White Christmas

My parents were in Europe for their European leave from Trinidad. It was normal back then for the exPats to take this leave every second year and thereby have a longer time and as far as I remember, the company paid their travelling fares to and from Europe but again only every second year.

The company also paid my fares from boarding school in England back home for the holidays but only once a year which was naturally the long summer holidays. For the others, I was farmed out to relatives, almost always my Grandmother in Weinheim, near Heidelberg.

So from the age of 8, I had to get off the school train at Paddington, get to Heathrow and take a flight to Frankfurt where I would be picked up by my elder Uncle Georg, who lived close by. Usually, a day or two with him and my cousins before my younger Uncle Jochen would take me to Gran's house where he also lived.

Poor Jochen then had a brat in tow for a couple of weeks, especially annoying in the early years as he was still at university in Heidelberg with all that involves. While German pub licensing laws are somewhat more liberal than in the UK, it must have been a drag to seat the nephew in a corner so that he could pay his full attention to whoever was his latest target - "No, he's not my son, honestly ....." In fact, it wouldn't have been, at least legally, possible for him to be my father and in later years, he would tease people saying we were brothers.

One of Jochen's joys was skiing and he had on occasion taken me for day trips into the Odenwald hills close by where there were a few small resorts with a lift. Up until now, my skiing was limited to standing on the back of his and hanging on tight.

However, Christmas 1964 was to change all this. My parents were over and to my great joy, I was given a full set of skiing gear. Hat, mitts, wooden skis, bamboo poles with wicker plates, trousers and leather boots. Back in those days, the ski length was the height you could reach with outstretched arm and hand placed on the top.

Sitting in the armchair at Gran's is my father.