Rheindahlen, 1966-1968

Now we're in Rheindahlen the biggest base around
A little slice of Germany that feels like English ground.
It's so much like being in Aldershot.
That we're foreign there can be forgot.
We scarcely know it's Germany
There's so few Germans that we see.
Cinema, shops, a swimming pool
English teachers, an English school.
A hundred thousand 'auslanders'
Wonder what Germans made of us?
No change of school to make us sore.
At the same one as before
My school is 'Queen's' a thousand strong.
An 'Upper' and  a 'Lower' one.
Wendy and Sue at primary school.
Mum gets a job, so she's there too.
Work  in school, a dinner lady
So happier here I think she'll be.
Surrounded by kids she'll be busily,
Bustling about; none brighter than she.
Though sadly very overweight
Hence a remark that really grates.
She doesn't look like her photo no more
Someone says "Will we're you married before?
Here there is no grammar school
So all mix in, that is the rule.
I'm not at the top. I'm in stream B.
Work hard to stay or no GCE.
It's not just boys. There's girls as well.
But I'm too shy to have much to tell.
At a point in time we get to choose
Subjects to do and those to lose.
Of all the things I could've packed in
I couldn't do German, has to be Latin.
We'd chant : 'amo, amas, amat'.
I couldn't see the point of that.

Our houses smaller not big like that.
For a posting abroad as good as it gets Officers kids, other ranks too
Mix together all in one school.
But they're in red zone, we're in blue
Different days at the swimming pool.
Their houses are bigger, they're detached
But we have a dream of what we want next.
To know what it was you have to read on
You'll also learn how it all went wrong!

Ballymena Walk, Rheindahlen.

Next Up Part Twenty Eight of Margaret's Story - the home we dreamt of and what went wrong.