Part 39: The Old Forester While picking cherries, I unexpectedly met my new teacher. He was standing under the cherry tree with his hunter’s hat and chamois beard. Bright blue eyes flashed under his hat. A full gray beard covered his face. The worn green hunter’s outfit had seen better days.
Part 38: Cherry Time In the first warm days of spring, nature around the village turned into an endless white sea of flowers. It seemed as if fresh snow had fallen overnight. Below the edge of the forest, cherry trees blossomed as far as the eye could see.
Part 37: Childhood Joys and Dangers The little free time we children had was extremely poor. There was no sports field in the village and no rubber or leather ball. We played barefoot soccer in the yard with balls tied together with rags and string.
Part 36: Potato Vacations And Rabbit Breeding Most of the harvest help fell during the summer vacations, it did not so much diminish the lessons, but our free time. The autumn vacations were called ‘potato vacations’ anyway, which meant that we had to help vigorously with the harvest of this especially important food.
Part 35: School Days And Field Work The agricultural mini farms that emerged after the land reform were not nearly able to satisfy people’s hunger. Large and medium-sized farmers constantly had to serve to meet the fixed community target for grain, milk, meat, and potatoes.
Part 34: From Operetta Triumph To Struggle For Junkerland After weeks of rehearsals, the operetta was finally ready for performance. The community servant had announced the date of the premiere with his brass bell on every corner of the village.
Part 33: New Friends Towards the end of the year, the flow of refugees subsided somewhat, and life began to return to normal.
Part 32: Work In The Countryside The first post-war harvest had been collected, and the winter potatoes were stored in the cellar.
Part 30: A New Place To Live Our new home was truly the end of the world. The inhabitants probably only noticed that the war was over because so many refugees came to the village and the secret military post at the top of the village hill was no longer staffed.