Next door in a lovely estate lived Professor Staudinger, the leading scientist in polymer chemistry, and his wife gave us pears (George, a polymer chemist, could not believe we grew up with him). Diagonally across were the Pringsheim boys (he became a professor at Princeton) who gave us of our most memorable childhood experiences. Cars were just becoming big items in 1932. There was a big car race and they bought a raffle ticket and won a convertible!  Joy of joy, one of the Pringsheim boys (who was in university) won the convertible! They came over full of enthusiasm and my father was home—they asked if Stasi and I could go for a spin. Dada was horrified, but Father said, “Oh let them go, it’s a big occasion.” We never got ready for anything as fast and climbed into the car. We drove out toward where the border was with France past lots of grapes in the beautiful Rhine valley. It was just wonderful. The brothers were fun, we were singing. We didn’t get home until it was starting to get dark, with Dada fussing (calling us “Nacht Eulen” --night owls) and Gretchen still mad she was left behind.
    Our parents took us to the Alps for a week-long skiing trip.

This was in Davos, Switzerland (next to St. Moritz), where there was a very challenging run called Parsenne.

    When we left Freiburg for Boston, I was in 8th grade, Stasi in 10th grade, and Gretchen in 6th grade.  My best friend was Gertrud. The twins Lisbet and Suzi Gunsberger were in my class in school (although they were older)  and they lived two houses away from us.*

 



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