Geezer in Training - Or am I already there?

Eupher

Eupher

U.S. Army, Retired
Location
Arkansas
Hello, everyone!

I'll answer my own question, but feel free to climb aboard and educate me. I'm 67, but sometimes my bones tell me I'm much, much older. LOL

I'm a retired (29+ years ago now) U.S. Army musician. In addition to the music, I worked in logistics, linguistics (translation), and operations, i.e., care and feeding of an Army band while gigging.

Spent 24 years after the Army working pharmaceutical/medical device Quality Assurance. That's significant because after so much time, I finally was able to survive algebra.

I still play all the low brass instruments and do so because I can't not do it. In the home, I'm accompanied by a 4-year-old rescue mutt named Pepper and a Congo African grey parrot named Jackie.
 

KSav said:
Welcome! Would love to hear more about your days as an army musician.
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I spent almost 15 years in Germany, and not quite 9 of those years in Berlin (one long assignment). A great gig and a great location, even when the Wall was up. But I saw it come down in 1989 and spent two more years during the Reunification process witnessing that kind of history - heady stuff!

The Wall came down on a Thursday evening. My then-wife and I had already planned a trip to the "Zone" (West Germany) via the two-hour autobahn drive through East Germany. Anticipated long, long waits at the Helmstedt Checkpoint Alpha. Didn't happen. We spent the weekend in Celle, just chilling. Bought a cockatiel. Went to a grocery store on Saturday, and wouldn't you know it? There wasn't a banana to be found. The store had been cleaned out by those from East Germany who had crossed into West Germany and descended, like vultures, on food stores near the border. Apparently, bananas weren't to be had in East Germany at all, or rarely. True story.
 
George1959 said:
Well then, a heartily welcome from a German. Not living in Berlin, but in Franconia. Northern Bavaria is legally right, but we Franconians don't like to be mixed up with the Bavarians :ROFLMAO:
Georg, aka George in this forum.
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Franken erinnert mich an meine Dienstelle in Ansbach. Ich nehme an, daß Ansbach weiter südlich liegt.
 
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Since we're talking about the German language and its dialects, a quick story - in 1983, my then-girlfriend and I traveled from Berlin down to Berchtesgaden/Bad Reichenhall, in deep Bavaria. The Bavarian dialect is considered by some to be roughly equal to the U.S. "southern" dialect ... uh, let's just say in the manner of being less genteel. Not that there's any truth to that, of course.

We attended what is called a "Schuhplattlerabend" which is a live variety show which features traditional Bavarian music, joke-telling, dancing the "Schuhplattler" (slapping of hands on their shoes and Lederhosen, girls in their dirndls (colorful dresses), stomping of feet, etc.) and similar entertainment. The emcee opened the evening by announcing, in perfect accentless High German (the dialect spoken in and around Hannover, much further north) that in consideration for many foreign guests who struggle with the Bavarian dialect, he would use his High German. And then immediately reverted back to the local Bavarian dialect, which even my girlfriend (who was a Berlinerin) had difficulty with. Lots of laughter.
 
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