Friday, June 10, 1983
After work, I went home with Mathieu on the school bus. When Herr
S had given his inservice (in Bärndutsch) to the staff about being the
parent of a child with a handicap, he seemed to direct his words at me,
maintaining a lot of eye contact with me. But now while driving the bus, he
spoke high German. He took yet another route to Büren an der Aare. I was
emotionally drained these last couple weeks due to the Jan B as chief fiasco,
then the camp fiasco, and finally the aerobics fiasco, so I wasn’t too lively
at the Ss’. After dinner I went to watch Mathieu in the swimming pool, and
got pretty wet from the splashing from Barbara and Michael. During our lesson
Brigitte and I had chocolates that I had received from one of my kids. When
Hans Rüdi came home from gymnastics, we watched the John Wayne movie “Ringo,”
dubbed in super-fast German.
Saturday, June 11, 1983
The movie lasted until 1:00. I was staying overnight at the Ss’
and slept in a sleeping bag. I woke up hot and sweaty. Breakfast of bread and
butter with jam, and apple juice. At
about 9:30, Hans Rüdi took me on a tour of Büren an der Aare, pushing Mathieu
in the wheelchair. We walked to the Aare River and along it to the wooden
covered bridge. We passed the school that Hans Rüdi attended, and now Michael
is in the same classroom! Mathieu threw rocks in the river. We watched a boat
being launched. Once the boat was in the water, the motor wouldn’t start. It
suddenly started when it was half out of the water. Finally they got it right.
We continued up to the neat old medieval town, with geraniums in all the window
boxes, overhanging eaves, and wooden balconies. Then over to the church. The
old tower had fallen down, collapsing the oldest part of the church, but it was
all recently restored. The old bells, however, were still on the ground, the
same bells that Hans Rüdi used to help ring by pulling the ropes. Inside the
church the apse had a painted ceiling and only one window had stained glass. A
baptismal font in the center looked really old. The newer part of the church
had a neat painted wooden ceiling. Back outside, we saw Hans Rüdi’s father
bicycling by. We walked over to the old hospital, now a museum to see it didn’t
have opening times listed. You have to make an appointment. Hans Rüdi pointed
out where a tower once stood. You could see the outer walls of the outer houses
of the old town. We walked behind where it was once a moat, then up to the
train station. I got a postcard and Mathieu got three chocolate sticks. We
crossed the tracks and headed up the hill to the old mill and the house where
Hans Rüdi’s father once lived. It looked really neat, and was being restored.
The mill was a bit of a mess and the wheel was missing. We walked into the
woods behind the mill, and up a hill to a viewpoint/Bellevue to look town on
the town, and across the valley to the Jura. It was a nice but hazy day, and
very hot.
We walked back into town to
the castle that is now the Bezirk/district offices. It had a neat little courtyard that is nicely restored.
After a stop at a store to get toilet paper and strawberries, we returned to
the house for lunch of salad, fried eggs, boiled potatoes, and Speck/bacon.
While Mathieu and Brigitte napped, I sat in a lawn chair in the sun and read.
After 15:00 we had z’Vieri/afternoon snack of strawberries and whipped
cream. Then I went with Mathieu and Brigitte downtown to buy shoes. Brigitte
and Hans Rüdi were going to a wedding and wanted to leave at 16:00. It was
16:15 when we returned from shopping. We took Mathieu to his godparents’ house
in Grenchen Nord, and while Hans Rüdi took Barbara and Michael to his parents’
house, Brigitte showered and I ironed her dress. At 17:45 they were ready to
leave, but insisted on driving me home first. It was 18:00, and earlier they
had said they wanted to go to the wedding before 18:00 or not at all. Swiss
punctuality? Oh, yes, Brigitte is not Swiss! Just before we left, I found six
four-leaf clovers in the S front lawn. |
| Six four-leaf clovers |
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