Jim Colyer in Germany

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I was stationed in Germany in the Army. I saw Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Bamberg and Nuremberg. In Frankfurt, I was out walking one night and chanced upon the house of the poet Goethe. It was weird because I had seen a picture of his house in a book in the library at Fort Knox. The city of Frankfurt was founded by Charlemagne in 794. It sits on the Main river. The Main flows into the Rhine. I ended up in Nuremberg where the war trials were held. World War II had been over 25 years. I saw no evidence of the war. Some soldiers want to return to Germany or at least think they do. I had no desire. German cities are bleak and colorless, old gray and brown buildings. There is a quaintness, like going back a thousand years. Germany is still synonymous with Adolf Hitler. Its only desirable export has been the Kessler Twins, song-and-dance girls who did television in the U.S. in the 1960s. Their names were Alice and Ellen, and they were quite leggy. Agnetha of ABBA was recording in Germany in 1969, although it was two decades before I knew it. Any trip to Europe will tell you why our ancestors left. The United States is the only country in the world fit to live in. Even European license plates are ugly, flat and elongated.

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