Nostalgia

This time of year is always bittersweet. It brings back so many memories, and I am grateful for all of the good ones we have of the years with our sons, those years when they were children and Christmas was magical, when their problems were small and we could actually handle them and really help. Those years when there was someone with young bright eyes to appreciate the Christmas decorations and help make the cookies and Norwegian Christmas bread, to sing the carols and anticipate the fun of Christmas Eve.

There's enough nostalgia in the air already, but it seems lately there are more reminders everywhere. Last Monday we went out to dinner at a Japanese steakhouse, and I remembered our years in Japan, the boys trying Japanese food, taking them to Japanese restaurants here.

Then, when I was driving home, the car on my left for a long time in a traffic jam caused by an accident was a silver RX8 like Leif's, like he was there accompanying me home.

Today, we went to the German American Chorus Christmas concert. I sang with this group for six years until their rehearsal time conflicted with Mom's retinology appointments. They sang German Christmas carols and I remembered the years we lived in Nurnberg and Sachsen bei Ansbach and Peter Anthony sang with the Sachsen Kinderchor, and how much he loved listening to Andrea Jurgens singing carols. I got tears in my eyes remembering and missing those days gone by.

We are fortunate that we had all those years together, that our memories bring them back. I miss my boys. I miss Leif. But I am grateful.
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This photo was taken on July 4, 1976 in Manhattan, Kansas, in our old stone house. Leif is on the right.

Halloween, a favorite of Leif's

I suppose Leif and Peter Anthony were like most brothers. Sometimes they were good companions, and sometimes they competed. Sometimes Peter teased Leif and Leif got mad and went on the attack. I used to tell Peter that he was lucky Leif was six years younger than he was, because he was to big for his age. I think that in the years after Peter left home, when Leif was twelve, they grew apart and forgot all the good times they had together when they were younger.  This photo is an example. It was Halloween and Peter, who was nearly nine years old and in third grade, was a classy vampire with a ruffled shirt. He was already in costume way early, as we were having a party at our house for him and his friends. His dad dressed up as a sort of swami fortune teller. I looked ridiculous in a true 1970s tie-dyed dress, leopard print hat, and fish net stockings, or at least that's what I think I wore.

Look at the expression of pure delight on Leif's face, the cute body language as the vampire leans over to bite and Leif expects it will tickle. Yes, Peter did bite, and yes, it did tickle. There was a lot of laughter.

Leif was only two-and-a-half years old then and not really old enough to understand much about Halloween except that he got to go beg for candy at a few doorways in the stairwell, but he certainly understood the idea of having fun with his brother.

When Leif was grown, Halloween was one of his favorite times. He loved to have parties and was devilish and cute. I wish he was here this Halloween with us.

Memories on the Neckar River

When we were in Heidelberg in June, we had a lovely walk along the Neckar River and we passed this big ring fastened into the wall along the river path. There are several of them, used to tie up boats and barges, but this particular one stands straight out and I recognized it at once, though I hadn't seen it in over thirty years.

I remembered the beautiful April day in 1978 when we were visiting Heidelberg. It might have been Easter weekend or even Easter Sunday. It was a bit chilly and spring wasn't a little late, but it was still a beautiful time for a walk along the river. Our boys saw that ring and they just HAD to hang on it. Peter Anthony could just barely grasp it and then walk his feet up along the wall, but Leif was way too short for that, so his Dad had to hold him up.

On his head, Leif has a red visor with built-in flip-down sunglasses that he just loved. I think I have another photo or two of him wearing it, and I'd forgotten all about it until I saw this picture again.

In the spring of 1978 we were living in Nurnberg, or actually Furth, and it was about a two-and-a-half hour drive to get to Heidelberg so we didn't go often to visit Peter W.'s aunts, uncles and cousins there, but every visit was a joy.

Leif was three years old and Peter Anthony was nine in these photos. Hard to believe that was 34 years ago.

I'm glad I took these photos, so that I have more than just the memory of that place and time. And I'm glad I found them and scanned them. Time is not being good to many of our older color photos. They are fading or discoloring and there's only so much I can do with PhotoShop to improve them.

