POSTING #40

Daily Go Buses Come to Niagara; Check Point Charlie; Short Stuff (Mini-Stories about Kids and Pets)

Daily Go Buses Come to Niagara

We feel closer to Toronto now that there is a weekday train/bus link with 9 trips each way between here and the big city.

The trip is about 2 hours each way so that it is entirely feasible to go to Toronto in the morning, see the Art Gallery of Ontario, or the Royal Ontario Museum or do some shopping and be home in the early evening.

There is a bus pick up in Niagara Falls, St. Catharines and Grimsby to meet the GO train in Burlington.

People who have used the service are pleased with it. The only complaint I've heard is that the buses don't have toilets!

I predict a bright future for the service!

Check Point Charlie

The news that Chancellor Merkel, who was raised in the German Democratic Republic (also known as communist East Germany), had been re-elected gave me a lift.

It is not that I endorse her policies---I like some of them, dislike others. It is just that in a world that faces so many seemingly intractable problems it is good to have a success story that reminds us that change is possible.

I was in Berlin in the fall of 1974 as a member of a group of Canadians invited by a German social policy foundation to examine Germany's social programs. Our group was led by Agnes Benidickson, the sister of the Hon. James Richardson who, in 1974 was Minister of Defence in the Trudeau cabinet, and it included Members of Parliament, labour leaders, journalists, public servants and some representatives of non-governmental organizations.

We toured West Germany, visiting the Federal Employment Service headquarters in Nuremburg and the offices of other social policy departments and organizations.

Then we flew into West Berlin, an island of western democracy in the middle of communist Eastern Germany.

Perhaps I should describe the situation in Germany at that time for younger readers. Germany was divided into two parts: West Germany, a western-style democracy and East Germany, a police state. Germany's largest city, Berlin, was not only located deep inside East Germany, but it too was divided into two parts: West Berlin controlled jointly by the US, Britain, France; and East Berlin controlled by the USSR.

There was a high wall, barbed wire. land mines and guard towers to prevent East Berliners from fleeing to West Berlin.

Talk about intractable problems!

West Berlin was a booming place, with fancy and expensive hotels, restaurants, nightclubs and department stores. Above all, there were lights everywhere and of every kind---lights in office buildings, on TV towers, in flashing neon signs, lights illuminating monuments. From my hotel room, I could see across the famous wall into East Berlin and everything was dark, except for a few street lights.

Our hosts thought it would be useful for us to get a first-hand taste of East Berlin in order to see the contrast between western democracy and communism. Having obtained permission for us to spend a few hours driving around the city, they gave us some instructions on how we should behave. We were not to carry items that could be construed as gifts such as blue jeans, chewing gum, nylons. We were not to take photos without permission. And above all, no drugs.

Our bus pulled up to Check Point Charlie, the main opening between East and West Berlin. We saw the famous sign, "You are now leaving the American Sector" and felt a little frisson of apprehension. The bus slowly navigated through the zigzag concrete barriers and stopped at a guard house. (Click here for a Wikipedia article on Check Point Charlie.)

An East German guard waved for us to follow him into a large examination hall. As we waited our turn, we watched as customs officers meticulously examined the belongings of some young tourists. One of the officials spent minutes scrutinizing the seams of a pair of blue jeans. What was he looking for? Microfilm? Small mounts of heroin? Who knows.

Our group was getting bored and started looking around at the walls of the room. On one wall there was a large sign declaring that this was the German Democratic Republic with an insignia and a flag.

Suddenly, there was a flash as someone from our group took a picture of the wall.

All activity in the hall stopped, and guards stormed over to our group demanding to know who had taken the picture. No one confessed.

Our group was taken into a private room. We were asked again to tell the guards who had taken the picture. Again, no one admitted guilt.

The guards took all the cameras and stripped out the film (there were no digital cameras at that time).

Our West German hosts went off with the guards to negotiate a release for us.

We were left alone.

I wondered what the East Germans would do to us. Would they simply ship us back to West Berlin? Or would they detain us for a day or two---or longer? After all this was a police state---the officials could do what they wanted.

I also began to think about the possible press reaction back home. "Members of Parliament and the sister of the Canadian Defence Minister detained at Check Point Charlie."

Finally, our hosts returned and we were taken back into the examination hall. We were processed by sternly disapproving officials.

Then it was back on the bus and into East Berlin. The city had been rebuilt after the bombing of World War II with broad avenues lined with buildings that I later told someone could have been designed by a committee of CBC bureaucrats---safe sensible gray edifices with no flare whatsoever (this was before the CBC changed its spots and created its magnificent Broadcast Centre on Toronto's Front Street).

There was little traffic on the streets, just some odd looking---to us---cars and some tired buses and trucks. The people looked somber, dressed in clothes without any style.

We spent a few hours touring the city and then returned to Checkpoint Charlie, and a friendly reception from the American officials.

This was the world that Chancellor Merkel grew up in.

What an amazing turnabout in the twenty years since the Berlin wall was knocked down.

Perhaps we will live to see some other walls come down---say, in the Middle East.



Short Stuff (Mini-Stories about Kids and Pets)

Once when our dog Cassidy thought he was along in the house, he started to howl, and howl. He only stopped when someone moved around upstairs and he realized he wasn't alone.

We hadn't been aware that he howled when we were away.

We decided to play a trick on him. The next time we went out we left a tape machine recording.

When we came home, he was his usual welcoming self, jumping up on us, racing around, chasing his tail.

Until, that is, we rewound the tape and started to listen to it.

At first, just a little howl, and then a rising crescendo of howls.

Cass looked at the machine, looked at us and then slunk from the room, his small shoulders sagging with embarrassment.

We felt badly that we had played such a cruel trick on that sweet little fellow.


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See you next Sunday for Posting #41 with more stories from our family’s universe! If you have comments or suggestions, please leave a comment at the bottom of this posting, or email me at johnpathunter@cs.com.