Mary Ashmore's Trip to
Germany
An interview with my aunt
The writing on the wall means "There is only one Berlin."
How old were you when you went?
I was 18 and turned 19 while I was there.
Why did you go?
I was a foreign exchange student.
How long did you stay?
I left in August and came back in June.
What parts of Germany did you live in?
The southern part until November and then I lived in the northern middle of West Germany.
Were things very different there? Like did they have cultural things that surprised you?
Yes, school was much harder for one. There were more classes, and an Abitur test was taken in the 13th grade. How good you did on it determined if you could go to college. Another thing was I lived with a Christian family, and I wasn’t Christian. Also both families I lived with had just gone through the war, and in my second family, the mother had escaped from East Germany before the Berlin wall was put up. Also we were in the Vietnam War, Nixon had just ended as president, and even though we hated him in the US, the Germans loved him. One of the biggest differences for me, being a person living on the Canadian border (where you could go across without barely stopping), was the East and West Germany border. They had dogs go through everything, they looked under trains with mirrors, and there was only one gate.
What was it geographically like? Was it different than what you were used to?
Well, we didn’t get as much snow as we did in North Dakota. It’s not that it didn’t get cold, it just didn’t snow often. It was also hilly, and it had a lot more trees than I was used to.
How did people treat the environment there?
They did a good job I think. The streets were clean, there wasn’t recycling like we know it, but, for example, when you bought milk, you bought it by the bag. Then when you got home you would cut off a corner and put it in a container and that’s where you got milk. Also water was expensive, so they didn’t use nearly as much water for things like showers.
I know you have told me a bit about this already, but were the schools different there? Also, had you studied German before you went?
Yes to both. I went to an all girls school, so that was a bit different. I had taken German before, but got D’s in it, so it took me awhile to figure out the language. One time on an overcast day I remember trying to say, "the sky is gray", but it ended up being "the sky is green."
Have you ever gone back, if so why, and do you still speak German?
I did go back, for my 20th year reunion, and I still speak German. Two of my friends who are German work pretty close to me (in their own store, which is a house of fine chocolates), and we speak German together when we don’t want to be understood, or just to show off.
Was there something that you learned the is still important to you now?
I got connected with the world. I found out that it’s okay sometimes to focus on your own little area, but you need to be aware that there is more to the world than just your little piece.
One weird thing in Germany was that my German father was a lot like my actual father. Dad had been shot in the war, and my German father was one of the solders in that area. Neither my father nor my German father liked the war. My German father survived the war basically because he fainted at the sight of blood. Any time his unit fought, when the first person got wounded he fainted and missed the rest of the battle.
The Berlin Wall came down on the 9th of November, 1989 but when Mary was there it was still standing, and the only way through was Check Point Charlie (below ).