The Keller Where Leif Bit the Glass

I was surprised that we could find this restaurant after all these years. It's been 35 years since we ate there with two-and-a-half-year-old Leif and eight-and-a-half-year-old Peter A. We didn't go there this time, finding it rather expensive, but I wish I'd gone downstairs and taken a picture. Unless they've completely remodeled it, I can picture it well.
This is the place that Leif bit a chunk out of the glass. It was a thin tumbler filled with Apfelsaft (apple juice) which was usually what our boys got to drink when we were eating out in Germany. I had quite a time getting the broken glass out of his mouth. He didn't cry, but resisted letting me fish out the glass. I was glad he apparently didn't swallow any or cut himself. It could have been very dangerous.
He loved the little Nurnberg Bratwurstl, tasty link sausages about a sixth the size of a regular bratwurst.

Memories in Nurnberg

Visiting Nurnberg, Germany, where we moved when Leif was two brought a flood of memories. From the moment we stepped out of the Hauptbahnhof (Main Train Station) and looked across the street to the building with the sign "Bavarian American Hotel," where we stayed for a month until we got quarters there were memories. Of walking through the old city each day with my boys while Peter was at work, to the Kellar where we all had dinner and Leif literally took a bite out of the glass, from the Nurnberger Bratwurstl to the good luck ring on the Schoener Brunnen. And then, back in our hotel room, Peter turned in the television and the very first show of the X Files was on.

I remembered how much Leif liked that show and how attracted he was to Scully, a redhead, of course. I was struck by how much his great love, J., looked like Scully (Gillian Anderson). He didn't see that show until many years later in Kansas and here I was seeing it in Nurnberg and remembering.

So much here would interest him. I wish he were here to share it. One of them was the exhibit of medieval armor and weaponry at the castle.

A Visit to Bamberg

We moved from Charlottesville, Virginia to Fürth, Germany (Nurnberg) in the summer of 1977. We lived in an army housing area that has now been turned back over to the Germans and no longer exists as we knew it. We lived on the first floor of a three-story apartment building in a three bedroom apartment.

Leif was two-and-a-half when we arrived there, and I suppose in some ways he was in his "terrible twos," though I as I remember him the year that we lived in Fürth he was much more easy-going than he had been in Charlottesville.

I think it helped a lot that we did a lot of traveling, since he loved the stimulation and novelty, and that he had friends to play with and the Montessori preschool to attend. The more he could be active and away from home, the better he liked it. The car trips, the Volksmarches, the trips to downtown Nurnberg (with requisite visits to the pet and toy stores) and the parakeet we got all seemed to keep him engaged and less frustrated.

One of the places we visited in the fall of 1977 was the city of Bamberg, which we would return to on our 1988 trip to Germany with Leif. This photo of Peter W. and Leif on the bridge over the Regnitz River reflects his joy and interest at seeing new surroundings. I love that little houndstooth checked coat he's wearing. It was Peter Anthony's when he was little. They both looked so cute in it.

A Visit to the Zoo - Nurnberg, Germany - October 1979 - Age 4 and a half

We were fortunate to be able to travel and see so many place and interesting things with our sons. We have visited zoos in many cities and still enjoy going to zoos, now with our grandchildren. This photo was taken at the zoo in Nurnberg, Germany in October 1979. Leif would be 5 years old three months after it was taken. He as an active, strapping boy, but even he got tired out running around all over the place at the zoo and wearing himself out on the playground equipment, so he got a break riding on his dad's shoulders.

It was a fall day with the leaves turning pretty colors, though it was chilly and cloudy. We were there with our friends the Summerlins, whose daugher, Erin, was one of Leif's best friends and playmates in the little village of Sachsen bei Ansbach where we lived.

Leif in Nurnberg, Germany - December 1977 - Age almost three

Two of our very favorite things in Germany are the Konditoreien (pastry shops that are also coffee shops) and the marzipan creations some of them feature, especially at this time of year. Marzipan is almond paste and it can be sculpted and formed into just about anything and then colored with food colorings, decorated or frosted. It's made into the most interesting and delicate things and also the most mundane.

