Aaaah, 1972 the beginning of some of the most influential years of my life. I complete my first year in Jr. High school. A lot happens to me in this year. I try out for the AYA Baseball League, at try outs for outfield catch a fly ball with my bare hand (boy that stung). I was “drafted” by the Tigers. We used to go to Campbell Barracks sometimes for lunch at the Bowling Alley (great Hamburgers and French Fries); I started up on the bowling league here. The open lunch to Campbell Barracks USAEUR (US Army Europe) HQ stops after the bombing of the Campbell Barracks killing 3 and injuring 5. Two women, Irmgard Müller and Angela Luther drive a car with stolen USA plates onto the Barracks and park it near the Officers Club. Though the communiqué claimed “Commando Fifteenth July” was responsible, this is code for Red Army Faction Baader-Meinhof for the day that Petra Schelm was killed, and say it is retaliation for the Vietnam bombings. The RAF had been terrorizing Germany since early 1968. This happened on a Wednesday and on Thursday it was my turn to give Current Events and this was my topic of the day, though it could have been less graphic. This starts a lock down and end to lunch at the bowling alley, we can still get on the base, but have to show our dependent ID cards and the base was off limits during school hours. A friend of my dads had a daughter, and we were always over their house, her name was Delores Hoeller (sounds like Heller), we had many good times and I remember her friend Meredith (no last name), truthfully because she was sought after by all the guys in Junior High being that she had already developed to make Dolly Parton blush. We were all good friends and did almost everything together when we could. Also had made a number of friends and acquaintances that would stick with me during my four years here. I learned how to play a card game called Mille Bornes and Canasta. We also played trash can ball, regularly, while waiting for the bus. Trash can ball was played with coal ash cans that had been emptied (the housing units were heated by coal. The can would be put in the corner of the chimney and building and we would have a 10 foot circle that you could not shot inside. The rest of the rules were just like basket ball. During summer we would have tournaments and if it wasn’t at trashcan ball it was at curb ball.
Curb ball was played in between two building when all the adults were at work. There was a parking lot in between two of the buildings. One curb would act as home plate. After the parking spaces were a concrete gutter before it went into the common travel area. The idea was to throw a tennis ball against the “home" curb (need to inform readers that these curbs had sharp angles opposed to the rounded ones we see here) and hit the tennis ball on the corner if we could. If it went right it would fly into the air, if you hit the top of the curb it would hit the building closest to you and was a foul (four fouls was an out). If you caught the ball in the air but before it got passed the opposite curb it was an out. If the ball went on the ground, up to the first gutter a single, between the first and second gutter was a double and past the second gutter a triple. If you caught the ball on the ground, you had to throw the ball to hit the “home” curb and if you did you threw the batter out. We had hours of fun playing singles (one on one) or teams.
Another game was army (lol), we had a bag full of army men and would go to the sandbox and each would take a corner and build a fort. Then using either marbles or stones we would chuck them at the opposing fort and have a war. The one with the last man standing won, and speaking of marbles we always had a marble tournament going on. We did all this in between playing baseball, swimming and school. One shock of German school was they went all year round (poor kids) while the Americans had the summer off.
The parents and I would also go out on some weekends and go traveling to see the sights, we went all over, and some of these trips will get in more detail. This summer was one of them. My Uncle had come over along with both grandmothers and my great aunt. This two week vacation we took to Italy to see the birth land of my great-grandparents and the sights. We had two lady army personnel with us and drove over the Alps. We were driving in a VW bus and dad pulled over to the side. On our side was a sheer drop straight down. He came back a second later and through a snowball at us. There was snow in the Alps even though the temperatures where in the 70’s. We passed through the town of Altdorf Switzerland, the place of William Tell (supposedly) and saw the statue there, then onto Milan. We visited the Basilica there and shops, then headed to Firenze (Florence). The guys (me, dad and Uncle Wayne -dad’s brother) and the two army girls Carol and Dona camped out at a camping ground while Mom, Grandma Florence (mom’s mom), Nana (dad’s mom) and Aunt Mary stayed at a hotel. It was a fun night, but going to the bathroom was something else. No toilet! It was a sloped inset porcelain with two places to put your feet and a hole at the very end (word to the wise, it you use this, make sure you step off and away before you flush or the water comes around your feet!). When we picked up the ladies we heard their horror story, first experience with a bidet, lol. We ate breakfast and then headed to the covered bridge over the Arno River. On the bridge are many small shops, it is here that dad bought a marble chess set with gold plated and silver plated pewter pieces (which as of dad’s death is now in my possession someplace packed away).
