A Childhood Memory
Jan. 30th, 2022 05:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ndrosenWhen I was six years old, I went to Europe with my parents and baby brother for a number of months; for a large part of that time, we were in Germany, where my father was a guest professor at Heidelberg. Our friends the Seebohms, who had been in State College, Pennsylvania the previous year, had a vacation home on the island of Sylt, in the North Sea, and we visited them there for perhaps a week or so.
I was friends with Lars, a year older than I was, and the oldest child of Herr Doktor Professor Seebohm and his gracious wife. One morning, his parents sent Lars before breakfast off to buy bread, and I was allowed to go along. I might add that Lars spoke English as a result of his months in America, although I, attending the school in Heidelberg for the offspring of U.S. Army personnel, had not learned much German. Anyway, at ages seven and six, we walked some distance to the bakery, I think on a raised wooden path, and chatted with each other; then Lars bought the bread, and we walked back to the house without incident.
Partly, I’m recounting this memory for its own sake, and partly, I’m making a point about what it can be considered appropriate for children to do. In the United States these days, parents who sent their children off on their own to carry out such an errand would be in danger of being investigated by CPS, and perhaps of being prosecuted, or having their children taken away, a shift in mores of which I do not approve. Ich glaube, dass die Deutschen diese Schnappsidee night angenommen haben.
I was friends with Lars, a year older than I was, and the oldest child of Herr Doktor Professor Seebohm and his gracious wife. One morning, his parents sent Lars before breakfast off to buy bread, and I was allowed to go along. I might add that Lars spoke English as a result of his months in America, although I, attending the school in Heidelberg for the offspring of U.S. Army personnel, had not learned much German. Anyway, at ages seven and six, we walked some distance to the bakery, I think on a raised wooden path, and chatted with each other; then Lars bought the bread, and we walked back to the house without incident.
Partly, I’m recounting this memory for its own sake, and partly, I’m making a point about what it can be considered appropriate for children to do. In the United States these days, parents who sent their children off on their own to carry out such an errand would be in danger of being investigated by CPS, and perhaps of being prosecuted, or having their children taken away, a shift in mores of which I do not approve. Ich glaube, dass die Deutschen diese Schnappsidee night angenommen haben.
no subject
Date: 2022-10-15 04:42 am (UTC)During one trip, I was waiting at the bakery counter and a mom and her son were ahead of me. I could tell by appearance they were not well off, and i overheard it was the son’s birthday but they could not afford (*insert*) and especially the elephant ear the child so desperately wanted. I nervously wondered if I should buy him the elephant ear. He looked really sad, which made me more nervous that I should do something. I had an envelope with money (that’s what my mom gave me to pay for groceries) and it’s not like my family would care. 😖 I ended up doing nothing and to this day I wish I had acted differently.
But it did inform me and change me a bit, in that from that time forward, I try my best never to be in that position again. To act when I can, at the moment I can. Give when I can, when the opportunity arises. I can always replace “things”. Not moments, and never time. ☺️