The boys were fascinated with the marzipan in this Nurnberg Konditorei window as it featured a lot of little elves with wild red hair, pigs (a traditional New Years sign of good luck), and even potatoes. We all liked to eat marzipan, and our favorite Stollen (German Christmas bread) had marzipan inside it.

This was taken on one of our walking-shopping trips through the Altstadt (the old city inside the walls), where we could revel in the quaint shops, enjoy the toy stores, and have something yummy to eat in one of these Konditoreien.

Leif was two years old, a month shy of his third birthday in this photo. He was a pretty cute little elf himself.

Sadness Amidst the Pretty Colored Lights

I'm very sad tonight. I don't know why it hit me so hard all of a sudden. I think it was driving home from my mother's house at night and seeing all the Christmas lights. I started by telling myself that I could pretend that Leif was still alive, that I could send him a text message or an email, post on his Facebook page. I could pretend he was still living in Tampa and he'd be coming for Christmas. The thought made me smile for a moment or two, even though I knew it was foolishness. Then I started thinking about how denial was one of the stages of grief and wondering whether I had hit that one. I decided I hadn't. I haven't been able to deny Leif's death, no matter how much I might wish to. i haven't done any bargaining with God, either. What good would it do? And I haven't been angry. Why? At whom?

No, I'm just sad. I knew it might hit me sometime during this holiday season. I knew I'd find it hard to deal with Leif not being here, especially without the distraction of grandchildren being here, and without seeing Peter A. and Darlene.

I was talking with Peter W. the other day and saying that since Peter A. was born, I don't think there has been a Christmas that we didn't have more family with us, whether my extended family, or Peter's (when we lived in Germany), or at least one of our sons. The only Christmas that Leif missed (until he died) was the year he was in Bosnia, 1999, and Peter A. wasn't with us, either, but we did have a large family gathering around us in Kansas. So, it's just that one year that we missed seeing both of our sons for Christmas, until now. Peter A. and his family were here last year. This will be the second without either of our sons, but it's vastly different. In 1999, we knew that Leif was alive and serving his country in uniform. He could send email, and we knew we'd get to see him again.

This year, there's no hope of seeing him again, no way to fool myself, no way to make Christmas seem right.

Peter put up a beautiful tree on Sunday, and today he put up the outside lights. They are very pretty, and I do love seeing all the lovely little colored and white lights. Christmas should be a time of happiness, love and hope, but it's hard to feel the same way I used to, hard to realize Leif will not be coming.
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This photo of Peter W. and Leif in front of a toy store in Nurnberg, Germany was taken 32 years ago in December 1977. Leif would be three years old in a month. It was during the holiday season of the one year we lived in Nurnberg, and it was so much fun to walk through the walls of the old city into the heart of town, see the Christkindlmarkt (The Christmas Market) near the Frauenkirche (the cathedral) in the square, have a piece of cake at a bakery, and visit the toy stores. The German toy stores were new to the boys then and they were magical. They loved them! There's nothing like children to make Christmas special. They are still so excited about it, so full of wonder.

Leif & Peter A. - Grafenwoehr, Germany - Fall 1977 - Age 2 and a Half

When we moved to Fuerth, Germany in the summer of 1977, Peter W. was the OIC (Officer in Charge) of the Nurnberg Law Center, and had branch offices in other towns where units of the 1st Armored Division were stationed. One of those was Grafenwoehr, a town in a beautiful wooded area northeast of Nurnberg in northern Bavaria.

Peter W. was familiar with Grafenwoehr from training Reforger exercises held there in the fall that he went to with the 1st Infantry Division from Fort Riley, Kansas when he was stationed there. Grafenwoehr was at that time a large training area for US troops during the Cold War.


I think we drove to Grafenwoehr that fall day partly because Peter was visiting the branch office there and partly because he wanted to show us the area.

It was a crisp fall day and the boys had a great time running around in the woods. This is one of my favorite sets of photos of the two of them. They were at such beautiful ages and usually really loved each other and got along well.

