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I was an army brat. Dad served in the Navy during the second world war and later he joined the Army. In 1950 he was a Sergeant in the 5th Army, stationed in Vienna, Austria. We lived on the second floor of a very nice apartment building at 41 Gregor Mendel Strasse. There were two marble faced fireplaces and a baby grand piano along with a crystal chandelier in the dining room. I ran with a group of other army brats. I was nine years old and the oldest in the group.

One day in February we were hanging out in front of the large estate located across from our apartment. One of the kids stuck his hand through the chain linked fence and a dog took his mitten. I bravely offered to go through the gate and recover the mitten. I still remember starting my walk across the large yard toward the two “Boxers”. They greeted me by jumping up and knocking me to the ground. They proceeded to chew on my arms and legs until an Austrian man who we referred to as the “fireman”, (he took care of the furnace in our apartment building) came in and pulled the dogs off me.

I walked home nearly naked. My mother fainted when she opened the door. I spent about 6 weeks in the Army hospital. It took me a while to get over my fear of dogs. The occupant of the estate on the corner was a Colonel in the U.S. Army, and his wife gave me a new winter coat. 

In April of 2019 I returned to Vienna, and I was able to take a cab ride to 41 Gregor Mendel Strasse.  I told the cab driver to wait for me and I approached the front door. A resident was getting into his car, and he asked me if I needed help. I shared with him that I had lived there as an Army brat in the fifties and was hoping to see our apartment. He told me to push the button for Benedict, the owner of the building.  Someone buzzed me in, and I walked up to the second floor.  The lobby looked very familiar.  The elevator was new.  The faucet which provided water for the flower garden was still there.  Marcus let me in. He was a live-in boyfriend of the owner, Verena Benedict.  He let me in, but he would not allow me to take pictures. It was an amazing experience.

My mother said that our family was once able to attend a concert presented by The Vienna Boys Choir.  Tomorrow night The Vienna Boys Choir will be singing in the Paramount Theatre in beautiful downtown St. Cloud.  I have two tickets in row G for the first the first one to respond to this email.  I will leave them in Will Call for you. I hope to see you there.

Lesson learned this week: “Any sentence that starts with, “Don’t you”,  “Didn’t you…”  , “Shouldn’t you….”,  or “Couldn’t you…”   implies that the person that you are addressing is “deficient”.   GMO