialized so as to not be a threat to other dogs/humans/children (yes, I know children are human....usually!).

While there is room for improvement, our animal cruelty laws here are not bad....certainly in cases that make the news where an animal has consciously been mistreated (and there have been some dreadful ones -- Labrador puppies tossed down the loo at a public rest stop (the old fashioned kind that are little more than a hole over the ground; an outhouse essentially); cats kicked half to death and suffering blindness, lameness and brain trauma) the public reaction has been vociferous.

Vet bills can be tough....but by and large most vets here are willing to institute a payment plan or cut a low-wage earner/welfare recipient some slack.

Muzzling laws....well, if a dog has been shown to be 'dangerous' or a biter, it is often required that when out in public that dog be muzzled. Again, not a perfect solution as it tends to be breed-specific (American pit bulls -- Staffordshire Terriers or some combination of that -- by and large bear the brunt of this. Nobody likes them and as ga-ga as I am over dogs, I will admit to being a tad leery of them myself. Rotties and Shepherds and even the odd Doberman I have no issue with...love Rotties, actually!)

Getting somewhat back on track....when we first lived in Soest in 1962 our landlady (Frau Elizabeth who some of you may remember as the Dear Old Lady from the Sally Ann), her son Walter had a delightful little Fox Terrier, Teddy. Just a nice little dog and smart as a whip. He was as much ours as Walters.

Well, Teddy was accused by a neighbour of killing his chickens and it was a helluva a hullaballoo....Mom insisted no such thing happened as Teddy used to bring everything he "hunted" to her (rats, mainly). If he had killed a chicken, we would have found the carcass on our doorstep, guaranteed! And with a proud Teddy sitting there with an expression that pretty much said "See? Aren't I a brave and mighty hunter? Where's my cookie?" He didn't.

Teddy ended up...well, we're not sure. Frau Elizabeth always told us she had sent him off to her brother's/cousin's whatever farm, but I think it wasn't that at all. I think poor little Teddy got the needle. Even 15 years later, when I was now a young man of 20 and back in Soest and would visit her, her story was Teddy lived out his days on that farm. I hope so.

I do remember seeing/reading something about Paris where the law was to "curb your dog"...not pick up after it, mind, just curb it so the pile wasn't smack dab in the middle of the sidewalk to be stepped in by unwary Parisians. Eeeew....I can't imagine!! Well, actually I can imagine as that was pretty much the way it was in Germany too....so long as "it" wasn't in the path of pedestrians, it was just left. Lovely....especially on a warm summer's day or two. Blech....

One of the "smells of Deutschland" I'd just as soon lock away somewhere LOL

I'm off for a week from work, taking some (well deserved!) vacation time and so am playing on the computer....

Did a search of "Ruhr Valley" on Flikr, just for the hell of it and of course there are several pics of the various factories belching their smoke.

This reminded me of several car trips through the Ruhrgebeit when I was a kid (not so much later in the 70s...things had got cleaned up considerably, although not completely, by then) and traveling from quite picturesque landscapes dotted with villages into the heavily industrialized zone of the Ruhr with it's perpetual haze of g-d knows what.

Even with the car windows closed one could smell the pulp mills, the various ironworks, the smelting factories, often mixed in with the smell of burning peat (one of my fondest memories of Germany, the smell of burning peat coming out of chimneys).

Seeing pictures of Moscow as it suffers through the surrounding forest fires and the high level of smog comes very close to what the Ruhrgebeit was like in the early 60s. Dead trees (wouldn't that have been the first clue the emissions from all the smokestacks wasn't particularly good stuff???), no birds...well, except for starlings which seem able to survive anything.

It was like something out of Dante's Inferno back then....the 2nd Ring of Hell or something....

Quote :

Even with the car windows closed one could smell the pulp mills, the various ironworks, the smelting factories, often mixed in with the smell of burning peat (one of my fondest memories of Germany, the smell of burning peat coming out of chimneys).

I'm astonished, peat? really. All the Germans families I knew burned coke, and so did we Stephen.

