In three months 67 years have gone since I was born 1945 in this Germany. Thanks, that some things have changed in the meantime … – those were no good times, in 1945, when I was born. Three weeks after my birth I was given into an orphanage. The survival chances of children in care was 5 percent. In this respect I’ve had a bad start. But things are getting much better every decade …
title=”Cologne Cathedral During WWII” by The Rocketeer / Kevin Trotman, click on the picture to enter his galleries on Flickr – Kevin Trotman’s comment: “I found this photo along with 19 others tucked inside a book that was sold for $1 at a library booksale, where people donated books for the sale. I’m sure the original owner didn’t realize that these photos were left inside.”
related:
https://flickrcomments.wordpress.com/2010/12/23/cologne-cathedral/
permission:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kt/56939707/in/pool-blog-it
Flickr Comments 
A birthday, Frizz? Your birthday?! I wish you all the best and every day becoming better and better and ONLY better, from the heart!
LikeLike
I feel like having every day my birthday since I am retired, dear Marina! It’s a new, second life, to are allowed, to do your own business the whole day long! My real day of birth is 1st of November – thanks nevertheless!
LikeLike
…well, that was a wish for EVERY day!
LikeLike
I envy your second life. 🙂 It must be very happy.
LikeLike
Happy birthday to you. Yes, a very sad start to your life, but you’ve come a long way. Congratulations. 😉 Love that old photo. What a lucky find for Kevin.
LikeLike
I am so sorry for what sounds like a very hard childhood. I am so glad that your life has gotten better, and that you are filling it with good things. YOu are a very talented musician, and I’m sure you must have found some comfort there.
I think the the United States has also been in wars where we do not belong. It is difficult to feel so powerless when these things happen.
Best wishes!
LikeLike
Happy birthday and happy rebirth 🙂 I just retired this year and was hoping for the same thing, do what I want, when I want. Unfortunately I will need to look for work again for a while longer, but, it’s all good. Reason for everything, they say. You have so much talent to fill that time you now have. How wonderful is that?!?! Enjoy, Frizz. Enjoy.
LikeLike
Your evaluation of life after WWII, is so heartfelt and true: I am so impressed with the quality of your artistic, creative life Frizztext, taking the music, photography, and writing as reference. Indeed times have created opportunities, for our generation, as none comparable before!
LikeLike
times have created opportunities,
for our generation,
as none comparable before!
+
frizz: that’s it, George!
when I was aged 5,
a little American airplane flew over my hometown Wuppertal and threw down hundreds of Pepsi Cola caps – after a fight in the peer group a grabbed 20 – and the first color came into our grey city! In the same year the first Supermarket opened. In Wuppertal the US Army had a base for rockets …(from 1945 – 1995) – so some of my actual flickr and wordpress contacts really know the Schwebebahn in my hometown! I’m glad that things have changed so much …
LikeLike
So, Happy Birthday, and Many More!
LikeLike
365 every year, dear George!
LikeLike
thanks for showing us this photo of devastation at the end of the war, what turmoil for a child to be born into, you did so well even to survive frizz, and now you are truly living with happiness every day, with enough of all you need, and a great big community of friends all around the world wishing you well …. and yes, happy birthday for November! Mine is a week away, I will be 65, so we are not far apart in age, but half a world apart in location, christine (dadirri7)
LikeLike
Sometimes we should look back but with a neutral feeling and we find that all what hsppend was at least ok
I enjoy my life as a retired also in each hour but my day should have 48 hours to do all what i have in my brain
LikeLike
Out of the worst of beginnings comes the best of finishes. As you say each decade gets better your life that you are living now has a greater impact because of what you contribute to the world through your talents. Did you know the number 5 symbolizes grace? So I believe that being of the 5 percent means their is grace extended over your life.
BE ENCOURAGED! BE BLESSED!
LikeLike
You did a good job and figured out this photo from that and shown its importance
LikeLike
It’s a great photo and if you have an emotional birth connection that is remarkable. Keep on truckin!
LikeLike
Very interesting.
You should read Eric Larson’s In the Garden of Beasts.
LikeLike
thanks for the hint to Erik Larson
http://www.amazon.com/In-Garden-Beasts-American-Hitlers/dp/0307408841
LikeLike
Yes Erik with a k – I always forget
LikeLike
about your masters of disguise, the cuckoo mothers:
you know I’m German – and so I have a cuckoo clock; and I am a cuckoo child: I was adopted by other parents – is that right: the cuckoo mother hides her egg in a nest of a strange bird?
LikeLike
beasts they were – and it did not stop 1945. violence, racism – still in Germany, though diminished. censorship in the German section of amazon – though I ranked on position two (of 120.000 book reviewers) 5 years long (“Hall of fame” book reviewer me) there evry month was censorship vs. me. So I changed the language and wrote for amazon.com – amazon.co.uk and amazon.ca – no more censorship problems. this week I gave an interview for a camera about those things …
LikeLike
May your next trip around the sun be a glorious one! I’m glad to know you, and glad you beat the odds from that brutal beginning!
LikeLike
How incredible. What a story of survival. You bet the odds allright.
LikeLike
Happy birthday, sir!
The people of Cologne had to endure a lot of suffering in 1945. There are a number of harrowing videos available on YouTube, such as a famous tank battle near the cathedral.
For surviving the aftermath of such a battle, I admire your resilience a great deal!
LikeLike
thank you for the video hint!
LikeLike
I’m two days late but I hope you had a happy birthday! What a horrific start in life, a stark reminder that our “civilisation” isn’t always very civilised, but here’s to the decades continuing to get better.
LikeLike
“the cycle of all things in our universe
including the very earth itself…”
http://silkenphotography.wordpress.com/2012/08/04/weekly-photo-challenge-growth/
LikeLike
You are like me – I like to celebrate my birthday everyday because I am happy to be alive. It is a gift that we should treasure especially if our beginnings were difficult – as mine was, as well.
The photo is historic. You found a treasure at that book sale. Happy November 1st birthday and all year through. ~~~~ : – )
Isadora
P.S. I noticed you’ve changed your blog – it looks clean and crisp.
LikeLike
hi Isadora, thanks for mentioning my changed blog design, wordpress theme MANIFEST – I tried to find something clean and simple like at my tumblr blog – theme name there: The Minimalist – compare for example:
http://a-to-z-archive.tumblr.com/post/28409555268/letter-e
LikeLike
Nice theme change to your blog. It’s important to make the most out of your retirement. It is also admirable that you have found many creative outlets and share your talents with us. Happy Future Birthday!
LikeLike
Wishing you many, many better decades in the future Frizz! Happy birthday in advance 🙂
LikeLike