At three separate times in my life: I worked for a sub-contract Computer manufacturing Company in Germany. This contract was for 3 Months (quite a long time) working abroad from the UK where I live. The work that we were employed to do was basically converting German Computers into English for sale to the UK. This involved changing the Firmware, Software, labels and Keyboards etc. It must of been a very large "purchase order" for them to make this complex (and time consuming) conversion cost effective.
My Story begins... ✍️
There were six of us from the same UK Company all staying in a large house rented by the Company (BMW Rental Car was also provided). Many evenings after work and dinner were spent visiting the local village Pub. On this occasion only myself and Sam (Samantha) felt like going out for a while. The others just wanted to chill out watching TV and English speaking videos (sent from England). As we walked down the road, it seemed very quiet ~ unusually quiet! There were very few cars on the road, and very few people out walking their dogs. As this was still early evening, we thought it a bit strange!
Anyway, we eventually entered the Pub after about a twenty minute walk. We sat at a small table in the corner of the Pub, and a waiter came to take our order. "Two Beers" we requested in our terrible German translation voice. Even though our German language was poor they always appreciated it if you tried (even though their English was far better than our German) 🤣
The Waiter came with drinks and marked each of our "beer mats" with a tick to indicate that we had Beer supplied. A strange custom but seemed to work really well, you just pay once when leaving the Pub. As we sat chatting and listening to the Music playing, we began looking around the room. It was only a very small Pub, and so only about fifteen people in there if I remember correctly.
We noticed that their faces were serious, not saying much, just drinking quietly. Again this was unusual behavior (normally lots of laughter and chat going on). Then suddenly, the Waiter switched on the TV mounted on the main wall of the Pub. The Music went quiet, and all we could only hear what was on the LIVE TV News Channel 📺
OMG! Now we understood why there had been such a weird atmosphere ~ We did not understand what they were saying on the TV ! but we understood the pictures that we were seeing ! The BERLIN WALL was coming DOWN !
This special "News Flash" must of been showing on all the major "Media Channels" around the World ~ We were English people sat in a German Pub watching HISTORY UNFOLDING LIVE before our eyes...
You would think they started celebrating, shouting and cheering! but NO absolutely the opposite. From what the Waiter told us in his broken English" they were afraid of thousands of poor Germans entering the richer part of Germany. I guess they were worried about many things that may change in the future of a United Germany!
Above Image Source: Unsplash [here]
Many German people were shot and killed climbing the Berlin Wall.
Spare a thought for them 🙏 RIP
The Berlin Wall (as it was in 1974).
Above Image Source: Unsplash [here]
Lastly, Please Stay safe! and healthy everyone!
I hope you enjoyed my "True Life Story" for Today!
See you all again very soon... 🙋♂️