Detective Butter, Voice of America Freudian Hallenbad, Se non é vero, é ben trovato
Seasonings, Wanderwoche Math - You get what it weighs, Jazz Band Ochsenwirt
Freudian Hallenbad (1955)
HallenbadOur school was one of the more fortunate of all schools in the district of Graz, since it was one of only two which had an indoor pool. Its interior height of over 30 feet was enormous. The name Hallenbad (or Swimming Hall) was therefore quite befitting. The architect probably felt that this would reduce the condensation problem, a constant source of worry even in today's indoor pools. To our dismay, "outsiders" from other schools were allowed to arrive by the class-load and use "our" pool as well. We watched the intruders with apprehension and suspicion. Wollny, our sports coach, had a peculiar way of teaching the few non-swimmers, such as myself. He literally pushed us into the depth of the abyss from the trampoline and watched us flailing about with our four limbs while gasping for precious gulps of air between the less precious gulps of chlori- and urinated water. When he deemed us submerged for a critical enough amount of time, he used a long rescue rod to fish us out again, one at a time. This exercise, repeated over and over again, formed the gist of our swimming lessons.

Ever since I have always abhorred diving into any body of water.

Se non é vero, é ben trovato (1956)
ChetnikGeography is, well . . . not really the most exciting subject at school. But for our class it was, and for a very good reason. Professor Alois Maier was a storyteller par excellence. The stories from his time as a soldier stationed in Yugoslavia which was occupied by German forces during World War II, were more adventure than war stories. There were two Yugoslav guerrilla armies. The chetniks, supporting the monarchy, were initially on the side of the Axis in order to fight the partisans, who were leaning toward the USSR and fought against the Nazis. Eventually the chetniks switched to the other side and were of great help to the Allies. According to Maier's gripping cloak-and-dagger tales, he shied no danger in trying to arrange deals in the hide-outs of the chetniks in the densely forested Carpathian mountains. Some of these stories he repeated on later occasions, but we kept listening anyway, since even the second or third account was still preferable to geography. On occasion a new twist entered his tale and we earmarked it with a new version number. When we graduated, we knew little about such important items as fascism, concentration camps, stock markets, and computers. A joker placed an ad in our Graduation Journal: "Interested in acquiring texts of stories and anecdotes from before and during the Second World War. Alternatively, am looking for a class that has as of yet not heard my old ones twice".

Please reply under: "Se non é vero, é ben trovato".

Detective Butter, Voice of AmericaFreudian Hallenbad, Se non é vero, é ben trovato
Seasonings, WanderwocheMath - You get what it weighs, Jazz BandOchsenwirt

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