After Robin returned from his summer glider camp he soloed again at
Traben-Trarbach the next weekend, he was growing up fast. Natalie was
too, she sneaked off one night with the Klingles daughter while Nelly and I were on a trip she came home over imbibed, I hope she had a gigantic
hangover but I don’t think she will ever tell me. Our niece Marsha, a
college girl visited us when she was on a European adventure, she was
into hiking and one day she took off to hike the trails of Edercompf she
found military guards blocking many of the trails and had to back track
to find another trail to the top. I did not know it at the time, but the
German military had many non public things hidden up there and to this
day I don’t have a clue as to what they may have been. Marsha even got a glider ride.

One by one Nelly’s sisters and brothers visited, I think they just wanted to see what it was like because France and Germany had been arch enemies for centuries, but Europe was changing I think for the better.
When the family would go to the big PX in Frankfort we would also visit
the thieves market down by the Main river. I bought a top hat to add to
my odd hat collection, I still have it hidden somewhere. Us boys and
girls would browse different areas of the market and we always found
something interesting to buy at a bargain price. I don’t remember much
of what the girls acquired but it was always some thing different. Robin
bought two gasoline camp stoves, and I found a precision drill press
chuck that I still have. Another open air market was just across the
border into Belgium, I was surprised to find military arms and ammunition
for sale but that is Europe. Nelly bought some antique furniture in her home town, a walnut dining table which she disassembled and put in the back of the beetle to bring it back to Hahn, later a big kitchen hutch and six cane seat chairs that needed re caning. When we tried to cross the border back into Germany the French customs inspectors unloaded the bus and checked every piece for manufacturers marks, none of our acquisitons were on the French National treasures list and after a very long delay we were allowed to go on, we got home way after mid night. Nelly had loaned or gave Mama some money some time in the past and she had willed her antique grandfather clock to Robin so she insisted that we take it back to Germany so we could ship it home to the states It sits in Robin and Suzan’s entrance way and it still keeps pretty good time for a clock that survived all the wars since the late 1800’s, the clock expert that replaced the clock works in Geneva’s grand father clock last fall said that Robin’s clock might be worth $20,000 or more, wow.

I had shipped my ham gear to Germany under the MARS program but never had to use it because the MARS club let me use their equipment when ever I wanted, there were not too many hams at Hahn, we had one of the best antenna systems in Europe and I could have talked all over the world but, with so many other activities and me working more than 12 hours a day I only remember using the MARS station twice and that was just briefly.

Robin and I did get to go to the German Gran Prix at Hockenheim. The
parking lot was across the Autobahn from the track, it was like a gigantic tail gate party, one group had built a good size pyramid of empty beer bottles. The aroma of grilling brautwursts was everywhere, I liked that a lot. I took the family on the less traveled roads up through the Eifle mountains one weekend, it was a pretty day and a pretty drive, we found the Nurburgring and paid the fee to drive around the track, the long course, I think is over 20 kilometers per lap, a much shorter course is used for Formula One races so that safety vehicles can get to an accident more quickly, it was tempting to go fast but driving a top heavy VW bus on a twisty track over hills and dales limited our speed to something pretty tame, it was fun anyhow.

Nelly had a French friend that was the Revlon coordinator for all the BX’s and PX’s in New England, some how they worked it out and Nelly
became the Revlon lady for the Hahn BX, it gave her something to do when the children were in school and I was off at work, she went to the Revlon sales school in Munich so we got to see all the sights for free they even paid the hotel costs and meals for me, apparently they knew that some husbands would not allow their wives to go to a strange city with out an escort. Nelly enjoyed both the school and the work and I was happy that she was happy.

We were only at Hahn for two and one half years but we packed a lot of living in what time we had. Several people had asked if they could buy the Nelly’s beetle so near the end, I approached one of them and said ok I’ll sell it to you but we want to drive it till we leave, he agreed and we agreed on a price, I had paid about $2,000 for it in 1970, I lost a little but nowhere near what I would have lost on any other car, we shipped the bus home so it would be at the port when we got back to Maguire. I had been looking at a Lotus Elan +2 that was sitting in a back yard just up the hill from our house, it was not being driven because it had a crack in the windshield, I mentioned that to the USAA agent in Frankfort when I called to tell them about when to cancel the coverage on Nelly’s beetle, as it turned out the beetle’s buyer already had coverage on it, so the agent suggested that I buy the Lotus as a replacement car for the beetle,and transfer the coverage to the Lotus he even told me where to take the Lotus to have the new windshield put in, it turned out to be the Lotus dealer, they even picked the car up and I contracted with them for a tune up and a good inspection, it cost me a couple hundred bucks but it gave me some confidence that the car would not let me down at a bad time. The seller agreed to deliver the Lotus to the port at Antwerp when it was ready, it took longer than expected because the windshield had to come from California but it all worked out.

I took a long weekend from college, yes, I was over 40 years old and still working on my degree, I flew to the port and drove the Lotus back to Parkville, MO. I made it with time to spare but I didn’t get any studying done. A rotten piece of the muffler blew out as I was cruising on the interstate, it startled me when the noise level suddenly increased, I checked the hole, and was not any hazard to the car so I continued.

I had my toy but I had inherited a lot of work to get it in the shape I like to keep my cars in. I drove it several years,got it into pretty good codition and finally gave it to Robin, who took it back to the Air Force Academy, he did not get to enjoy it because it required too much attention and he only had Sundays off so he brought it back to me and took the 1973 beetle that he had driven in High school. The Lotus was an adventure that the family could have done with out. Bob