I watched part of a program on the History Channel that Tom Brokaw did on the year of 1968. I've seen it before; I may have even written about it here already. It fascinates me on two levels; one because I spent the whole year of 1968 in Mannheim, Germany and two because I am amazed at the way that things in history get "spun" by those who write it. It seems that a lot of the things covered in the program were historically accurate but told in a way that didn't quite jibe with how I remembered them. Of course, I was overseas and received my news from government-controlled sources so maybe I'm the one who is skewed. But all in all, it was a pretty remarkable year. It started off with the Tet Offensive and I wasn't there to hear Cronkite proclaim that we couldn't win that war...pretty amazing considering we had a better than ten-to-one kill ratio during that week or so...but he was the most trusted man in America. Too bad he wasn't smarter.

The most remarkable event of 1968 came in April...no, not the assassination of MLK...MamaCharlie arrived in Germany and we set up our little apartment in Lampertheim. Our first home together was a three-room apartment over a shoemaker's shop on an alley just off the town square. We fought, cried, laughed, and loved our way into coupledom in that little apartment. We had only met almost exactly one year before and had spent almost six months of that year separated. One of our favorite pastimes was watching out our living room window at the alley below and all the folks walking by and the other folks hanging out of their windows. The Rathaus (City Hall) was on the square and a huge stone church was across the main road. The bells of that church and several others in town were loud and regular. We walked up to the square and visited the bakery for apricot streussel, crossed the road to Willie's for Schnitzel, or on big dates, walked a little further to the Deutscheshaus for the Jaegerplatte, a combination of venison, wild boar, and beef medallions in gravy with rice or noodles. It wasn't long after MamaCharlie arrived that my work schedule went nuts and she spent way too much time alone in that apartment. But that all resolved itself by late summer. We moved into government quarters (only because the Landlord, Herr Jaeger, wouldn't let us have a dog), bought a dog, got pregnant, and continued on with happily ever after.

We listened to the AFN radio and heard about all the turmoil. I had first-hand experience with the rudeness of the war protesters; I should have gotten a battle star for those encounters. So we got kind of immune to those stories. We wondered together why assassins always seem to have three names...some vaguely hillbilly quality to that skill set? We were sad to hear about the Chicago convention rioting and later the next assassin who only had two names...but they were the same...go figure. Another Kennedy down. Ted said, "...uh...no thanks" to those who suggested he jump in to replace Bobby. Ted was bound for bigger news, him and his Olds.

While kids our age were taking over their colleges and burning the flag and their bras, we were learning to ride the Strassenbahn around town. We even tackled the Inter-City trains and visited Heidelberg and smaller towns. We bought a car, a VW bug that wouldn't pass mechanical inspection. But for a couple months we tooled around in our green bug with yellow pinstripes. Later we bought a German Ford, a Taunus, that looked like a squished up '53 Ford and tooled some more. We would just take off toward a new place, looking for something to look at. We found lots. Castles, palaces, towns made out of gingerbread, rivers, bridges, fireworks, and lots of great food. We didn't have a lot of money but fortunately, we didn't need a lot. A Deutsche Mark was worth a quarter...four of them would buy you a schnitzel dinner with fries and apple juice. Not too bad.

The Army got in the way sometimes, but all in all, we had a lot of time to learn who WE were...the "Us" of us. We were working on becoming one, and doing okay at it. Our in-laws and out-laws were a long way off so their infuence was limited to a letter or two a week and a couple phone calls in a year. We didn't have parents dropping in unannounced, asking about dinners and inspecting things. If a fight got real bad, we had to figure it out 'cause there wasn't gonna be any running home to Mama or Papa. That was a good thing.

The year ended with a trip around the moon in an Apollo rocket ship. In less than a year later, a man would walk on the moon...and come home. Our year wound down with our first Christmas together; I got a B-17 bomber model and the best present ever...a son who would be born in September of 1969 (come on...do the math) and she got a new vacuum cleaner...well, I was still learning (I got her a rocking chair, too!). We look back on 1968 as the year our life together really got started.

It was a time of turmoil and change and it seemed like every day some new thing was popping up in the news. The times they were a-changin'. But the changes that our country was going through seemed so far away from us, almost like a world you just read about...in the Stars & Stripes. Or heard about on AFN or Radio Luxembourg. Nothing that transpired in that year had so drastic an affect on my world as the things that happened in Mannheim. The melding of two into one and the creation of a new world...ours.