Glattfelden,,Switzerland. March 1993
I'm comin' home Casper!
On my great Spring trip to Germany visiting MAP in 1993 (my first real trip to Germany minus my 1987 Berlin stopover), I realized that the Black Forest was just across the Rhine from Glattfelden, Switzerland. Since one of our day trips from Stuttgart was to the Black Forest, I asked him if we could drive over into Switzerland to look for the town. Always accommodating, MAP agreed.
Although long ago, I remember that part of the trip clearly. We crossed into Switzerland from Germany via a two-lane bridge without a lot of fuss. There was very little traffic. I remember telling MAP about all the WWll movies racing through my mind in that moment involving crossing a small bridge from Germany under a hail of bullets into the safety of Switzerland. It was meme-like even before the "Age of Memes". Come to think of it, it was my first trip to Switzerland, too. I was absolutely astonished with how flat it was! Didn't the Alps begin the moment one crossed the border?? Where were all those chalets? Where was Heidi? My initial doubts notwithstanding, we pressed on aided by a "map" (that is a piece a paper with lines on it) and continued to Glattfelden.
One expression MAP taught me on that trip was "Rheinfall". In German, if something was a Rheinfall, it was something you expected should be good only to find it was in truth rather "meh" (which correctly describes the nearby Falls of the Rhine). How appropriate I learned that expression before visiting the town of my ancestors. Glattfelden was a small and totally unremarkable village. In a continent filled with twee hamlets from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance why was the source of my own DNA so bland? I was disappointed. Even in the days before ubiquitous selfie-posing, I was at least hoping for a photo of me from a nice little town square sitting there smiling. That was not the case so I settled for the above snapshot.
The Rhine Valley of Switzerland across from that part of Baden-Württemberg, Germany was flat, agricultural and even a bit industrial along the river. Casper, was York County, PA better back in 1733? York County does look better than Glattfelden today - except that it is still Pennsylvania and in spite of its pastoral beauty, Zurich is not 3o minutes away (not to mention the Alps). How might your progeny have turned out had you stayed, oh ancestor?
Alas, a life goal was fulfilled, but my expectations had dogged me once again. All that remains is a slightly blurry photo - like my memory.
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