Next stop was on to Pisa, to visit of course the leaning tower and the adjacent Basilica. We head next to Roma, and toured the Senate, the Coliseum (though we could not go in because a one-legged man had sat on the very top after climbing work scaffolding, threatening to kill himself by falling off if the government didn’t do something about has disability). Since mom worked in the Chaplains office in USAEUR, she was able to have one of the Chaplains get us tickets for an audience with the Pope (being the good Catholics that we were). Since the audience was later in the afternoon, we stopped by and visited some of my 2nd and 3rd cousins. They did not speak English, and only Grandma, Nana and Aunt Mary spoke Italian, mom spoke a little also. They invited us to stay for lunch, and sent the older kids to the corner store while me and the younger played soccer. Lunch started off with a course of Cheeses and Breads (1st), then there was antipasto (2nd), followed by nuts and fruits (3rd), then meats like lunch meats, salami, bologna etc (4th) followed by spaghetti (oh boy the main meal, lol, or so I thought 5th), the whole time either drinking wine or citron. Next came the main meal of roasted meats and many veggies (6th) followed by Italian ice, then dessert, coffee and espresso (with Anisette) (7th and final). Boy was I stuffed. Later I was to find out that the meal we just had would normally be all the food that they ate all week, but had to play host to their American cousins (I felt bad about that).
Next was the audience with the Pope, thinking this was a private audience, yeah right, of about two thousand. Pope Paul VI came out and spoke in many different languages, seven in all I believe, the audience hall was huge. Afterwards we toured the Vatican, beautiful place I would really like to go back there some time. We went into the Sistine Chapel. All the women that entered had to have their arms and head covered. After viewing the Sistine Chapel, the ladies had to use the restroom, but were at a loss of where it was. I piped up and told them not only where it was, but what it looked like inside including the antique chairs and couch. They were amazed at this, and asked how I knew. Couldn’t explain, I just did. I have never been in there or seen pictures of it, but what I described was accurate to the last detail (Later we joked I must have been a nun in a previous life, lol). We got to see the Treve Fountain and yes we each threw three coins in it. From there our next stop in our little vacation was Venice, a beautiful place, but nowadays they take better care than they did back then. We decided for supper that we would find a mom and pop restaurant to try the local cuisine. After walking over many bridges and in the back ways, the adults picked one across the canal. We crossed the bridge and were about twenty feet away when this man came out of the front door with boxes in his arms and threw them into the canal. IT was the restaurants trash, and we decided not to eat there, but did find another place, though I do not remember anything of it.
Back to Germany and everyone heading back to the United States, except for us and the army ladies of course. Uncle Wayne decided to stay here also and continued on to travel through Czechoslovakia and Hungary (the homeland of my dad’s father and our lineage of, well that is for next year). Uncle Wayne had gotten sick from something he ate there and came back home to Heidelberg. Football season was starting and I was on the highest AYA football team that traveled to other towns, the COWBOYS (yes I did play for the Cowboys, but not the Dallas Cowboys lol), I was playing free safety at this time. Uncle Wayne decided he was going to head for Munchen (Munich) to watch some of the Olympics and be there for the Oktoberfest. Little did any of us know of the events that were in motion for the Olympics. He got to see Olga Korbut and Mark Spitz, but then the tragedy. Eight terrorist called Black September (who were a faction of the PLO), kidnap and killed 11 Israeli athletes. During the siege, my Uncle had told the story of how he had befriended some guys with ABC and that he had taken one of the cameras over the wall and was getting the close up pictures of the terrorists, the one that everyone has seen in the ABC news cast. I don’t know if this was true or not, for He never did lie, but he did have an ABC windbreaker that all the news people had been wearing there, and dad had kept this for many years after Uncle Wayne’s death until it was nothing but rags. He had also came back then went back for Oktoberfest. The only other memory I have is that of when we were playing football (Cowboys), against Frankfurt. Frankfurt had its choice of athletes being that they were a bigger city and had more military brats there. It would be the equivalent of the Pros’ playing against the elementary school pony leagues. Frankfort always won and always won the championship, even in High School (all we had was the AYA and in school Junior Varsity and Varsity, no 7th, 8th, or freshman teams, no “a” and “b” junior varsity teams. Frankfort came to Heidelberg for our first meeting of the season, and we stomped them bad. I want to say that the score was 63-0, that is what sticks in my mind, but I could be wrong and probably am, but it was the beginning of the fall of Frankfurt (this will be continued in the future years also).
