Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Short Story...hard to believe but its true...

Dateline Berlin, Germany, January 1980 ...along the Berlin wall:  ~  I talked about this photo throughout the years and thought that I had lost it somewhere along the way from there to here.  Today, while rummaging through a bin full of books stored in the basement, I saw something that looked like a book-mark and upon pulling it from between the pages was overjoyed with my discovery.  But before we look at the picture I have to explain the significance of an otherwise simple photograph of two children standing in the snow with a graffiti covered wall in the background.

While stationed with the Air Force in Germany in the early 80's I took the opportunity to visit the infamous Berlin Wall along with some friends.  While touring Berlin and East Berlin (The East was occupied by the Soviets at that time) I took numerous pictures of, among other things, the wall.  As we walked along one segment of the wall my daughter Terrye asked, "Dad, why are you taking so many pictures of this wall?"  My immediate response was, "This wall got your daddy into this uniform." as I pointed at my Air Force blues (I should note that I originally got my military draft notice during the Berlin Crisis of 1961 while the wall was under construction). 
So now, long story short...  Without looking at the wall I asked my two children to stop for a moment while I took their picture.  You also have to realize this was in the old days when you had to buy film to put in the camera and then bring the film somewhere to be developed.  It was about a week or so later while back in Frankfurt that I got the picture(s) back from the developer and the first thing I noticed was the graffiti on the wall (I swear on a stack of bibles I did not notice the graffiti at the time I took the picture).  I mentioned that my daughter's name is Terrye...but did you know that my son's name is Mark!  Now look at the picture ↓


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