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Frozen by Fear
Slowly but surely I'm getting calluses on my fingers. Almost like when I play the guitar. Only in different places.
Where they come into contact with pins, screws and nuts after hours of fiddling with bakelite plugs. And the smell of old paper bags and stale air. And the constant rattling.
How To Diaries is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Jürgen wants to know why I chose the long way round the prison. I remember 'Gerhard Gösebrecht' by Udo Lindenberg and tell him about my encounter with a 'spaceship' in the spring of 1983 (see Thursday, January 12, 1984).
I had given up on the shortest route over the Wall after a frightening shock therapy in the summer of 1983.
A year earlier, in the spring of 1982, I had been on a 'tour of Germany' with my best friends. We were going to hitchhike to East Berlin. But we ended up in Hennigsdorf in the west of East Germany, on the border with West Berlin.
We camped there for three days and nights in a green area without being checked by anyone.
This led me to conclude that the provincial section of the Wall was perhaps less heavily guarded than the urban section in the East.
A year later I put this to the test and hitchhiked to Falkensee, south-west of Hennigsdorf. There I walked in a north-easterly direction. It was getting dark.
A dirt path in the woods led nowhere. Not a lantern anywhere. Dead silence. Suddenly a huge wolf stood in front of me. Frozen with fear, I stood motionless. Then a torch shone in my face.
The wolf was a German Shepherd. Behind the torch was a border guard with a rifle, asking for my papers. And where to at such a late hour. With my pulse up to my neck, I was able to give him the address of a girlfriend in the neighbourhood.
He bought the story of a lost lover and let me go. That put an end to my plans to escape over the Wall.
How To Diaries is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tjannot.substack.com/subscribe
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By Tommy H. JannotSlowly but surely I'm getting calluses on my fingers. Almost like when I play the guitar. Only in different places.
Where they come into contact with pins, screws and nuts after hours of fiddling with bakelite plugs. And the smell of old paper bags and stale air. And the constant rattling.
How To Diaries is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Jürgen wants to know why I chose the long way round the prison. I remember 'Gerhard Gösebrecht' by Udo Lindenberg and tell him about my encounter with a 'spaceship' in the spring of 1983 (see Thursday, January 12, 1984).
I had given up on the shortest route over the Wall after a frightening shock therapy in the summer of 1983.
A year earlier, in the spring of 1982, I had been on a 'tour of Germany' with my best friends. We were going to hitchhike to East Berlin. But we ended up in Hennigsdorf in the west of East Germany, on the border with West Berlin.
We camped there for three days and nights in a green area without being checked by anyone.
This led me to conclude that the provincial section of the Wall was perhaps less heavily guarded than the urban section in the East.
A year later I put this to the test and hitchhiked to Falkensee, south-west of Hennigsdorf. There I walked in a north-easterly direction. It was getting dark.
A dirt path in the woods led nowhere. Not a lantern anywhere. Dead silence. Suddenly a huge wolf stood in front of me. Frozen with fear, I stood motionless. Then a torch shone in my face.
The wolf was a German Shepherd. Behind the torch was a border guard with a rifle, asking for my papers. And where to at such a late hour. With my pulse up to my neck, I was able to give him the address of a girlfriend in the neighbourhood.
He bought the story of a lost lover and let me go. That put an end to my plans to escape over the Wall.
How To Diaries is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tjannot.substack.com/subscribe