It also started off my eight grade year and boy what a year that was. We would go to the AYA (oh, that stands for American Youth Association) to play pool, chess, darts, air hockey and Fussball (I was the third best there, Stanlee Green, who also is a prominent person in my life was number one, man he was fast!).
As I said also I was into bowling, and was doing pretty good, though this was not my best year that would come next year, but I was decent enough.
MUSIC:
Songs to come out: Let’s Stay Together (Al Green), It Never Rains In Southern California (Albert Hammond), Schools Out (Alice Cooper), A Horse With No Name, I Need You, Ventura Highway (America), The City Of New Orleans (Arlo Guthrie), Lean On Me (Bill Withers [RIP Kerri Quinn]), Me And Mrs. Jones (Billy Paul), Diary (Bread), Your So Vain (Carly Simon), Hurting Each Other (The Carpenters), Saturday In The Park (Chicago), My Ding-a-Ling (Chuck Berry), Precious and Few (Climax), Hot Rod Lincoln (Commander Cody), Too Late To Turn Back Now (Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose), Freddie’s Dead (Curtis Mayfield), John I’m Only Dancing, Starman (David Bowie), Layla (Derrick and the Dominos), American Pie (Don McLean), The Happiest Girl in the Whole USA (Donna Fargo), Puppy Love (Donnie Osmond), Jesus Is Just Alright, Listen To The Music (The Doobie Brothers), The Cover Of The Rolling Stone, Sylvia’s’ Mother (Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show), Witchy Woman (Eagles), Crocodile Rock, Honky Cat, Rocket Man (Elton John), Alone Again Naturally (Gilbert O’Sullivan),Day By Day (Godspell), If You Don’t Know Me By Now (Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes), Taxi (Harry Chapin), I Am Woman (Helen Reddy), Popcorn (Hot Butter), Doctor My Eyes (Jackson Browne), Operator, You Don’t Mess Around With Jim (Jim Croce), Sunshine (Jonathan Edwards), Black Dog (Led Zeppelin), Your Mama Don’t Dance (Loggins and Messina), Brandy You’re A Fine Girl (Looking Glass), Everybody Plays The Fool (The Main Ingredient), Rockin’ Robin (Michael Jackson), All The Young Dudes (Mott The Hopple), Song Sung Blue (Neil Diamond), Heart Of Gold (Neil Young), Backstabbers (The O’Jays),Me And Julio Down By The School Yard, Mother And Child Reunion (Paul Simon), Conquistador (Procol Harum), Garden Party (Rick Nelson), The Lion Sleeps Tonight (Robert John), You Wear It Well (Rod Stewart), Tumbling Dice (The Rolling Stones), The Candy Man (Sammy Davis Jr.), Summerbreeze (Seals & Crofts), You Are Everything (The Stylistics), Papa Was A Rolling Stone (The Temptations), I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing (The New Seekers-No it is not actually the Coke Song, lol), Black And White, Never Been To Spain (Three Dog Night), Bang A Gong (T Rex), Cisco Kid (War), HiHiHi (Paul McCartney and Wings) and Roundabout (Yes).
The Albums: Let’s Stay Together (Al Green), Schools Out (Alice Cooper), America, Homecoming (America), The Divine Miss M (Bette Midler – debut), No Secrets (Carly Simon), Chicago V (Chicago), Heavy Cream (Cream), Superfly (Curtis Mayfield), The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars (David Bowie), Machine Head (Deep Purple), Toulouse Street (The Doobie Brothers), Eagles (The Eagles – debut), They Only Come Out At Night (The Edgar Winter Group), Heads And Tails (Harry Chapin), Jackson Browne (Jackson Browne), Thick AS A Brick (Jethro Tull), Rocky Mountain High (John Denver), Seventh Sojourn (The Moody Blues), All The Young Dudes (Mott The Hopple), Roxy Music (Roxy Music), and Summerbreeze (Seals & Crofts).
Events: John and Yoko’s visa expires starting a 3 year long deportation process. Paul McCartney and Wings debuts.
