Movie Time

Most of the early years of my children's lives were spent overseas in West Germany. That was way before the Berlin wall came down. We have one child born in Florida, another in Kentucy, another in West Germany and another in Texas. The Neubig family served two tours in West Germany.

The first tour, my oldest daugther was only 4 1/2 and my second daughter was a new born. We lived "on the economy" which means living off post while we were waiting for our name to come up for on post housing. Our apartment was on the third floor over a bakery and there was a bar right on the corner. One night Ron went there to buy some soda and he discovered that the waitresses were topless.

In Germany the houses had metal covers that rolled down to cover the windows at night I think they were called Roladens or something like that. We didn't have good television reception so we would listen to the Armed Forces Radio station. They played the movie "Star Wars" only of course it was actors speaking with sound effects and of course our imagination.

We had to walk everywhere we went. Our car had not arrived from the states. So when it was time to do laundry we had to put the laundry and balance Lorren in her baby seat on top. We had to walk to the laundry facilities on post, do the laundry and walk back. We also had to go to the commissary the same way. It was very hard for me and the girls to live on the economy. Ron was gone alot and our neighbors didn't speak English and of course I had no German skills.

Finally we moved on post. Which made things easier but there were still challenges. I made very close friendships with other women. It was the best way to survive and we were a pretty tight knit group. We depended on each other for just about everything. During that tour Mona was born in Landsthul, Germany.

When it was time for our second tour, Tobie was 12, Lorren 9, Mona 8 and Ben was 3.
Living overseas has it's own unique challenges and adjustments. Such as watching television. I don't know how it is now but in the 70's and 80's we had one American Channel-AFN which is the military television station and all the television programs we were accustomed to were on but were six months old by the time they were shown on AFN.

Since television was a bit limited, we watched videos. There were two movies that for some reason grew into cult status for the Neubig Family. The movie CLUE and Bells Are Ringing. Back then we didn't notice the adult humor in both movies, but the kids knew the scripts by heart. They would even put on skits about the movies, especially CLUE. I will always remember Mrs. White and The Singing Telegram. Our kids are now adults and they can still recite the movie verbatim.

Another diversion in the Neubig quarters was the kids making news programs and commericals staring the famous Kathy Beavers. My husband spent alot of time filming the kids and their antics and we treasure those videos. I think that time was the happiest time we had together in the military.