Getting Older

The years rolled on and time did not stand still. We grew in age, wisdom, and sense. I started school only at 10 years old besides reading and being able to recite the catechism (sister Mila thought that was very necessary), I did not know much and therefore I was put into the lowest class on the last seat. (students were seated according to their class ranking). However, teacher Goedeberg soon moved me up, right next to the head girl and he was always very satisfied with me. The other siblings moved on as well. Mila was in the higher daughter-school and Christoph finished the cathedral school and at the age of 16 started working in the business of Diewel and Niemann. How this led to his future ownership of a syrup factory, I have told earlier.

Brother Bernhard started journeying after he had finished his apprenticeship with master Zinserling. Of course, he did not journey with the walking stick as father used to do. He went from here by ship and in the foreign countries he could already go by train. So it was quite comfortable; however, it cost a good bit of money. Therefore Bernhard’s inheritance, the house of his old grandmother Sandkamp, was sold for about 2000 Rubel. Father was very much against this but Bernhard got his will. All the money was used during a three-year journey.

While we all prepared ourselves for the future, it seemed to us as if our parents had become quite old, although they were still in their best years; mother was about 46 and father was 12 years older, about 60. But they now called each other “old man” and “old woman”, before they had called each other “Lietz” and “Lietzen”. The story goes, that when Christoph was small he called his father “Lietz": when father was happy and in love and he was kissing mother, Christoph was supposed to have said “Lietz, Lietz, leave my mother in peace.” But now we children noticed that father often had strange ideas that could only be caused by age.

He was always cold, even in a well-heated room. He was always wearing a short, threadbare sheep’s fur in the house and also walked outside with it in front of strange people which seemed disgraceful to us children and to mother who talked to him about it. He started to always feel itchy and to scratch himself. He thought, there were fleas in his “Kaschock” (the sheep’s fur). This was not true, since mother kept everything very clean. Finally he thought of a radical cure. In the evening, he took off the “Kaschock” and put it into the rather hot oven, this was supposed to kill the fleas. However, he almost killed all of us. One night, mother woke up and room was full of smoke. She is already somewhat groggy but found the strength to stagger to the oven and open the oven door, where the “Kaschock” had caught fire from some of the leftover coals and was ablaze. “Old man, what stupidity have you done. We all could have suffocated in the smoke.” With this she woke father, who could not quite remember what was going on. We children woke up slowly when mother opened up all the windows and doors and fresh air came in. We, of course, were happy that the “Kaschock” was gone, but father seemed quite angry, but was quiet, like he always was when he was upset. And if he had seen our laughter and malicious delighted miens, which we, of course, hid, we would have felt the cane.

In the winter, father was busily reading the bible. It was an old one from the 16th century, which he had found somewhere. He did not really read because of a heart’s desire or devoutness, since he did not think much of praying or going to church. But he wanted to get to know the bible in detail, and he was mostly dissatisfied with what he read. He was especially unhappy with the patriarchs and all the concubines they had; this he disliked especially, which seems a good proof that he was always faithful to his own wife. Often he would start reading aloud, starting with: “Now listen what nonsense this is.” Mother would then call to him: “Now old man, you are again foolish.”

Mother was not really that devout. But she thought it was her housewifely duty to go to church now and then and to take us kids. Sundays she always had a lot of work. After midday dinner, Christoph would sometime don the apron and say: ”Mother why don’t you go to you church like the famous Mrs. Lerche, I will clean up here.” And then he would do his best to clean everything up. After we had grown some and had been confirmed mother went to church more often, especially to take the sacrament and father had to come along, because that was part of a good household, where the parents were supposed to be an example for their children.