The rainbow never sets

Horst and Bernd's coach had to go straight, which lead to their farm yard. We still had another three kilometers to go until we reached our home. We waved to them until their coach disappeared behind the houses. We were happy to know that Franz with our horses and our coach could beat the others, even if only once. But now the horses were allowed to trot. They did not let us down this time.

For special occasions we were allowed to come home on Fridays, and once we even had special dispensation from the Principal to come home on a Thursday. This was a day before the golden wedding anniversary of my grandparents. On the morning of Friday, 21 June 1940 I went with Vater and Günter to congratulate them. We met Opa in the servery.

"Happy anniversary, dear Opa. May you still have many more happy years together," we said to him.

"Thank you, thank you, so nice of you to come over." "And where is Oma?"

"Oh, I have killed her this morning." "Come on, Opa, that's a bad joke," Günter replied. His face looked most mischievous, and then he began to laugh heartily. That was a typical Opa joke.

In the afternoon we had a huge party, with relatives and friends coming from all over the place, and our cousin Jetty Oboussier from Hamburg, who was the grand-daughter of Opa's sister, was also there.

Mutter had a wonderful gift for rhyming and poetry. She had put together a verse play for Günter, Bernd and me to perform in the afternoon. As the weather was warm and beautiful, the performance took place outside on the front lawn, with trees as a back drop. We were dressed up as dwarfs, and recounting some episodes of Opa and Oma's life, some serious, and some very funny ones. We had the audience in stitches. As Opa could not hear so well, he read the manuscript, instead of watching us, and of course he laughed at the wrong place. That increased the general merriment, and the whole day was a huge success. Dinner was a white tie affair and all ladies in long dresses. It was a fabulous dinner, produced by Fräulein Lina, Oma's cook and housekeeper, and everyone enjoyed it.

After this event it was not long before our long summer holidays began. Mutter was always very hospitable. She encouraged us to invite our friends home for the weekend. Günter had asked his friend Hans Zipper, who had been with us for several weekends already, to spend the 1940 summer holidays with us. We all liked him, and he joined our activities with great enthusiasm. After the holidays I wanted my own friend Helmut Herke to come. He was the friend I had gained after fighting him during the first week of school. He came eventually for a weekend in autumn of 1940. I was quite excited about this, as there was so much I wanted to show him. I was going to explain everything in detail to him, for I wanted him to like our home.

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