Some of you will know that I've been having a clear-up and a clear-out of the loft. Not everything is going of course. Lots of things are just being looked at and replaced. Memories can be such interesting things. I'm not a great dweller on the past but, like most people, when something triggers a happy memory I like sharing it.
When the children were young we used to go and stay with friends in West Berlin for October and sometimes we paid other visits too. That was before The Berlin Wall came down in November 1989. I'm not sure exactly when I was next in Berlin without looking it up but it was when the wall was still being pulled down. As I watched, the opportunists around were breaking pieces of the wall into very small pieces and selling them. I actually did have a few pieces of the ordinary wall but the choice pieces of the painted wall (a lot of the surface of the wall on the West Berlin side had been 'decorated' in bright colours) were being jealously guarded. So I paid up and looked happy.
So today I am thankful that a country was re-united and that the friends that I had and have from both sides of the Berlin Wall have a life that they might otherwise never have known.
The thought occured to me, reading this, that the "decorated pieces" might be grafitti? Probably not, but here in this country, it would have been, for sure!
ReplyDeleteThat's quite a souvenir - or two.
ReplyDeletebeautiful memories and souvenirs!
ReplyDelete