[Joeaksa]

Rick,

My name is there as well, used to go "over" often. My Berlin wife smuggled things to her family on the Eastern side. Funny things, like a Time magazine or something new to read. As I had military ID the police stopped us at times and we told them to fuch off, get me a Russian officer to communicate with. Got them mad as they had no right to even talk with us but them's the rules bucko.

The people on the East side had no access to Western items and her Uncle there was a printer and he wanted to see how the new processes that were being used were done, so we bought the latest stuff from the news stand on the street and brought it to him. You could see his eyes light up when he saw a new idea and then tried to incorporate it into his things at work.

The fall of the wall was a unbelieveable event. As you said, until you have lived or worked with a police state you just cannot understand. Magdeburg is where the Ruskies kept Hitlers body for many years and some say that part of it is still buried there now. Part of what screwed them is that they kept a file or record on everything. Once the wall fell the locals found reports on everyone and that really torqued people off. It will take a generation for things to become normal again, with other issues mixed in.

I still have some very interesting things from that era. A transit pass, signed by the transit police but no name filled in for the person. When ferrying a parachute airplane from the Baltic to Berlin for an airshow he made a mistake and gave me a extra pass as he was paying more attention to the new "western" airplane than he was to his job! A smuggler would have a field day with this. As well a few other things that I do not want to put on an open forum but someday if you return we need to have a bier and talk over Berlin.

Still miss a currywurst, doner kebap and Berliner Kindl!

Tchuss,

Joe A