Peter W. took a look at these photos and asked why I got Leif those "awful pants," and I had to laugh. The 1970s styles look pretty ridiculous to us now, but at the

time, everyone was wearing them, even Peter W. It was the day of plaid pants, leisure suits and double-knits. Just wait, someday they will be back, just like the platform and wedge heel shoes for women.

Peter A. was eight years old when these photos were taken (going on nine in a couple of months) and was in the third grade. Leif was a little over two-and-a-half years old. We are so used to thinking of him as the giant of the family it's amazing to see him looking so small, sweet and vulnerable.

Peter Anthony & Leif in Heidelberg, Germany - August 1978 - Leif age 3 and a half

We were so fortunate to be able to live just six kilometers from Peter W's beautiful home town in Germany, Heidelberg, when Peter A. was small. When we went back for our second tour in Germany, we lived in Nurnberg and then in Sachsen bei Ansbach, about a two-hour drive away, so we didn't get there as often to see Peter W's aunts, uncles and cousins, and to enjoy the city, but it was always a highlight when we did.

This photo of my boys with the Neckar River and the castle in the background was taken during a visit in August 1978. That was probably the visit when we went up to a balcony on the Heiliggeistkirche tower with Peter's Uncle Helmut to watch the spectucular fireworks during the "burning of the castle" celebration, commemorating the partial destruction of the castle during the Thirty Years War. It was a very special evening.

At the time this photo was taken, we were about to move from Nurnberg to the village of Sachsen bei Ansbach, where the boys would go to German schools, so at this time, they didn't yet speak German, as they would in a mere four months. Visiting their dad's relatives meant they didn't understand the conversation yet.

Peter Anthony was almost ten years old in this picture, and Leif was only three-and-a-half. Although Leif looks very small, it's hard to believe there was six years difference in their ages. Both our boys were blond when they were little but had very dark brown hair like their dad as adults.

Peter W. and I ride our bicycles together nearly every day and a few days ago he asked me several questions, like what was my favorite vacation, my favorite meal, favorite restaurant, favorite place we had lived, the best times of our lives. I always find questions like that so hard to answer. We have had so many wonderful experiences that it's very hard to pick a "best," or even ten "bests," but it set me to thinking about the best times of our lives and I think I would have to say the years between 1977 to 1986, when we lived in Germany, Japan and Hawaii. We had so many incredible opportunities and experiences, and yes, great food and fascinating travel, but those years were best of all because all four of us were together and doing it all together, and the boys were old enough to participate and enjoy it, too. This picture is a part of that, their chance to share in their father's hometown and heritage.

When we left Germany to move to Japan in 1980, I never thought it would be eight years before we went back to visit, and when we went in May 1988, Peter Anthony was not with us. Leif was thirteen. I don't think Peter A. has been back since he left in 1980, when he was twelve years old, and neither Leif, nor us, went back since 1988.

We had a trip to Germany planned for the end of April 2008, and our tickets purchased, but then Leif died and we could not go. Now when we make that trip it will be bittersweet for the memory of the canceled trip, and the memories of him there as a young child and a young teen, never to return.

The Boy Who Loved Cars

It's no exaggeration to say that Leif loved cars and motorcycles. He was fascinated with cars from babyhood. From a very young age, he always noticed sports cars and knew their names.

Just look at this photo of him when he was four years old in January 1979 at the wheel of his dad's Ford Taunus Coupe (a model from sometime in the 1970s). He had an eye for beautiful, sporty cars from the very beginning, and treasured his large collection of Matchbox cars of every kind and description. In those days, kids could buy Matchbox cars for about 35-50 cents at the Post Exchange, which was a satisfying way for Leif to spend his small amount of spending money. He had ships and planes, too, but cars were always in there in profusion.

At the time this photo was taken, we were living in Sachsen bei Ansbach, a small village near the cities of Ansbach and Nurnberg in Germany. Peter W. used this car to commute to work and the boys rarely got to ride in it. Partly it was because it was not a convenient car for a family, only having two doors, and partly because the car didn't have shoulder straps in the back seat and we had to get some kind of weird aftermarket harness things for the boys to wear if they were sitting back there . . . and they weren't allowed to ride in the front seat.

