The rainbow never sets

"Yippee," we cheered together. We needed no further explanation. "Extra holidays Ñ until further notice Ñ that'll suit us fine," and we danced around the dining table.

"Don't think you will be idle here," said Mutter. "Help here with this dining table. It needs to be shifted to next door. We'll close up the dining room here, as we can't keep up with the heating. It's too cold."

We shifted the table and some chairs into Mutter's room. It was much easier to heat just the two adjoining rooms. In the morning the tiled stoves, which stood from floor to almost ceiling in both rooms, were fired with wood and then anthracite coal for quite some time, until the tiles felt too hot to touch. Then two briquettes were put on the glowing coals and the door of the stove was tightly closed. That evening, three more briquettes were put on the glowing embers, as it had been an exceptionally cold day.

Next morning Vater came to breakfast with the following news: "This morning the outside temperature was --32°C. Remember, children, when you go outside, to really wrap up. Your nose or ears can freeze in no time with this temperature. So do be careful."

What a challenge! "Let's go out, Günter, I have never experienced --32° before." We put our ski boots on, layers of warm clothing plus overcoat, and a woollen cap which covered our ears.

Walking on the snow was quite eerie. Each step I took screeched so loudly, that it seemed to go right through my bones. The snow was so dry, that it would not stick together. There was not much we could do. We soon got cold and went back inside. Inside our house there was turmoil. Mutter had just found out that the toilets had frozen, and could not be used. A commode was quickly put up in the upstairs bathroom. Mutter locked up the front-door and toilet downstairs. They were not to be used, to protect the house from getting even colder from the east wind. But it was too late. The water pipes had also frozen. One had already burst, and our whole plumbing system had to be turned off. For the rest of the freeze, which lasted until early March, we had no bath, no plumbing, and only a minimum of water, as it had to be carried from the village pump.

Our bedroom upstairs had also a tiled stove, which that winter was heated daily. During a normal winter it was heated only every second day.

The following morning was warmer, only --20°C, but brilliant sunshine. We took our skates to the lake, cleared snow from a patch, and went figure skating, and chasing each other on ice. I was lucky, as I could wear Mutters shoes with the hole in the heel, for special skates. Mutter had taught me how to figure skate, because she was very good at it. Our skates had to be screwed on to the heels, as well as to the front of the shoes, and sometimes they came off, just at a crucial moment. But Mutter's skates fitted firmly. As we moved about, we didn't feel the cold.

"Pity there is so much snow," said Günter," otherwise we could have

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