Letters To Home - December 27, 1951

Schweinfurt, Germany
December 27, 1951

The weather is still cold, with rain this evening.

On Christmas day I went to celebrate with the German family, and what a wonderful time I had! I've finally found some people with bigger appetites than I have. The meal started about 11:30 a.m. with a glass of white wine apiece, very good wine, too. After the wine came a bowl of chicken soup with dumplings. Then we had roast goose, red saurkraut and baked potatoes. After that was roast pork with noodles and cheese, and more white wine.

For dessert there were two kinds of pudding, vanila and chocolate. I was quite full when the meal ended. Then, in the afternoon there was a big bowl of cookies, and something called kimmell to drink. Tastes kind of like spearmint, warms you up in a hurry.

We had supper about 8:00 p.m. This time there were all different kinds of cold cuts, potato salad, four kinds of cheese, and pickeled herring. For drinks we had the blackest beer I've ever seen, darker even then Coke. Then, after the supper was over, there were still two more kinds of drinks. One was a brandy made from oranges, and the other was a hot punch of some kind. It was quite a day; we had lots of fun.

There are four in the family. The older man, about 50, works on the street car line. He reminds me of Wallace Beery, the Hollywood actor, in appearance. His wife is about the same age, I guess, is very quiet but nice. Their son, Willie, walks with a limp, was in the German submarine service in the war. He now works in a bicycle repair shop. The son's wife, Amanda, is 23, works in a grocery store in Schweinfurt. She can speak a little English, I can speak a little German, and, after all, we had my German-English dictionary to fall back on. We got along all right after awhile. She's trying to learn English, seems to getting along quite well. The four live in a very comfortable apartment in a large building near the barracks that formerly housed a German tank unit.

I'm invited back for New Year's Eve, and will go if I'm not on guard duty or KP. I left about 11 p.m. They thought I was leaving too early.

The mail is really slow coming over. I haven't had any letters post-marked later than December 10. I guess the planes are pretty much grounded on account of the fog we've been having almost every day.