Fifteen years in a childhood paradise

stopping. If you do that I know that you can swim".

I knew that I could do it and a few days later I passed my test without any trouble. We knew that Vater could now relax and not worry about us falling into the water and drowning. I was five-and-a-half then.

"Do you remember when you were only three-and-a-half? We were all at the jetty near the boat-shed. We were looking for crabs in the water (fresh water yabbies). The water was rather murky, and suddenly I saw you jumping up and down with excitement, calling out: "Keeps, Keeps" (for Krebs), leaning over and Ñ splash Ñ you disappeared under the water. But I got you out quickly. You were dripping and crying."

I nodded my head: "I was only crying, because you all laughed at me." "That's a good story, anyway," concluded Günter.

"Now you know why I was always worried about you near the water. That's why I wanted you to learn to swim."

Once we could swim our parents let us go anywhere we liked. One of my favourite past times was to go on the small white boat and row along the foreshore and explore the thick bulrushes. It was full of bird life. One spot was favoured by a couple of white swans. During breeding time they were rather touchy. The male would not let me near the nest. He came flying straight at me, landed with a big splash, wetting me in the process. Then he would ruffle his feathers, put his beak to his long neck and give a warning hiss, seemingly saying: "Don't come any closer or I'll get you."

I also loved to row to the other side of the lake, perhaps 200 to 300 meters across. There were big trees with overhanging branches, reaching right into the water. I could get the boat in behind the branches and so be completely hidden from view. This added to my imagination of being a pirate, waiting for another boat to capture. Needless to say, it never came.

The usual swimming season lasted from the middle of June until the beginning of September, parallel with the school holidays. As young children, before we could swim, we had a special spot where the reeds had been cleared and one could go slowly into the water from the shore. The ground was murky and a bit slimy, but to us it did not matter. From early on, I loved the water. Visitors were less taken by that spot. But they could usually swim anyway, and the swimming jetty was just a bit further on.

*

In the summer of 1936, our parents wanted to go and see the Olympic Games in Berlin, unhindered by us two youngsters. For that reason they booked us into a children's holiday camp by the sea. The place was called Widow. We didn't like it very much. I think conditions were rather primitive and sparse. We were also terribly home-sick.

From Berlin, Vater and Mutter brought us a lot of sporting equipment, such as a javelin, shot-put, discus, stop watch, and also an Olympic Flag.

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