by Janet Dunn

Created on: March 09, 2009   Last Updated: September 21, 2010

In 1974 my husband joined the U.S. Army and was stationed at O’Brien Barracks in Schwabach, Germany.  Even though it was quite picturesque, there wasn’t much to Schwabach.  The closest major town was Nuremberg.

My husband had already been there for several months before the children and I went over.  Up until that time I had never flown before; so to say I was scared was a mere fraction of what I was feeling.  I was terrified at the thought of flying.  When we boarded the plane we were seated across the aisle from an older couple who was on a return flight back to New York.  As the plane began to take off, the tears began to flow.  The woman offered to hold my infant daughter as she and her husband helped to calm my fears.  Inwardly I was terrified and began to dread the trip across the Atlantic.  

Finally we reached JFK and I was so lost.  I had no idea how to maneuver around an airport.  As I struggled to find where our international flight was, I somehow ended up in the currency exchange area.  In a  panic I jumped up, trying to carry my daughter and holding on to my son, when  another passenger saw my dilemma and help me  to get to our plane. We reached the boarding area in the nick of time but I came so close to missing my flight.   

The flight, in my inexperienced opinion, was a good flight; not at all what I had envisioned.   

My husband met our plane in Frankfurt and then we drove to our apartment.  I don’t remember too much about the ride, only that I was ready to get out of a moving vehicle.  Our apartment was nestled in the quaint picturesque town of Reichelsdorf.  I remember seeing gorgeous flowers in flower boxes that hung from windows everywhere I looked.  It was breathtakingly beautiful.   

It took a little time to get accustomed to the time change and my first experience with “jet lag” but within a couple of days we were eager to begin our exploration of Germany. The train depot was only a five minute walk from our apartment.

Our first ride on the train was exhilarating.  The scenery was lush and green and occasionally we would see people walking in groups.  We were armed with a German language interpretation book so we were excited to begin trying to speak the new language. We discovered very quickly that in order to communicate we first had to try and speak in German. 

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