MOVIES: Ben (Lee Harcourt Montgomery, The Big Boss, Fists Of Fury (Bruce Lee – the man!), Cabaret (Liza Minelli), Conquest of The Planet Of The Apes (Roddy McDowall), Deliverance (Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty), The Doberman Gang (Bryon Mabe), The Effect Of Gamma Rays On Man In The Moon Marigolds (Joanne Woodward – one of two movies here I have not seen), Fuzz (Burt Reynolds), The Groundstar Conspiracy (George Peppard – this movie is one of my faves), The Godfather (Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall – Ima gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse), Hannie Caulder, Kansas City Bomber (Raquel Welch), Jeremiah Johnson (Robert Redford), Joe Kidd (Clint Eastwood), Kung Fu Pilot Episode (David Caradine), Lady Sings The Blues (Diana Ross – film debut), The Legend Of Boggy Creek (Willie E. Smith – the outhouse scene scared the s**t out of me and everyone in the theatre lol), The Life And Times Of Judge Roy Bean (Paul Newman), The Mechanic (Charles Bronson, Jan-Michael Vincent), Pete ‘n’ Tillie (Walter Matthau), The Poseidon Adventure (Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine, Shelley Winters, Roddy McDowall and Red Buttons), Rage (George C. Scott), Silent Running (Bruce Dern- another cool movie), Snoopy, Come Home (The Peanuts Gang), Sounder (Cicely Tyson – the other movie I have yet to see), The Streets Of San Francisco (Karl Malden), Superfly (Ron O’Neal), Tales From The Crypt (Ralph Richardson), They Only Kill Their Masters (James Garner), The War Between Men And Women (Jack Lemmon), and last but not least – What’s Up Doc? (Barbara Streisand).
EVENTS: In no Particular Order (lol). Mariner 9 starts mapping the surface of Mars, Space Shuttle is developed, The Queen Elizabeth Luxury Liner is destroyed by fire, a Stewardess falls over 30,000 feet and survives, Bloody Sunday – British soldiers fire on Catholics in Londonderry killing 13, President Richard Nixon is the first US President to visit Communist China, First Flight of the Goodyear Blimp, many natural disasters and accidents kill many people most events over 100 people, George Wallace is almost assassinated in Laurel Maryland and is paralyzed from the waist down (in 9 years I would work at the shopping center where this happened), SALT accords signed by President Nixon and Premier Brezhnev, Officers Club at Campbell Barracks In Heidelberg bombed killing 3 injuring 5 by Baader-Meinhoff Gang, White House “Plumbers” break into Democratic HQ at Watergate Hotel (drove by this many times when I worked in DC), West German Police arrest RAF Leader Andreas Baader (part of the Baader-Meinhof Gang), Explosion at the worlds largest coal mine kills 427 in Rhodesia, 14 “ of rain in 6 hours burst Rapid City Dam drowns 237, West German Police arrest RAF Leader Ulrike Meinhof, first women FBI agents sworn in, Bloody Friday 22 IRA bombs explode in Belfast, New York records 57 murders in 24 hour period, Woodward and Bernstein publish article exposing Watergate break in, last American combat troops leave Vietnam, Bloody Sunday British Soldiers fire into crowd killing 13, Olga Korbut (USSR) wins gold medal in gymnastics, Bobby Fisher (US) defeats Boris Spassky (USSR) for world chess title, Mark Spitz (US Swimmer) takes record 7 gold medals, 11 Israeli athletes kidnap and slain at Olympic complex by terrorist group Black September, 16 on plane that crashes in Andes in Chile survive by cannibalism, President Nixon re-elected, after being elected President earlier Juan Peron returns to Argentina, Apollo 17 last manned flight to the moon, earthquake in Nicaragua kills 10,000, “Immaculate Reception” happens in Pittsburgh game giving the Steelers the win, Nixon halts bombing of North Vietnam and announces peace talks, Supreme Court rules death penalty unconstitutional (5-4), Atari introduces arcade game “Pong”, Life magazine ceases publication, J. Edgar Hoover and President Harry S. Truman pass away.
CARTOONS:
The Osmond’s, Houndcats, The Brady Kids, Kid Power, Around the world in 80 Days and Fat Albert and the Cosby kids all debut.
TV SHOWS:
The Walton’s, M*A*S*H, The Bob Newhart Show, Sanford and Son.
