My Summer at Grandma’s (Omah) House in Germany
In 1924 when I was six years old, my parents sold a very successful German bakery and restaurant business in Manhattan. They bought a new shop, located on Flatbush Ave. in Brooklyn, which needed considerable renovations. Leaving my uncle in charge, Dad decided to take his family to visit his parents in Germany and then to go on to Austria to my mother’s home. I was to stay with my paternal grandparents while they would continue on their journey, with my big eleven year old brother, Dick.
My grandparents lived in a very rural town called Schwanebeck (meaning swan’s beak) in eastern Germany near the Polish border. It was a really small town with only one cobble stoned main street and some dirt lanes leading off into the countryside. The only traffic noise was the clatter of horses’ hooves on the smooth stones. The horses drew either one or two horse vehicles and sometimes we even heard the rumble of four horses pulling a large hay or produce wagon. Since my brother and I had never been outside of Manhattan, with a clanging trolley line on the street and a noisy elevated train above us, this was indeed a very very strange place.
My grandfather was a tailor and his shop was the front part of the house, which was a part of a long row of attached buildings. As we approached his shop, I stopped and gasped in astonishment. There in Opah’s window stood a headless, armless, standing on only one leg, NAKED MONSTER!!! Never having ever seen a tailor’s dummy, I was very frightened and let my imagination run wild. After much fussing by parents and grandparents, I soon calmed down.
There were no sidewalks and we had to take one step up to enter the house. As we came in there was a door to the right opening into Opah’s shop. A long hallway led us back to the living quarters behind the store. We entered a room that to me seemed enormous. It really was their living room, not a living room as we know it, but a room they actually lived in. The back wall had windows with boxes of herbs and flowers. There was a door that to my amazement was cut in half and could open in the top as well as the bottom. This led to a barnyard that was full of wonderful and exciting things for me to discover. There was a large wood and coal burning stove, some sort of a sink contraption with a pump to draw water. No indoor plumbing or electricity in this house! The walls were lined with cabinets and cupboards full of new things for me to find in days to come. One wall shelf held a number of big fat candles and oil lamps ready for use. The center of the table held a lovely etched glass lamp resting on a delicate, crochet doily.
Against one wall was a bed, that looked to me, like a big fat soft cloud, which it was, covered with homemade feather bed and pillows. A feather bed is actually a goose down quilt. I was delighted to learn that I was to share this wonderful bed with Omah. Poor Opah was regulated to an upstairs room during my stay. Th wonderful room also had three rocking chairs. One for Omah, one for Opah and a small one they had bought especially for me. All were cushioned with Omah’s soft goose down pillows. (Remind you of The Three Bears?) I must tell you about Opah’s shop, another absolutely fascinating place to explore. There was a large table on which he cut out his patterns, a treadle sewing machine, an ironing board with a huge iron that held hot water to steam his garments. The walls had shelves that held bolts of material, cabinets with different sized shears (which I was not allowed to touch) needles and pins and measuring tapes (one of which was always around Opah’s neck). I loved best the rack that held many spools of different colored thread. I soon made friends with Herr Fritz (the dummy in the window). Opah had an older form in the back of the store that I was allowed to play with and I named her Fraulein Julie. I spent many happy rainy day hours with her, pinning swatches of colored material on her. Arranging and rearranging them to suit my fancy.
I have described, to the best of my recollection, my grandparents home. However, there is so much more I experienced that wonderful summer that I will have to extend my saga to a Part II.
Anne Humbach
June 2002
Copyright © 2002-2010 Anne Humbach