Stanford Student Letters and Memoirs

19.4.60

Dear Folks,

Well here I am back on The Burg, here to stay for about a week, until we leave for Berlin next Tuesday evening. I'll probably spend Friday in Stuttgart shopping and thus getting set to mail lots of stuff home, probably ship just a suitcase full of clothes (since shipping takes anywhere from 3 weeks to 3 months, and I want my gifts on arrival, not in September). Whatever I mail I'll write to tell you about, and give directions as to opening, etc. The rest of the week goes to STUDYING, and hard!

Got 3 letters from you today - your Easter card, a newsy letter from Mom (you're a wonderful correspondent Mom, and I really appreciate the frequent letters) and an "enclosure" letter full of goodies. I really love the track coverage, so keep it coming. And I hope the meet this June works out as it should be terrific. Incidentally, how are jobs lining up? Can I write Mrs. Craven? I can begin work on the 13th as I imagine you have figured - hope you can tell me something definite soon. The $100 arrived in good order and will help a lot. I forgot about the 220 voltage problem here so may have to buy the projector in the U.S. (will check this Friday); if so I will save the $40 to buy it with. As to coming home, I'll be writing the travel agent in the next day or so, so get yours $403 ready! May take off from Frankfurt direct, instead of from Stuttgart and connecting at Frankfurt as planned. The cost is the same, and it would be easier in our return trip from Vienna because Mary Jeanette (who is driving us to Vienna) meets her folks' plane in Frankfurt on the same day as I leave. This won't affect the S.F. end, but might be easier for me over here.

Our last day in France was a pleasant sunny one most of the way - it rained some on the way home, east of Nancy, but that didn´t bother us a bit. I had just a couple of hours more to wander in Paris for which I had saved the immediate area of our hotel. I think I mentioned that we stayed in the Latin Quarter (i.e. the students quarter around the Sorbonne, where they used to speak Latin) on the Left bank, about 2 blocks from the Seine and Notre Dame (which is incidentally built on an island in the Seine). I walked along the river bank, took several pictures of the wonderful view of the cathedral. Then I went inside for about 1/2 hour, to walk around, as I hadn't done so Sunday. The two rose windows (43 feet in diameter!!) are just beautiful, the architecture both inside and outside quite graceful, lacking only the tall spire of the German gothic. From Notre Dame I went to the Palace of Justice, which has in its courtyard the Saint Chapelle, a small chapel used by Louis IX, which has the most beautiful stained glass windows I've seen anywhere; they are 13th cent. (which is early gothic, early for stained glass) and have unbelievably rich, lush colors, though the figures and scenes are small and detailed less interesting than more modern work (as in the Köln cathedral). This rich colored glass was lost before the 15th cent. (as a production method) and none of the windows since then have this unique beauty.

Went next to the Conciergerie, also in the Palace of Justice, the site of the prisons during the time of the French Revolution of 1789-93. It was here that Marie Antoinette, Robespierre, Danton and thousands of others awaited their death in the blood bath of the guillotine, and I could sense a little better than before the more gruesome reality of the "glorious democratic" revolution. Our ride home was lovely as the ride to Paris had been - beautiful green countryside!

Dinner time. Another letter soon - Lots of love. George

11.4.60

Dear Folks -

I have just a few minutes before afternoon tea to write, but since nothing very special has happened this week, and as time is very scarce, I'm going to try it.

Studies started right off at full blast and are a great deal heavier than last quarter. There are appeals being made to reduce the load a little, but as long as the work continues to be as interesting as it has so far, I don't mind the added work. Last quarter was not as stimulating intellectually as I had hoped (largely because the kids didn't put out much, but also because the professors expected so little), and it looks much better this time. Dr. Tarshus in economics is especially terrific, both as a teacher and as a person; he has a very interesting wife (Swiss born, speaks fluently English, German, Italian) and a delightful little girl (Tanya, 3 yrs 8 mo., seems much alerter and older than that). Since I've had Econ. 1 before, I'm taking his seminar in International Economics, but am trying to do that reading early in order to do some independent reading under him on the subject on National Income Theory, line up a summer reading program. German this quarter is much more interesting - we're finally done with grammar study, are reading a book of excellent post-war short stories (later part of Goethe's Faust too) and we've had some pretty good discussions on their central meaning, existentialism, etc. The reading is even better than the class discussion though, even with all the effort of looking up words constantly.