It is burnt in North West Germany quite a bit. They call it Torf or that's how it sounds anyway. You can actually buy it in local supermarkets.

I went to a town in the former East Germany in 1994 and you could taste the metal in the air. Talk about pollution. Can't remember where it was but must have been around Chemnitz way? No doubt the West has since cleared it up.

well you learn something every day. We used peat (illegally) in N.I. we just burned it at night when you couldn't see the white smoke.

Teabag wrote:

It is burnt in North West Germany quite a bit. They call it Torf or that's how it sounds anyway. You can actually buy it in local supermarkets.

I went to a town in the former East Germany in 1994 and you could taste the metal in the air. Talk about pollution. Can't remember where it was but must have been around Chemnitz way? No doubt the West has since cleared it up.

I don't know about Chemnitz, Teabag, sounds a bit like Widnes to me !

So what's the eastern zone like then teabag? I've often thought about going touring there. I did manage East Berlin in the '70's, In full No 2's of course. That was a weird experience.

jim wrote:

So what's the eastern zone like then teabag? I've often thought about going touring there. I did manage East Berlin in the '70's, In full No 2's of course. That was a weird experience.

Well it was 94 and only five years after the wall came down but it was like stepping back in time. Everywhere we went they were digging up the roads and the dreaded umleitung signs were all over the place. Obviously the infrastructure was ancient and they had to renew virtually everything from sewers, power cables, phones etc. Many roads were still cobbled and of course there were "Trabbies" all over the place.

We were in a very luxurious mobile home towing a jeep to enable us to run around and we got some pretty nasty looks at times. Rich westerners you see!

I managed to get a visit to Colditz and it was fascinating although the little cafe/shop in there was staffed by a girl who went to the gestapo charm school. The lady in the museum in contrast was extremely nice and good looking to boot.

We were in Saxony in a reasonable sized town but could we find a restaurant to eat in? No way! Ended up eating in the pubs which was very good to be honest. Had a memorable night in a pub and got chatting to the locals as you do. My German improved dramatically as I drank more for some inexplicable reason? I could actually understand the Saxon German better than the Western version if that makes sense? Asked this little guy who was built like the proverbial brick outhouse across the shoulders if he preferred now to communism? Communism he replied. He told me he made more money than a doctor under the communists as he was on piece work breaking sandstone with a sledge hammer to make sandpaper. The mind boggles!

The beer was excellent and very cheap. As stated earlier, some of the towns were heavily polluted and one had a lake which I wouldn't have gone into because the bottom looked like radioactive mud but that didn't seem to bother the Germans. Many of them took their holidays at this lake and lived in massive tent like structures that appeared to be made of old polythene sheeting. They had done it every year under the communists.

I enjoyed it and loved the experience. Saw the famous Torgau bridge where the Americans and Russians met up in the war. I think it has been knocked down now? Also went to Spreewald which is a lovely place and evidently was left very much alone by both Russians and German communists throughout the time they were in power. About all I can remember really. Lots of good beer and the grub when we could find it wasn't bad. Oh yes, lots of buildings still had bullet holes in the walls from the war.

Thanks teabag, that makes me want to visit even more. Time to speak to the wife I think.

I should imagine it's vastly changed by now though.

We visited a friend in Heillbron in 97 and came home via the Thueringerwald, as Teabags said the roads were atrocious and the villages still showing signs of WW2,but on the way out of town there was always a brand new car showroom.
In Rudolstadt (impessive castle there), we heard a tremendous noise coming down the road,it was a Trabbie with racing stripes going full bore(35 mph) and a sound system worth more than the car on full blast.
The big shock to us was that Eisenach,home of Soviet missile units,was only two hours away from Soest where we used to sit all fat,dull and happy in the security of our comfortable camps.

TonyE wrote:

The big shock to us was that Eisenach,home of Soviet missile units,was only two hours away from Soest where we used to sit all fat,dull and happy in the security of our comfortable camps.

But I was down in Deilinghofen TonyE, so I'm sure we'd have been okay.

You were next on the list Hardrats,once they had figured whether to go via Neheim-Husten or Menden.

