Day 3
Cookie Jar Sweet
Memories
“Where is
Graig?”
“Where is the
nearest bakery?”
Germany has
fantastic deli/bakeries!
When
younger daughter Becky married a German citizen, Alexander Baur, they, of
course, held the nuptial celebration in his home country and the American
contingent trekked (via airplane) to the “Fatherland” for full participation.
Oh!
Yeah!---uh!,,,That “language-barrier” thing?
I
got along (well! sort of) okay, I guess. With a pocket full of monopoly “funny
money” I managed to eke out an existence on German pastries. Wife Candy is most
proud of her German heritage and I had often heard her teaching our girls to
count in that foreign tongue.
“Ein,
Sfy, dri…) Is what I erroneously heard; so, I immediately put my erudite “education”
to work on my German cousins (the population in general; what do I know?).
So,
off with my German “mark” folding cash and a jingle of small coins, I go whistling down the strange streets of Stuttgart.
Every sidewalk kiosk or storefront displaying pastries, I ventured into.
Proudly showing my “native” currency like a four year old with his birthday
money, I pointed to a sweet treat in the glass case and suavely proclaimed
while pointing an index finger to the heavens (I needed the angels help.
Indeed! I just didn’t know it) calling “ Ein! Ein!” thinking that was German
for “one!” Wrong! The proprietors smiled, politely, at the stupid American and
complied with my barely-intelligible request for one cherry tart.
As
they handed over the delicacy, I’d lay some coins or a bill on the counter and
off I’d go, just like I had good sense. Once, I got about three shops away from
my purchase point when I hear a man yelling behind me and pedestrians are
staring---at…me. When he finally got my attention and I stopped, the clerk came
up to me with a handful of money as he spoke wildly in German with erratic
gestures. People around laughed and made comments which, thankfully, I did not
understand. Seems the “idiot” foreigner had overpaid---by…”a whole lot”! Oh!
Well!
Oh!
Yeah! And, son-in-law Graig? Always lost. He fell in love with German bread and
we could not keep him out of the bakery shops or delis. Seems he got the hang
of the currency exchange barter much better than I ever did. C’est la vie!
Hmm!
Oh! Well! Lesson learned: So much for derogatory name calling: Stupid
foreigners!
Ah! Cookie Jar
Sweet Memories!
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