I have a curio cabinet hanging on my kitchen wall that is filled with mementoes. There are trinkets from Germany, Switzerland, Holland,Tahiti, Peru, Greece & Alaska. There is a small bottle of white sand, from White Sands, New Mexico. A tiny container of gold flakes is what I panned at Knotts Berry Farm many, many years ago. There are several things from Nauvoo, IL. There is a wooden bobbin & a piece of bobbin lace that I bought in France. They are to remind me of my great grandmother who was a lace maker. A piece of hardened mud is from the creek that runs in front of Clifty church in Indiana. A bottle of redwood seeds is from Muir woods in California. There is a small medal that was awarded to Bradley Hill in 1991 for being a Geneva Giant "Citizen of the Year"... I could go on & on.
Gary has given me several things that reside in the curio. A black lava flow rock from Hawaii and a tiny tile from Herculaneum. (Shhhhh! it is a secret that I have these things!) There is something else that Gary brought me 20 years ago. I have been thinking about it today. Look closely, you will see it at the bottom of the cabinet - a pink, purple & yellow piece of cement.
Twenty years ago, after November of 1989, Gary and a friend he worked with were in Europe on vacation. When he left I told him I wanted him to bring me back a piece of the Berlin Wall. The Berlin wall was actually coming down while he was there. (Gary, you will have to tell us your story)
Here's the chunk of cement that he brought me: I'm sad that there is a piece of painting missing, that's what happened when it went to school for "show 'n tell".
To me, this little chunk of cement represents freedom. It is one of my favorite things inside the curio cabinet!
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6 comments:
That's so cool
OK this was a cool post. When I saw your pic of the curio cabinet, I suspected I knew where you were headed, and I was right!
(Shhhhhh, no one is supposed to know about that tile from Herculaneum! And the Lava is just a religious statement... ask me about THAT some time!)
Anyways, here's my story: I was in Germany right after the wall came down. It was in 1990. My friend Mike Scalora (who is currently hiking in Ecuador) and I were on a month-long trip to Europe (our theme: Small Countries; our motto: EuroFest '90-The Homelands Will Never Be the Same!).. anyways, we had just left Lichtenstein, and were changing trains in Lindau, on the shores of the Bodensee. It's a lake on the German/Austrian/Swiss border. Anyways, we decided to take a night train to Berlin. We bought tickets and headed north.
We got on the wrong sleeper segment and almost ended up in Prague (I was totally psyched by this prospect, but Mike was freaked... he claimed the Czech food was terrible.)
Anyways, we made it into Berlin by morning, pulling into Zoo Station (yes, the one in the U2 song). As we climbed off the train, we heard announcements over the PA system, a female voice, barking in German. We felt like we were in a bad WWII movie.
We found little no-name 1-star hotel somewhere, I don't recall exactly where we were, but there was some bombed-out church that had been converted into a monument.
Berlin was awesome. The city was overflowing with Poles; the city is only about 44 miles west of Poland. The Poles were loading up with western goods, especially VCRs, and hauling them back home to sell. The atmosphere was festive, we bought some polish currency, and also some soon-to-be obsolete East German currency.
We crossed the border to East Berlin via the famous Checkpoint Charlie, though most of the walls were down, East Berlin still had a definite Eastern Bloc, worn look and feel to it.
As we came back across at Checkpoint Charlie, we stopped at one of the numerous stands selling souvenirs. We passed on the Russian hats and pins, and bought some small pieces of the wall.
That night, we sat on some construction material next to the Brandenburg Gate, while we watched them set up for the Reunification ceremony, set to happen the next day. I accidentally tore my pants on the construction material. We watched as they drove two cars through the gate, to get ready for the reunification. The cars were symbols of the two Germanies. For the East, a smoke-belching Trebant. For the West, a purring Mercedes. The message was impossible to overlook. Later that night, we took another night train back to Western Germany.
When I got home, I gave my pieces to my mom (Gramma A) and my dear Seestore Bonz. Nope, I don't even have a piece for myself. Enjoy it!
Gary - enjoyed your version of the story. I'm always amazed at how you remember the details. It must be one of your talents. Somewhere I have a post card you sent me of the Brandenberg Gate.
P.S. I remember the food in Czech as being my favorite!
Yeah that's the funny thing. If you like Bavarian/German food, you'd love Czech (Bohemian) food!
And best of all: When you order the food you have no idea what you're getting because all the names are non anglo/latin gibberish! (Actually they're slavic, but you get the point.)
That is really neat!
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