LOL, we were told in 20 Bde that we were going to be the first in line, and we faced 2 guards Motor Rifle armies. Oh, and whilst everyone else was retreating behind the Weser and the Rhine, we were to advance. Thrilling stuff for a young soldier.

jim wrote:

Quote :

Even with the car windows closed one could smell the pulp mills, the various ironworks, the smelting factories, often mixed in with the smell of burning peat (one of my fondest memories of Germany, the smell of burning peat coming out of chimneys).

I'm astonished, peat? really. All the Germans families I knew burned coke, and so did we Stephen.

It may have been coke...I don't know. Yeah, probably was....at any rate, the aroma of the coke/peat/whatever-it-was smoke coming out of the chimneys is what I remember and was attempting to invoke.

Cripes, the things you learn years after the fact!!! I never knew Soest was so close to Soviet missile installations! I suspect the average Soester didn't either!! Hmmmm....may explain why we had a small American missile detachment at Soest (who none of us knew much about. A couple of teenagers from American families attended our high school, and apparently lived in "American Married Quarters" but to be honest, I have no idea where those even were!)

Most of the guys attached to the missile detachment were single, as I recall, and we just didn't see them out and about much. In the whole time I spent in Soest I only ever recall meeting one American soldier out in the discos, at that was after I returned to work in Soest in 1973. He was out on his own too, no pals with him or anything. He'd spent some time over in Viet Nam as well (not something one usually raised in the 70's!).

Just done a trip via Hanover - Celle - Fallingbostel on the B3. Guess what?? The 'ladies' are really out in mass along this long corridor in their Motor -Caravans.

Normally they used to be one or two vans in number. Seems now they are in about 20 of them on this route.

Back to military things... For those of you who did resupplies for their units whilst training in the area. The 'triangular', (called Blackmar Triangle by squaddies), was a well covered bit of forest just north of the village of Bleckmar, north of Bergen is, as I will remember it whilst with 32 Hvy RA Reme in the late sixties, still the place to RV to pickup fuel, laundry and beer goodies with the QM staff. I will never forget this location, as my wife pipes up and reminds me each time we pass thru the location...

By the way, yes, the village of 'Wankum,' near Wachtendonk, not too far from Duisburg, still gets a special cheer as we head through from Holland towards the German Border (no BP petrol coupons or 'Jerry Cans' for me anymore!).

(Aaah, the old Bleckmar triangle !)

Remind me Alan, 32 Hvy, what guns did they have in your day ?

brum

They were the M107s Self Propeled Guns (the one with the very long barrels).

Stephen Lock wrote:

Cripes, the things you learn years after the fact!!! I never knew Soest was so close to Soviet missile installations! I suspect the average Soester didn't either!! Hmmmm....may explain why we had a small American missile detachment at Soest (who none of us knew much about. A couple of teenagers from American families attended our high school, and apparently lived in "American Married Quarters" but to be honest, I have no idea where those even were!)

Most of the guys attached to the missile detachment were single, as I recall, and we just didn't see them out and about much. In the whole time I spent in Soest I only ever recall meeting one American soldier out in the discos, at that was after I returned to work in Soest in 1973. He was out on his own too, no pals with him or anything. He'd spent some time over in Viet Nam as well (not something one usually raised in the 70's!).

There was a US detachment in our camp in Deilinghofen, they were something to do with the Msl Regt in Menden. Our people drank in their bar.
Let us not forget that we had missile regiments in Paderborn, Sennelager and Menden folks. They packed a lot of Kilotons!

alan8376 wrote:

They were the M107s Self Propeled Guns (the one with the very long barrels).

Thanks Alan, I couldn't be sure if it wasn't the M110.

Yes, the terms M107, 109 and M110 are confusing. Just Wikipedia them to remind yourself...

Strange how to German cities can take different views on ex British camps.. I have seen how Roberts Barracks now looks in Osnabruck. Take a view of Tofrek Barracks, Hildesheim.

All the blocks are still standing. Security fences removed All blocks painted in pastel colours (I even paid to stay over night in one block (YMCA typical accomodation). The place is now an Industrial area, but done soooo nicely..