Berlin Wall

Carpe Diem Time Glass #33 The Wall Berlin

Amazing what comes along with a Sunday afternoon visit to a now departed aunt and her husband, a WWII vet.  We had taken our video camera to capture a few of his WWII stories.  Uncle Pete willingly obliged with all sorts of tales which we recorded.

Knowing well that Aunt Punkin' had traveled after the war to different posts with Uncle Pete, questions were directed to her.  She spoke of the time in West Germany, "Yeah, during the airlift days."  A statement as casual as saying the time it rained at the picnic. But it prompted looks of surprise from aunt and uncle's oldest as Uncle Pete's previously untold stories unfolded.

Over a decade before The Berlin Wall was the Berlin Blockade.  That resulted in the Berlin Airlift.  Pete was an aircraft maintenance sergeant by this time.  His job meant keeping the planes running for those flights to carry food and other supplies to the West Berliners.  At times he would be on the flights in and out of Berlin.   "Ay'god (one of Uncle's Peteisms) it scared the hell out of me on that landing.  Dropping out of the air in between all those buildings..."

Tensions rose and fell in the post WWII world.  Blockades morphed into barbed wire then to stones and mortar.  "Ich bin ein Berliner" .... "tear down this wall."  Bay of Pigs to Ukraine.  China Wall to Israeli walls to gated communities.  

lines 

in shifting sands

ad infinitum
©  Janice Adcock

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI