We all have childhood memories triggered by certain smells from a kitchen or the sight of a dish we haven’t seen in a long time. I am no exception. I love the smell of roasted chestnuts or freshly baked apple pie like everybody else. But in my case, it’s much simpler. There is no smell, no sight of cake, torte, or roast that transports me back to my childhood as quickly as a jar of chocolate spread.
Let’s go back 45 years and let’s travel to Bavaria, in the South of Germany -again. A girl in her robe, wearing Austrian knitted houseshoes, is on her way to the auditorium. In one hand a blanket, in the other a plastic cup full of gummy bears, she joins all the other girls and the nuns who watch over them when school is over and during the nights. The little girl sits down full of anticipation. During the day the room was used for music classes and the drama club. On special events, the parents and family sat in the audience and watched the children sing and perform.
“Keep the windows down and keep the radio turned off,” my Grandmother advised me, and I nodded. I knew the avalanche rules too well. I had been traveling down the mountain roads as a passenger with her and other adults for years.
What was your favorite subject in school?
When I started school, it was gymnastics, when I ended school it was history. The right teacher at the right moment got me interested, and it never stopped. I am a history geek to this day.
What is the most fun thing you did in school?
Midnight parties! I went to a private school, a Catholic boarding school in Europe and midnight parties were an old tradition.
She walked into the classroom, put down her briefcase, and wrote her name on the chalkboard. I was watching her -tried to figure out how to pronounce her name correctly when she turned around and greeted us all.
“Where do animals go?” That was one of the main questions I asked when I was a child, “Do they go to heaven too?”
I was in a boarding school from an early age on. It was a private, Catholic school, a famous school for privileged kids. I was good in sports and had a full scholarship from an early age on.
