It is the summer of 1981 in the very small town of Kleingemund, which is opposite the town of Neckargemund on the other side of the river Neckar. The river then flows down the mountain and through Heidelberg, which at this time is in West Germany. The author Mark Twain stayed in Heidelberg in the late 19th century and wrote his fairy tale about Huckleberry Finn, and it is an open secret that the word Heidelberg translated into English means “huckleberry”. Anyway, my sister Hekla and I went swimming with mom on a sunny Saturday afternoon. Back in those days the families took blankets and packed lunches, when they went to the swimming pool. Everyone sat on blankets in the grass by the pool sunbathing and eating packed lunches or ice cream, and then went to the cool swimming pool to cool down. As the day goes on and we are sitting on the blanket, my mom notices that a group of young men are staring at us quite often. Mom didn’t know if they were looking at her or at us kids, perhaps we were dirty in the face or maybe something was wrong. She couldn’t find anything wrong with us that could explain the guys interest in us, until she looked at them and then looked behind us. Behind us was a young beautiful German girl sunbathing, not a care in the world and topless. Well there came the explanation, my mother knew what was going on and felt that then everything was as it should be. Boys with an interest in beautiful topless girl the oldest story in the book. No more worries for mom, the sun was shining and the children got to swim and eat. Everything was ok and it was a good day to be alive.
