Fifteen years in a childhood paradise

so severe that we lost most of our fruit trees. Beyond the hawthorn hedge is our vegetable garden. We also have our strawberries and raspberries there, but, of course, they only come in early summer."

"I love strawberries." "Well, you just have to come again here often, then you will get as many strawberries as you can eat."

"That sounds terrific." We walked through the gate in the hedge and came to a long path lined with beautiful flowers.

"This looks pretty," commented Helmut. "Opa also likes flowers, so there are always plenty of them. But Mutter can't plant what she wants here. Opa is still in charge, and he won't let anyone meddle in it."

We came to a patch of tomatoes and picked a couple of ripe ones. They were delicious. Further down was Jadwiga, who worked the garden under Opa's instructions.

"Hello, Jadwiga, what else is there to eat. We have already tried the tomatoes, they are very nice."

"There are some nice rock melons. I'm not supposed to give you any of those, but seeing you have brought your friend along, see if you like them."

"They are very juicy. Thanks, Jadwiga." And we moved on, through another gate in the hedge, which brought us back to the first part, where the young fruit trees were growing.

"Once they have grown, we'll have plenty of fruit here," I said to Helmut. Then I showed him large shrubs of hazelnuts on the side of the lake, but they were not quite ripe yet. Usually the squirrels harvested them, unless we can outsmart them.

"How about going to the lake now?" "Yes, we can do that, on our way to the tennis court." "You also have a tennis court here?"

"Yes, Helmut, but my parents don't play any more, and they say that we are too young, so it is a bit neglected."

"What a pity. I would like to learn to play tennis." "So would I. Horst is playing in Strykowo, but then he is four years older than I."

"We have also a vertical climbing bar there, and a parallel bar to do your push-ups."

"Let's go there then." We had a lovely time on the bars, climbing over the whole structure, and jumping about. Soon it was lunch time.

In the afternoon we went by coach around our estate, to show Helmut all the land that we owned. Franz was sitting on the driver's seat, but Helmut and I were allowed to sit next to him. I was lucky to have my friend with me, for usually we had to take our turns.

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