I took his playing cards without asking and when he noticed, he got really grumpy. He was mad at me and I tossed his cards in the corner. Then he started crying and ran to our mother. I think he is mean. He wants to have my Donald Duck comic and my book and I give it to him, I am not going to do that anymore. When I ask him to borrow his flashlight or his cards or his comic, he says 'No!'. Then I just take it and he runs to mother crying. He is a moron!
PS.: Never wish for siblings! As babies they are cute!! But then when they start school... Terrible! A total catastrophe!
These are just some of the nuggets put on paper by a 12-year-old me maybe in the early throws of the grumpy and obstinate teenage years. My father had given me a small notebook while we were on holiday in Waging am See in the south of Germany. He wanted to encourage me to keep a diary. On the front, he wrote: 'For Ulrike Riemenschneider 14. August 1989'. On the first page, he left the words of a Russian proverb: 'What the quill has written, the ax cannot erase.' No doubt he was hopeful for some deeper insights than the rambling rants about my annoying brother.
In my refined opinion at that age, almost anything my parents suggested we do on that holiday was 'dumb'. We biked and hiked up several mountains and while I had to reluctantly admit that the view from the top was 'quite nice', my head was 'buzzing' with a headache as loudly as 'a swarm of wasps' after biking up the hill. My father mentioned one afternoon that there would be a full lunar eclipse that night and we'd have to get up at 3 am to see it. My words: 'I am not so dumb to get up at 3 am. That's not for me, only for idiots!'
Then came a day trip to Salzburg.
18.8.1989 Friday
The day was a catastrophe! We were in Salzburg! We walked through the Getreidegasse! It was overcrowded with people, probably because of Mozart's birth house! We went to visit the 'House of Nature' and that was quite nice.
I had another fight with my brother. Because of something stupid! ... I hate him!
In the 'House of Nature' we saw a lot of animals that was really awesome!
That day sounds like a real catastrophe, don't you think?! And it certainly wasn't the only terrible day! Now, as I reread the diary, it cracks me up! Almost everything annoyed me during this vacation.
Throughout the rest of the diary, thankfully my mood changes. The stay in Waging was followed by two weeks at the Chiemsee Yacht Schule in Prien (20. August - 2. September 1989), a sailing school, which would become a steady feature in our lives for the next 10+ years. My verdict on our first stay there 'the best experience of the year'! I remember absolutely loving our yearly and sometimes twice yearly holidays at the sailing school. Every time the holidays were over and we'd have to head home, I would shed tears.
The diary goes on to describe the start of the new school year in 1989, which would have been 7th grade for me. It would seem that I quite enjoyed being back in school. I have a hunch that a little distance from my siblings helped ... I talk about helping my mother with chores like shopping, laundry, and ironing - not always happily. We would often go on family hikes and bike tours and have friends over for tea. I mention watching the US Open in Tennis on the TV. 1989 was a big year for the Germans, Boris Becker won against Ivan Lendl, his only victory there, and Steffi Graf won against Maria Navratilova, the second of five victories. We followed Tennis a lot in the late 80s and early 90s. The last entry is on October 5th.
Over the years I have not always been consistent in writing diaries but looking through those pages now, it is interesting to observe the ways in which attitudes may have changed and to notice the things that have not changed too much. There is a 'to-do' list in my diary, I still am a big fan of 'to-do' lists! I used to rearrange my room a lot in those days - even now I still enjoy rearranging the furniture in the house and since our house now is a 'work-in-progress', I get to do it fairly frequently.
The biggest change is that these days I do very much appreciate my siblings. And it goes without saying, that my brother is of course not a moron! I am a big fan of all my three siblings. I can only hope that they not too traumatized by the memories of the annoying big sister who was always stealing their stuff without asking ... 😬
Images: Top - Julian, Annika, and David - August 1989 in Waging am See.
Bottom - Julian, I, David, and Annika - August 2017