Our third course - Medieval and Renaissance World Literature - is off to a good start. Dr. Whittaker has given some good lectures, and the reading list (about 9 books!) is good. So we're going to perhaps accomplish quite a lot, considering we have a total of 23 days of classes in the whole quarter!

We had 6 hours of guest lecture on the history of art - Medieval to Baroque - this past Wed. and Thursday. A lot of valuable information, with slides to illustrate, by a professor from Frankfurt. Also a lecture on the current situation in Berlin, much more on this to come before April 26 when we go there.

This weekend I had planned to stay here, but on hearing that Fraülen Dürfel (one of our German teachers) was arriving to Köln, Mary Ann and I decided to go along. Left Saturday morning and got back about 8 pm Sunday, so it was a really quick trip for so far - but we had both been to Köln before and knew what we wanted to see. Went to 8 AM Palm Sunday mass in the cathedral (not much music, which we had hoped for, but in that church any service is worth attending!) and then spent 2 delightful hours in a park on the shore of the Rhine (about a mile long, 1/4 mile wide, with acres of lawns, groves of trees, etc) enjoying the most beautiful moments of spring - the blooming tulips and pansies and many, many other varieties. Colorful and lovely beyond words. Then while Mary Ann climbed the cathedral tower, I spent another in the modern art museum which Bridge and I had seen so briefly. The trip both ways was beautiful, with the fruit trees in bloom and the new green bursting out everywhere. Miles of rolling hills, half farmland, half forest, on a very fine 4 lane autobahn all the way.

And next week we'll be in Paris for Easter (going by car! saves money!) at Notre Dame! Golly how the time flies past. Sorry this was so hurried. Lots of love George

3.3.60

Dear Folks,

Well, it wasn't Switzerland, but it was surely beautiful. The Black Forest is not really high mountain country like the Swiss Alps or the Sierras - you see very little granite or sheer rock of any kind. Instead it's more like high rolling hills covered with thick stands of pines, with occassional deep river gorges cutting through the country. There are many high grassy meadows sloping sometimes right up to the pines. But never a craggy snow-capped peak which we usually associate with mountains. And yet the smell of the pines and the clear, fresh air, and the ever present rushing mountain streams are so familiar, even more present than in American mountain country.

We left Saturday noon by train from Stuttgart, after a morning of errands and shopping - a tripod for my camera ($5) and maps and guide book for our vacation trip ($10!). We didn't really plan a train schedule, but just sort of made connections as they came along. We stayed in each place until ready to go, then headed for the next. Our route, if you have a map: Stuttgart, Eutingen, Hausach, Triberg (long stop), St. Georgen, Villingen, Titisee (2nd long stop), Freiburg (3rd long stop). Then on Tuesday we came directly back from Freiburg: Titisee, Villingen, Rottweil, Eutingen, Stuttgart (a 4 3/4 hour trip, much slower on the way down, what with breaks + detours).

Triberg is a beautiful little town, wedged in the winding gorge cut by a rushing stream over the centuries. The main stream runs through the center of town (at one edge is Germany's highest waterfall, not particularly more beautiful than many other parts of the stream), and also countless other small streams and rivulets which feed into the large. Everywhere the sound of water - rushing, tumbling, roaring, pounding, or trickling, rippling, gliding easily - is present as background music, so that the scenery is heard as well as seen.

Saturday night in Triberg we went to a party in one of the large hotels; for this was Fasching weekend, the four days of constant party and gayiety which climax the pre-Lenten carnival season. During these 4 days people wear wild costumes (like ours of Halloween, but really fancy sometimes) and never seem to sleep. The party we went to was really fairly quiet - (1) because about 1/3 of it was American a group on a weekend bus trip from Frankfurt, and (2) because the really gay celebrations go on in the large cities - especially Mainz, Köln, Munich. Still it was fun - polkas and fast waltzes and even a little jitterbug - singing and laughing, etc. We gave up at about 10 to get some sleep, but I'm sure the party went on far into the morning hours. We spent the morning walking through the town and the forest overlooking it - it was really wonderful to be out in the woods again, to feel the earth and leaves underfoot.

Titisee was even better than Triberg. It is very much a resort town, on the shore of a lovely lake, with both thick pine forests and meadows with small farms surrounding it. But this is the off season - many of the hotels and chateaus looked almost closed and the streets were empty and quiet, the paths and roads around the lake quiet and undisturbed by cars or crowds. In summer I can imagine it would be ghastly, but right now it's great. We spent Monday morning on a 5 mile