Our Visitors From Babenhausen, Part 1

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​Our Visitors From Babenhausen, Part 1

         My mate Tom was stationed from late 1972 to mid-1976 at the U.S. Army post known as  Babenhausen Kaserne located outside the small town of Babenhausen, Germany. 
         Babenhausen

    The town's famous witch tower

     Babenhausen Kaserne, circa 1973

      During this time Tom rented a room off-post in the home of a kind, lovely, German woman named Anna and her son, Ralf.   
       Anna and Ralf's home in Babenhausen.        ​

     Meanwhile Tom and I struck up a friendship - well, a bit more than a friendship, obviously,

...while I was working as a Department of Defense civilian first on Babenhausen Kaserne, then later at the post in nearby Aschaffenburg.
       Pictures of Aschaffenburg, circa 1974

         Me, circa 1974,

...and the house where I lived in Aschaffenburg. My room was the right window on the roof.

​         Subsequently I, too, got to know Anna, and I would see young Ralf around the house from time to time. Ralf was around 12 years old when Tom arrived, and around 15 when he left.
         After Tom returned to the States he and Anna stayed in touch over the years, and after Anna passed away Tom and Ralf continued exchanging Christmas cards.
          Then several months ago Tom received an email from Ralf informing us that he, his wife, and their youngest son would be coming to the U.S. to visit friends in Rochester, New York, and, as their 17-year-old son wanted to see New York City, to spend a couple of days there. He wondered if they might visit Columbus, too, and spend three nights with us. Of course, Tom said of course!
          And so on the evening of July 23 Ralf, Marielle and their son Emil arrived at our house,

...and immediately jumped in to help with dinner,

...which was sort of a fusion of German (the brats), American (the corn and coleslaw), Italian (the pasta), and some international (everybody in the world loves potato chips and Coke),

...with all-American ice cream and strawberries for dessert.

​   Now, did, you ever meet someone and, for some reason you can't put into words, you form an immediate connection? This is what happened between our visitors and us. They were so friendly, so funny, so easy-going, so nice.

    They were all fluent in English and very informed and interesting conversationalists. And it was a happy surprise for me to learn that Marielle is French; and it was a happy surprise for Marielle to learn that I speak French. And so Marielle, Emil -who is also fluent in French - and I were able to chat in French.
     It added some extra glue to the bond that we were all essentially of the same political persuasion, their fears and hopes for their country being similar to our fears and hopes for ours.        

       A couple of times, though, I felt as if I'd taken a trip in a time machine: the last time I saw Ralf he was, at nine years younger than me, just a kid, while I was an adult. Now he was still nine years younger than me, but we were contemporaries. I suppose Ralf  may have felt the same way: Here were these two people who used to be the grown-ups, and now we're all grown-ups. And we all grew up, over time, and thousands of miles apart, to have so much in common. It was all somehow mystifying. And wonderful.

      To be continued...