Post date: Aug 12, 2014 2:54:57 AM
29 September 1965
I’m here after a long and tiring journey over Frankfurt, where I overnight and left my friends, who, incidentally, both have jobs (as soprano and organist) in the American Episcopal church there. They had not yet a place to live, room, apartment,etc, but the pastor is very helpful. The ride through Kassel was interesting.
I, too, have a job, tho it only pays $25 per month. Herr Kleuker’s factory is big—about 40 workers. I started work at 7am today—at the bottom—assembling an organ to be installed in Berlin. Herr Kleuker hinted that I might go to Berlin with his foreman-designer to install it! That is schön as I have a friend there from the Goethe Institut [the violinist].
Also have a room—or a converted closet—in a big house in the fanciest part of town with some seemingly nice people. He has a PhD in literature and she is an art historian. He taught five years with Berlitz in NYC and now teaches privately. It will undoubtedly prove interesting. I take breakfast and supper with the family. That is costing DM 235 or about $60 per month. I can get a hot lunch with some of the boys from the factory for 50 cents a day (at the local post office). So it is possible to live for $75 a month. We don’t work Saturdays so I can see the country a bit.
This organ builder is amazing. He uses almost all plastic or aluminum working parts—looks like they would work forever. I should learn Deutsch quickly with work, family, and TV.
21 October 1965
Now I have to get residence permit and work permit.
I got a letter from Glenn White in Seattle who says the Kleuker organ they installed has the best sound of any he has heard. They certainly are very good mechanically. I was very lucky to work in this factory. I'm trying to read books in German about organs. Good for the vocabulary. Also writing letters to friends from the Goethe Institut in German - good for the grammar. My fluency has improved a lot in three weeks. I have to learn all the vocabulary for music, math, physics, shop techniques, and engineering before I take that course in April. Then I don't know if I may or will be ready to take the [journeyman] exam. On top of that, I'm supposed to build a masterpiece some time in the next two years.
25 October 1965
Alles gut. But it sure is getting cold. We have frost every morning and I soon got tired of scraping my windshield at 6:45am so I bought a plastic cover for the top part of the car—just below the windows. That helps, but now I have a puddle in my car from folding the thing up. Have to leave it home I guess. And this is only Fall. Herr Juliusburger (landlord) says it gets much colder in the winter, with snow, etc. I don’t relish driving in town in snow. Especially as we live on a hill. I can take the streetcar if it gets too bad. I bought a pair of cheap wool gloves to get me through the winter.
The trip to Berlin (paid expenses) seems pretty definite, but “sometime before Christmas”. We’re still making bits and pieces for the organ and the pipes are not ready yet, so no one knows. That will be nice, tho, as the violinist, whom I met in Blaubeuren, is studying there.
My present project is an 850 page book about organ building. It is a bit old (1936), not too well written, and so far (p265) mostly math. I’ve already read two other books (in German) about organs, but they were mostly for laymen and not so big.
At the table I must use my knife to load my fork, but may not use it to cut potatoes. Also, these crazy Germans hold the fork always in the left had, just as we do in the right. That is taking some practice.
All I have left from Africa is a pair of shoes and some underwear. All my trousers and shirts were kaput. Even the slacks and jackets from home and overcoat are going to be a bit on the light side. My room is warm enough so I can sit at the table and read or write, sometimes in shirt sleeves. I now know why Europeans always wear a jacket—they are cold.