The other cars we had during that period in Sachsen were the blue Ford Pinto station wagon we had purchased in 1973 which was totaled in the accident I had in October 1978, a used gold Opel Diplomat, which wasn't in great condition, and a light blue used Mercedes sedan. None of those cars interested Leif much, but the Taunus did. That was partly because he didn't get to ride in it often but mostly because he perceived it to be a more sporty and stylish car, which it was. Once in awhile his dad would let him sit in the driver's seat and pretend, and he was so excited about that.

Leif's Third Home - Kalb Army Housing Area - Fuerth, Germany - Summer 1977 to Summer 1980

In the summer of 1977, we moved from Charlottesville, Virginia to Fuerth, Germany, which is right next to Nurnberg. When we first got to Europe, we took time to travel to Norway using Eurail passes and visited cousins there. Then we spent a month living the the old Bavarian American Hotel, near the train station, while we waited for quarters on base. We finally got a three bedroom first floor apartment in a building like the one in the background of this photo. I evidently never thought it was either attractive enough or interesting enough to photograph. The building in this photo is actually the one across the huge parade field that the kids used as a playground. We had a balcony on the side facing the playground and although it was quite a ways off the ground, even on the first floor, Peter A. could lower himself off of it.

Leif had friend in the neighborhood, particularly Katie, another two-year-old in the next building. He "married" her when they were not quite three years old. The year that we lived in the Nurnberg area, we went on many Volksmarches (hikes on marked trails, for which we got medals after walking 10 kilometers; other medals were given to those who walked 20 or 30 kilometers), visited the zoo, several wonderful museums, the castle, other parts of southern Germany, and the wonderful Kristkindlmarkt by on the square with the Frauenkirche at Christmas time.

Leif went to a Montesorri preschool during that year, and it was there that his teacher said she felt he wasn't getting anything out of it because he was always off puttering around by himself, seemingly not paying any attention, but when she did an assessment, she was astonished to find out he was way ahead of the rest of the kids, could repeat things verbatim, and understood and had learned everything.

This is another place we can no longer go back to, at least not in the form it was when we lived there. In about 1994 it was one of the U.S. military areas that was returned to the German government and since then it has been changed. Many of the community facilities such as the movie theater have been torn down and the apartment buildings have been renovated. I don't know what happened to the school where Peter A. attended third grade.

I don't think Leif would have remembered this place, either, but it was a full year. This photo was taken in February 1978 when he was three years old. There is a lot of dreary, cloudy weather in Germany in the winter.

Leif's Third Christmas 1977 - Furth, Germany - Almost 3 years old

After our year in Charlottesville, Virginia, we were stationed in Fuerth, Germany, right next to Nurnberg, and Peter W. was the Officer in Charge of the U.S. Army's Nurnberg Law Center. We lived in an army housing area that no longer exists, in a first floor apartment. The building had three floors and there were six apartments in our stairwell. There was a very large area behind the building, surrounded by other apartment buildings like ours, that was the kids' playground.

Leif's best friend was a girl named Katie who lived in the next building. She had one blind eye because her brother had accidentally shot one of her eyes with a BB from an air gun.

Leif was two-and-a-half the summer we moved to Furth, and we lived there just one year. He attended the Happy Time Montessori Preschool.

That year, one of the organizations offered a service on St. Nikolaus Day, December 6th, where St. Nikolaus would come to one's home and visit the kids. I believe they requested a donation for a service organization. We decided that would be fun for the boys.

The evening of December 6th, the doorbell rang and there was St. Nikolaus, dressed like the German Nikolaus, not like the bearded American Santa, but similar enough that any kid should have known who it was. However, as I said in my earlier post, a lot of young children are scared of Santa, and Leif turned out to be one of them. He took one look at St. Nick and ran screaming to a big upholstered chair in the living room and tried to hide.

St. Nick tried to talk with him but Leif wasn't responding well. We tried talking to Leif and encouraging him to be friendly. Nothing doing. He was crying. Peter A. showing brotherly concern and trying to let Leif see that St. Nick wasn't hurting him any, but that didn't help either.

