Titanic Post

My most memorable Christmas was 1976 in Frankfurt. I had just returned from Vienna from a short visit traveling with Bill who had just separated from his wife. I was also in the throes of ending my eleven year marriage.

Late Christmas Eve, our train pulled in to the Frankfurt main train station and Bill offered me a flop at the BOQ where he was staying. The next morning he left early to spend the holiday with his two boys under the supervision of his estranged wife, Ruth. His apartment was on the second floor of the BOQ, the telephone was in the hall outside, the door was locked from the outside, and I couldn’t get out.

A jar of old Peanut Butter, half a loaf of Wonder Bread, and a jar of moldy grape jelly was the only edibles I could find. A tape player with Dylan’s ‘Freewheelin’ was the only diversion from my incarceration. Bill didn’t return until three-thirty that afternoon.

Christmas in Germany is a very special time. With traditions going back hundreds of years, it has retained most of it’s original meaning. It is still, even in secular Germany, a celebration of the birth of Jesus and a time to reflect on his message. Candles are lit to celebrate each Sunday of Advent. There are many Christmas parties to attend. Christmas markets offer little Quetschenmaenschen (traditional figures made out of dried plumbs and toothpicks.) They (the markets) are filled with the smells of Gluewein (spiced wine) and roasting chestnuts and the sounds of feet crunching in the snow. I doubt that anyone there could even think of criticizing how one person greets another. In German department stores, no one greets you at all, unless they really want to. I kinda like that. I had rather be sincerely ignored than insincerely greeted.

Now, Jesus is a marketing tool to get the citizens to participate in their only real and useful role as consumers. We seem all too willing to oblige and every year, it makes me want to puke anew!