大象传媒

My youngest sister told me the stories of what happened in her area during the war.My older sister was ,what we called,:Across the big rivers:Maas,Waal and Rhine".She took care of an old couple,friends of the family.
She was a teacher,teaching daughters of farmers the fine points of" things" they needed to know to run their farm later.( she still lived at home at that time)One of her students contacted my mother and told her that she could come and get 1/2 a pigWhat a connection!That was something one H脌D to get.The farm was across the river Maas.She got her old bicycle out of the shed:NO Tires! and proceeded to go to the farm house across the Maas.(Guards were posted ,they were mostly older guys called up to do guard duty.). She could proceed.The racket of riding a bike without tires on cobbled streets must have been considerable.She got the 1/2 pig and draped it over the handlebar.On her way back the old guy on duty was replaced by an other one.He saw my mother pushing now her bike.He yelled:"HALT".He questioned her and was going to relieve her of the pig.My mother thought :"no way."! She started to "Cry",made a racket:"Please,please,let me go home.I am a widow(true)and have 12 kids(not true) they are s贸 hungry and sick from not getting any food". The guard looked at her and....let her go.That same night the British bombed the bridge.She would have had to stay on the wrong side of the bridge and my family would have feared the worst.The guard, I am sure,was killed.On my side:the Germans had stolen all our food:No coffee was one of the worst things.We went on"milk runs" to collect mother's milk from women in farms who had plenty Our "milkcows" they were called..We went in an ambulance for safety reasons.I worked in Peds at that time. One of the residents was there stirring his black chicory with a look on his face of disgust:"what a yukky taste to drink this stuff:No cream,no sugar". We did not say a word,took away his cup(No beakers were used)without a word.When we brought it back: it looked creamy,tasted sweet.." What did you do with my Ersatz?"Oh, we told him, we found some leftover" stuff in the frig".We never told him we used :MOTHER's MILK.After that more residents came and asked whether we had anymore "leftover stuff".

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