St. Nick didn't give up. He finally got down on the floor, so he was at Leif's height in the chair, and talked to him. Eventually, he got Leif to turn around and give him a hug. That's what you see in the photo above.

St. Nick was played by an army sergeant, and I no longer remember his name, but I do know that he had kids of his own and he was really good with Leif. Leif never told us why he was so frightened of him.

The other photo is of Leif playing with some of his Christmas toys on Christmas Eve, on the rug in the living room of of quarters there. So many of our Christmases were just the four of us, like this one, but we had a good time and a lot of love.

Leif - Nurnberg, Germany - October 1979 - Age: Almost 5

I love this photo of Leif. He looks so precious, and sweet, with a little, soft smile. In photos like this, you can see the vulnerability come through. I don't think he ever lost that. He just learned to cover it up and look macho.

He always loved posing in or by trees. I think this one was taken at the Nurnberg Zoo. We had a great afternoon there with our friends the Summerlins. Leif loved playing with Erin. The two of them always got along, unlike he and some of his male friends, with whom he sometimes got into spats.

There is a wonderful innocence about Leif's photos under the age of about 14. At some point, be began to have less trust in the world and eventually became cynical. I wish life had not done that to him, that he had been able to stay this open, this hopeful, this accepting of life.

I'll never see that look on his face again, though I did see expressions of delight and happiness, particularly when he was with his nieces and nephew, children with whom he could horse around and have fun without having his guard up.

All our children grow up, and we only have our photos and memories of those earlier days, but ours are all the more precious because we will never see Leif again.

Peter Anthony the Vampire & Leif - Halloween 1977 - Fuerth, Germany

Peter Anthony was very interested in magic, stage makeup and the like. During the time we lived in Fuerth, Germany (right next to Nurnberg), he had both a magic set and a horror makeup set. I don't know which one the boys had more fun with.

The horror makeup set had some kind of a gel that would set up and result in a pliable, translucent plastic. The kit came with molds in which to shape the gel into "scars" that could be applied to the face or body with a supplied adhesive. There was, of course, fake blood, and makeup to color the scar and apply around it to make it look like part of one's skin.

Naturally, vampire teeth were supplied, along with other appurtenances.

This fall, 1977, when Peter A. was almost 9 years old, and Leif was not quite 3 years old, Peter had a great time mixing up scars, making himself up as the horror star of some wild story, and involving Leif, or his friend Baker Jordan, in his adventures.

In the photo above, Peter the vampire, in his fancy dress shirt and his dad's opera cape, is pretending to bite Leif in the neck. Leif was happy to cooperate in this game.

Leif & Peter Anthony - Kyoto, Japan, Spring 1982 - Ages 7 & 13

Leif and his older brother were close and spent a lot of time together until Peter Anthony left for the Air Force Academy in the summer of 1987, and most of the time they got along well, but not always. Sometimes Peter, like most older brothers, delighted in teasing Leif or doing small things just to get a rise out of him, such as extending his right arm full length and pointing at Leif. Just that, just pointing. It drove Leif nuts.

If I had a dollar for every time I heard, "Mom, Peter's bugging me," I probably could take the family on a trip. One time, Peter did something that made Leif so angry that he grabbed a chain with a bicycle lock on it and chased Peter, swinging it. Whether he would actually have hit his brother with it, I don't know, although I doubt it. That was after he had the outburst in kindergarten and mostly had his temper under control . . . except when it came to frustration when drawing or building models, and then he'd crumple paper or, in extreme cases, break the model.

It was the usual sibling relationship. I remember when Leif was two-and-a-half and we were on the plane from the USA to Germany. They amused each other for quite some time, and then Peter got tired of it and started to get annoyed. They began squabbling, which annoyed me. Of course, it was primarily boredom at work. They were confined and ran out of things to do. Peter A. said to me, "Why does HE have to be here?" and added some comment about why we couldn't just leave him.

It wasn't long after that that Leif fell asleep. I thought Peter A. would be glad, that now he didn't have to put up with his little brother, but no, in a few minutes he was asking me, "When is he going to wake up?"

I said, "I thought you wanted to be rid of him. Now you are. Why do you want him to wake up?"

