Saturday, April 13, 2013

Three Opas but only knew one


I was never held by my Opas or made their laps wet or screamed into their ears as loud as I could.My Mother's father Gustav Lenz died Nov.25 1925 and my Father's dad Wilhelm Kolewe died also in Nov of 1938.I was around but hiding in Mother's womb.I assume that I heard his voice...maybe he sang songs.I don't think he played an instrument. Opa Gustave Redschlag was Oma's second husband...that is why I have Uncle Erich(sick but still enjoying some food),Uncle Erwin(died and rests in Belvidere near my parents graves,Aunt Gertrude Redschlag Kern still living in Germany( she is the teenage girl that walked out of Poland with me in 1947),Opa Gustave and Oma Auguste are both gone and since it is over 25years ago,their grave sites are no longer viewable for someone else's stone is on that spot. Germany has limited land...that is why so many Germans lived and live someplace else.Some historians claim that the Germans were too pushy, the elbows too sharp and their feet too big in Eastern Europe.They did leave an imprint however..... for better or for worse.Finally many got the message.If you don't like us in the neighborhood we go someplace new....like Canada,USA,Mexico,South America...some went back to Germany proper like us but that was only a stopover.The native Germans objected to our presence and some like me(sensitive) were happy to leave for more promising neighborhoods.I guess I must have found a place for I stayed there for 61 years( since 1952) and even on one spot for 45years.Maybe the Native American Indians have a great old tradition...Uncles take care of their brothers' sons.Uncle Sam did take care of me and brought me up.It was in 1929-30 that my Father August Kolewe had the notion to come to Uncle Sam's neighborhood but he was starving and out of jobs.Later my Father argued with Uncle Sam in Italy..Pisa,Monte Casino..until Sam took him by the ear and put him into a POW camp,whispered to him and made him a brother.That is a new story by itself.

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