At one of these morning exercises, I made a strange observation while changing in an adjoining room. Two lab assistants were handling mice.
With an indication of strict confidentiality, one of the women explained to me what was happening to the rodents: one group of mice, marked with a dab of color, was systematically exercised on electric treadmills over a certain period of time.
Another group received no training under the same housing conditions. After the program was completed, both groups had to enter a glass container filled with water at the same time. Since the mice had nowhere to hold on to the smooth walls, the poor animals swam until they drowned from exhaustion.
A stopwatch was used to record how long the trained mice outlasted the untrained ones, but all animals must ultimately drown. Since that horrific observation, my relationship with Olympic gold has totally changed.
It begs the question of what else happens for sporting glory that the public doesn’t have the slightest idea about. Regularly on Wednesdays I went home in the late afternoon and to music rehearsal.
Marga had already gotten used to being alone. The combo was developing well. Fรคsschen, a chemistry student, had joined and with his tenor saxophone, together with Siggi, provided an even better sound.
We still played almost regularly at the clubhouse or in the surrounding area. With six combo members including all instruments – the double bass was already riding on the roof of the car – we got serious transport problems.
A second car or at least a trailer was needed, because as before with two commutes the transport was no longer manageable. My musicians cared little about that. They made music, for everything else I was responsible. But the problem was solved by a simple coincidence.
The spring semester of 1964 became incredibly stressful for various reasons. Our physical education teacher once again had a surprise for his recreational athletes: anyone who wanted could voluntarily participate in a lifeguard course, including first aid, at the city pool.
Condition: Twice a week at six o’clock in the morning for long-distance swimming and deep diving with subsequent rescue of persons. In addition, the completion of a very intensive first aid course with special resuscitation exercises.
After passing the exam, the participants were to receive seasonal employment at the Baltic Sea during the summer vacations. With good pay, of course. That sounded very tempting, but it was damn exhausting. Who would want to jump out of a warm bed into cold water at dawn during the winter months?
None of my seminar group participated. To make matters worse, all the upcoming semester exams had to be taken by the end of June at the latest, because with the start of the vacation season, the newly qualified lifeguards had to start their duties at the scene of the incident. ๐ฃ๐ธ ๐๐ฎ ๐๐ธ๐ท๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ท๐พ๐ฎ๐ญ…
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