In 1922, after the defeat of the
First World War plunged Germany into political and economic chaos, my father
decided to emigrate to the USA. Several others of his hometown contemporaries,
both young men and young women had already done so and others would follow in
the years to come. Among those later arrivals was his childhood sweetheart, my
mother. They soon married and shortly thereafter, they moved to Richmond,
Virginia where my father worked in the meat-packing business until his
retirement. Richmond is also where my brother and I were born and grew
up.
Artistic and literary talents cannot be extinguished for long. In his later years, my father's talents resurfaced and blossomed. He filled my childhood home with soapcarvings, woodcarvings, paintings and folkart. He even painted his entire hometown on the side of his garage, allowing his grandchildren to add their own ideas by painting specific parts of this huge undertaking. When the paint finally flaked off the brick garage, he repainted the complete landscape on two long sheets of asbestos board and hung it the length of the garage! |
