20 October 2010

Texas Road, Butzbach, Germany

My mother produced a genealogical gem last night. I called to ask her exactly where we had lived in Butzbach, Germany. She told me to hang on while she dug out her old address book. She has had this book since before I was born and she easily told me the exact dates and addresses for each of the places she and my Dad (and eventually my sister and I) lived in Germany. Her old address book was always at hand's reach when I was growing up. It came out for making calls and sending cards, but my Mom kept it for an additional reason as well. She was documenting our places of residence because she knew we would be moving frequently and that a record of those places might someday be needed by her children.


When my parents first arrived in Germany, they lived on Richard-Wagner-Strasse in Butzbach. This was temporary housing and my mother says she was very happy to move ten days after I was born because the apartment had hot water only in the shower. I asked and yes, they sometimes washed their dishes in the shower.


When I was ten days old we moved to Texas Road in Butzbach. This was in United States military housing. I found a blog called Forgotten Memories, which has a group of pictures taken in 2008 of the then defunct complex. The complex is still visible today through Google Maps. It looks like there may be people living in the buildings again as there are cars parked throughout the complex. I will have a chance to see these buildings in person in just a couple of months as I will be journeying to Frankfurt and Butzbach with my parents and sister to revisit the places where we were born (2 different hospitals) and the homes where we lived.


I pulled out an old picture of me taken in 1967. I have adjusted the contrast and a few other things in order to make visible what can be seen out the window just behind me.
How lucky it is that this photo wasn't taken during today's digital era. It might have been cropped to show just the cute little girl in the picture and would have eliminated the view of the apartment building across the way. Comparing this photo to the image on Google Maps, you can see that the little windows on the roof are still visible. The buildings look pretty much the same as they did 43 years ago.


I put a couple of pictures together on another scrapbook page for the Donna Downey class I am taking through Big Picture Classes. I am going to add additional information giving further details about our home in Butzbach to the back of the fabric page. Then this page will go into a little album I am making which will chronicle all of the homes I have had.

Texas Road, Butzbach

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