Home in Boblingen, Germany

---

From 1 March 1980 to 13 July 1984 we lived in Boblingen near Stuttgart Germany. I was offered a job as Technical Advisor at the headquarters of the U.S. European Command at Patch Barracks in Vaihingen, on the southern outskirts of Stuttgart.

So on 1 March 1980 we packed up our possessions and drove from Glan Munchweiler to Stuttgart. We lived in a hotel in Vaihingen until we found an apartment in Boblingen, a ten minute drive on a forested road from Patch Barracks.

Our apartment occupied the second floor and a Yugoslav family, whose husband worked at the Mercedes Benz factory, was on the first. Our landlady lived on the third floor. She only spoke the Schwabian dialect of German. So that we could communicate with her, we took another conversational German course, but gave up after one semester. We didn’t want to learn German all over again. Also we didn’t get much practice since we rarely met our neighbors, and I didn’t need German for my job as I had at Ramstein.

For the most part customs were the same. We had a mom and pop grocery store on the corner that supplied our immediate daily needs although we bought most of our groceries at the commissary. We swept our sidewalk and washed our car on Saturday mornings; never on Sunday. Stores closed at 6 pm and 1 pm on Saturdays.

As with Ramstein, we went to the base chapel and made most of our friends there, along with friends from work. Our best friends at Patch Barracks were Joe and Carol, with whom we traveled on several occasions.

Boblingen was a good base for traveling. Our friends Kay Joy and Steve had moved to the NATO School in Oberammergau, so we took at least one weekend every three months to visit them. In the summer we climbed the Kopfel Peak that overlooks the town of Oberammergau, and we visited Munich and a medieval festival with lords and ladies and knights in shining armor in Regensburg. In the winter we would cross country ski from Oberammergau to King Ludwig’s Linderhof castle/hunting lodge. Each February we entered the 10 kilometer King Ludwigslauf cross country race, where everyone won a medal, like on a volksmarch.

Boblingen is on the northern edge of the Black Forest so we spent many weekends touring the area. I was chairman of the cross country segment of the Patch Barracks Ski Club, so arranged a three day trip to complete the 100 kilometer trail from north to south.

The other major cross country event I participated in was the Engadine Marathon that starts in St Moritz and goes for 26 miles. I had a fast start, but when the sun melted the tracks, I slowed down considerably, but I finished! We also went on many weekend downhill ski trips in Austria and Switzerland during our 4 ½ years at Patch.

Another favorite long weekend destination was Antibes, on the French Riviera. If Monday was off in the spring, summer or fall, we would drive to Strasbourg, France on Friday after work and catch the night train to Antibes, arriving Saturday about 9 am. Each time we stayed at the Hotel Royal, right across from the nicest white sand beach. As we were without a car, we spent a lot of time on the beach Saturday, Sunday and Mondays, but we did visit towns along the coast that were accessible by train, such as Cannes and Monaco. Sometimes we would take a bus to the hill town of St Paul de Vence. I bought a painting there of Antibes that is now on my office wall. It inspires me to travel whenever I can. After three days on the beach, on Monday evening we would catch the train back to Strasbourg, and drive back to Stuttgart, where I would arrive about 10 am, only having to take two hours of leave.

We also took the train to Rome, Italy on some long weekends as it was also an overnight trip. We met Mom and her friend Mary on one occasion.

Another long weekend destination was the Bernese Oberland south of Interlaken, Switzerland. We would wake up on any given Saturday morning, and if the weather was great and we had nothing else to do, we would jump in our car and take the autobahn through Zurich and Lucerne to Stechelberg, south of Interlaken at the end of the Lauterbrunnen valley. We stayed at the inn and used it as our base for hiking on Saturday and Sunday; taking the cable car to Gimmelwald and hiking down, or taking the cog railway to Wengen, the cable car to Mannlichten, and from there hike to Kleine Scheidegg and then back to Wengen and Lauterbrunnen. Hiking the Alps was one of our favorite activities; almost as good as skiing down an Alp.

I didn't take too many business trips. Each year he attended the EUCOM Engineering Conference with the Army, Navy and Air Force commmands in September of each year: first in Berlin in 1980, followed by Ramstein, London, and Heidelburg. I also traveled to Brussels and participated in NATO working groups and to Frankfurt to visit with the Corps of Engineers.

In early 1984 I applied for the position as U.S. Representative to the NATO Infrastructure Payments and Progress Committee, and was accepted.

Details on trips taken while living in Boblingen follow.

---