In Note 1405 for 11 June 2002 , I mentioned an incident in our visit to Austria last May. We had stopped by Kollerschlag because the manager of the cafeteria in the buildings where my wife Eleanor my wife works was from there. (Eleanor and he try short German phrases or sentences on each other with most of the trial being on Eleanor. Clemens Mayer knows his German and English very well, so it was no problem for him, except perhaps to understand Eleanor.)
When we were in Kollerschlag, we met Clemen's brother, Georg, and his parents, and spent perhaps two hours talking to them. Georg's mother, at our departure, gave us a few cookies to give to Clemens. Was he surprised!
Georg, in October of this year, spent about two weeks in Munich at the Oktoberfest, working as a waiter. By working 16 hour days, he earned good money, enough that he felt like investigating air fares to America. In the end, he decided to pay his brother Clemens, in Philadelphia, a visit. Yesterday, we had Clemens, his wife Rosemary, their two young sons, his brother Georg, and Georg's friend, Michael, for lunch. They were wonderful guests.
In the afternoon, Eleanor, Rosemary, and the two sons went to Longwood Gardens. Clemens plays soccer in an informal league, and all the men went to that. The opposition team was shorthanded, so Georg and Michael played for them. They didn't have the right shoes but they still played, even if they were constrained in their actions.
Already, Clemens has promised to treat us to one of his Austrian dinners.
Michael has an unusual distinction in that he was a member of the Vienna Boy's Choir for about five years. He auditioned when he was about eight, was accepted, and sang with them till he about thirteen. He and his family had some idea what was involved, as he had an older brother who did the same thing. As a member, he lived with the other boys in Vienna, and he studied music and his academic work. About every two weeks, he could go home to his parents. Because the choir travels so much, Michael had seen the world before he was twelve. During these travels, he did not get home as often.
The moral of the story is that there are fringe benefits in travel.
(04 Nov 02)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.