His answer was so telling, "I'm bored. There's no one to fight with."

When we got to Germany and moved into quarters in Nurnberg, Peter was eight-and-a-half and Leif was two-and-a-half. Peter quickly started making big deal about Leif not coming into his room. One day, he shoved Leif out and Leif got so upset he started throwing his toys at Peter's door. (This was before the kindergarten incident when he decided no more toy throwing.) But then, not long after that, the two of them were happily playing together and had constructed a big spaceport and city with all their toys.

By the time we moved to Japan in 1980, and Leif was five years old and precocious, they could do more together, though they each had their own friends.

These photos were taken in Kyoto in the spring of 1982 when Peter Anthony was 13 and Leif was 7. They were having a good time pretending and posing, play fighting, and making up imagination games. You can see the fake fist "fight" followed by the very genuine affection. There was a lot of that, and we loved to see it.

Leif on a Slide - Nurnberg Zoo - April 1978 - Age 3 and a half

Here's an example of fearless Leif on the playground, head first down the slide. He's not hanging on here to slow himself down. He's doing it so I can get the picture without him zooming by.

This playground was at the zoo in Nurnberg, Germany, where we lived from the summer of 1977 to the summer of 1978 in an American Army housing area that no longer exists. Peter W. was the Chief of the Nurnberg Law Center at that time, an interesting irony for a man that had been an immigrant from Germany in 1958 at the age of 15. He was a major in the Judge Advocate General's Corps at this time.

The Nurnberg Zoo was a great place to take the kids, a very nice park with many unusual animals, plus this playground. We could never pass a playground with Leif. HAD to stop! Likewise with those riding toys you used to have to stick a quarter in, though we didn't always supply the quarter.

Leif & Katzi the Parakeet - Germany, Fall 1977, Age 2

When Leif was very young, not quite two years old when we moved there, and just over two when we left, when we lived in Charlottesville, Virginia. I've already posted a photo of him in the woods there near our townhouse. That was probably where he remembers his first "pets." There was the three-legged turtle that Peter Anthony found in the woods. It spent the winter wandering around our townhouse, eating lettuce. We let it go in the woods in the spring.

We brought home tadpoles from the pond behind our house and raised them until they were frogs, also observing the law of the "jungle" as the bigger ones ate the smaller ones.

We had a ringneck snake named Slithers, and a white mouse named "Mousey."

Of course, none of them could move to Germany with us in the summer of 1977, and after we settled into our quarters in Nurnberg, the boys wanted a pet. In a big pet store in Nurnberg, they settled on a blue parakeet, which they oddly named Katzi, which means "little cat" in German.

Katzi proved to be a very sociable bird and the boys thoroughly enjoyed him. He liked to ride around on Leif's head. Here they are in the fall of 1977 when Leif was two and a half. We had Katzi for nearly three years. When we moved from Germany to Japan, we had to find a new home for him in Germany.

Leif always enjoyed pets. He would love to have had an African Gray parrot, and used to like to go to a furniture store in Aggieville (the student shopping area near Kansas State University in Manhattan) to "visit" the parrot they had in the shop.

Leif - First Christmas Eve With Dad and Peter A.

Look at my three guys. Aren't they a handsome family? Movie-star handsome Daddy, with his strong arms around his two boys. We have so many photos with Peter's arms surrounding his family with love, his two boys, me. All three of us basked in that circle of love.

Leif was a month shy of his first birthday. Peter Anthony, who was my Christmas Present Baby - that's right, BORN on Christmas Day, was six years old.

The Sankt Nikolaus (Saint Nicholas) doll they are holding was one we bought at the Christkindlmarkt (the Christ Child's Market) in Nurnberg, Germany. It's handmade, with a soft sculpture face. Unfortunately, over the years the foam in it has deteriorated and the face is now flattened and darkened with age, but it has been with us every Christmas since about 1971, I think.

Sankt Nikolaus carries a bundle of sticks. In some parts of Germany, naughty children are given sticks, and when we lived there, there were still a few villages where he appeared with his helper and they actually read off a list of children's names and whether they had been good or bad . . . though I don't know whether they really read any bad ones. :)