Dads stories

Chief of Police.

The story re the chief of police had a few other twists and turns. In 1947 (before we lived in his house) both of my sisters, Maria and Gretchen, had worked hard to collect a sack of potatoes from a field which had already been harvested and this crook seized it.
Our next door neighbour one day yelled across the fence and threatened to turn in this Chief of Police….”there was a woman one day who was fallen out of your window”. He was speaking about the aunt of the Police chief, who was the actual owner of the house. She was washing the first floor windows in the apartment when she allegedly “fell” onto the courtyard. The neighbour saw it happen. The aunt was never seen again…she was refused entry into the house.
I myself was nailing shut the crates we were taking overseas when the landlord (Police Chief) came into our empty apartment. He ordered me to stop the noise. When I told him to leave my home and threatened to call the police, he sneered and threatened: “I have the power to stop you from migrating”.
A few years later he hanged himself. Unfortunately too late for us!
But, had he not existed, we most likely would not have migrated to Australia. Sometimes the worst things that happen to you turn out to be the best. You do something about it, you find the energy. And not to be living here in Australia is for us unthinkable.
Footnote from Inge:
I remember my first encounter with this man. I went along when Mum and Dad visited him to enquire about the apartment which was to let. I believe my Grandmother had seen that the curtains had been taken down and told Mum that there was an empty apartment in the city. I can remember sitting in a big leather armchair and being told how wonderful life would be if we moved in. He talked about the lovely back yard and how much room there would be to play. And shortly after we moved in we were told that children were not allowed into the backyard and that all Mum was allowed to do there was hang up her washing! The only redeeming thing was that his wife was very nice and friendly to us. And he had a daughter much older than me who sometimes looked after me at night. And smuggled me into the pub across the road where I sat at the counter and ate rissoles!!

posted by Inge @ 11:18 pm