Powdered Milk and Other Discoveries
by Alfred Opp
April 17, 2008
...Instant-soup...instant-coffee....milk-powder...egg-powder...do
these innovations spell an end to our ways of preparing food and how
we live? What will they think of next!
When Washington noticed a cloud formation, laced with Hammer and
Sickle, drifting from the East to the West after WWII, the alarm
bell went off. At that point, the US was sorting out its options
regarding Germany. The US realized that Germany could be a walkover
for the Communists if no help was given them. For the sake of world
peace, Germany's plight could not be ignored.
The Americans took immediate action with the Marshall plan.
Shipments of food and various forms of aid left US ports bound
for Europe and the divided city of Berlin. Included in these
shipments were foods of the instant and non-perishable variety. When
the shipments reached Germany, these powdered foods were largely
distributed to schoolchildren. It was at that time our people got
their first look and taste of this food of another sort.
Our people from out East had never heard or seen of instant foods.
Or if they did, they didn't give such things much thought. The
way we knew to prepare food was to get up early, roll up our
sleeves, work over the dough, start the stove, boil the water, grab
the washboard and do the laundry. What else was there to know? Food
had been prepared in the traditional way for centuries, and wasn't
likely to change anytime soon.
Even with the food shipments from America, food was still in short
supply. It helped to know a farmer - it was even better to know
someone who lived in America. As soon as Germany was again connected
to the international postal service, people started to write. One
family did just that and mailed their letter to distant relatives in
America. It had been years since they last wrote. After weeks of
waiting, a parcel arrived. The family jumped for joy and started to
unwrap it to see what was inside. They found cans and packages of
food well wrapped and labeled, except for one container that had no
label. Strangely, there was no letter or note with the package.
A couple of days later, the family started to get into the box of
food. They started with the can that had no label. Inside they
found a powdery substance of something. Mother took a taste of it,
but it had no taste. It must be one of those instant meals, she
thought. So she emptied it into a pan with water and brought it to a
boil. Still it had no taste. They knew Uncle George and Aunt Frieda
wouldn't send them something that wasn't good. So Grandma took over
- surely she could make something of it. By adding more ingredients
to it, the taste improved. The family sat down and ate every
spoonful.
A few days later a letter arrived from Aunt Frieda to let them
know how happy she was to hear they were alive and well. She went on
to say that since the letter would arrive before the parcel, she
wanted to explain what was in the box and to also let them know that
Uncle George had passed away. Uncle George, she wrote, left a wish
that his ashes be sent back to his beloved Germany. In the unmarked
can she was sending his ashes so that they could be spread out
somewhere in the forest. Folks, this story is no joke. In desperate
times, strange things happen.
Our people may have heard about cremation, but never talked about
it. To honor our dead, we laid them to rest in a well-kept
graveyard. A visit to the graveyard meant a lot to us. To share a
few moments at the graveside thinking of our loved one, even to have
a good cry, made us feel better.
Going to the inferno voluntarily is not what our ancestors lived for. If one of us winds up going there, it will be soon enough. I may go up in smoke, but when it happens I hope there is some incense to help me be remembered.
____________________
Family Secrets
Heinrich was a business man from Teplitz with a wife and four
children. While living in Bessarabia, he made a good living. When
they were resettled in Poland, they were assigned to a farm. The
problem was that Heinrich was no farmer. He told the authorities he
was not a farmer, and asked to be given something else to make a
living. The officer in charge told him, "If you weren't a farmer,
you are one now. I don't want to see you again." Heinrich went back
to the farm. Under their reduced circumstances, things did not go
well between Heinrich and his wife.
Three years later, the Soviets closed in, and Heinrich's fortunes
changed forever. Along with other Germans, he and his family packed
their horse-drawn wagon and left the farm, fleeing toward East
Germany. But on the way, Heinrich went missing. Once in East
Germany, the wife reported him as a war casualty. Heinrich's family
did not understand this - why would he be a war casualty when he
wasn't in the army?
Years later, after Germany was re-unified, Heinrich's sister went to
visit her neice. Heinrich's wife by this time had also died. During
the visit, Heinrich's sister and the daughter began talking about
what had happened to Heinrich. The daughter said that when they fled
Poland, she was very young. so she knew only what her mother had
told her. Her mother had recounted that after they left the farm,
she had discovered that her jewelry box was missing and she had
asked Heinrich to go back to the farm to find it. Already late in
leaving, Heinrich told his wife to continue westward with the horse
and wagon, and he would peddle the bicycle back to the farm and see
what he could find. He never came back. Years later, the daughter
went back to the area in Poland where they had lived, to see if
anyone might know what had happened to her dad. The new people
living on the farm knew nothing. An old lady from next door said she
remembered seeing Heinrich walk back onto the property, but did not
see him leave. Another neighbor told the daughter that he saw
Heinrich's dead body on the farm.
Heinrich's sister then asked her niece if she thought her father's
life was worth the jewelry: Your mom sent him back, and you lost a
father and she lost both a husband and the jewelry.
Then the niece revealed that she had the jewelry box - it was never
lost.
Alfred Opp
Edited by Connie Dahlke
____________________
Alfred Opp is the author of "Pawns on the World Stage" - the memoirs
of his childhood in Teplitz, Bessarabia and the experiences of his
family in war-torn Europe (Poland during 1941-1945 before they fled
to East
Germany in 1945, then the reconstruction of West Germany 1945-1955).