CHAPTER 8

Autumn in Sapowice

Hans Zipper was really Günter's friend, but he came so often to visit us, that I became fond of him too. We all liked him, and he loved our free and easy life. During the summer of 1941, he had worked, as we had, throughout the harvest time on the horse-drawn rake, got up at 5 every morning, and came home late, sometimes after 7 pm. For Opa's birthday, 29 July, he came with us to Lake Górka, where we often went to a nice restaurant which served delicious ice creams, and Opa hired a pedal boat. We fought with him to be the first to pedal the family in around, and shared with him our teenage secrets. He lived in Posen not far from our boarding house, so even during the week we would see quite a lot of each other.

On one of his visits to Sapowice he asked me: "Don't you have any harvest festivals here? I helped bringing in the harvest, I would like to be also part of the festival, when it comes."

"Sorry, Hans, since the war we have not had any harvest festival, but you should have been here before the war!"

"Was it good then?" "Absolutely magic!" "Can you tell me a little bit about it?" "The harvest festival of 1933 is still very fresh in my memory, because Günter and I received a pair of rabbits then. Oma and Opa, my parents, and we both stood on top of the front steps of the manor house over there. We all wore our sunday bests, watching a procession of brightly decorated harvesting wagons coming towards us from the right, along the circular drive way, just passing here by this tree. There were about eight of them, all beautifully decorated with coloured ribbons, with straw and with greenery. On the first cart were all the musicians, playing a march, with plenty of umpah, umpah. You know, those typical village bands with wind instruments and a strong drummer."

"Yes, I love those." "The cart with the band stopped on this side of the steps, leaving enough space for the other carts to file past. On the next cart, and those that followed, were our women folk, all dressed in their white dresses, aprons, and with those coloured ribbons hanging around, typical of the traditional Polish dresses of this area. Each cart was driven by a fornal, you know those workers responsible for the horses. There were other men and

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