The Nazi's are Coming!

OK OK! Before you freak out, let me start with some back-story!

When we were little,  my mom's little brother, Uncle Tracy and his wife; Aunt Lisa lived two hours away from us.  It made for some fabulous memories and weekends!  While Aunt Lisa and Uncle Tracy have 7 beautiful babies,  the memories I have are of the 4 oldest.  They eventually moved to Germany leaving our relationships to hand written letters and homemade friendship bracelets.  Marie, Matthew,  LuLu and Emma.  Together with J Bean, E and myself we didn't need much entertainment other than a front or backyard and the occasional meal.

Small tangent! My Dad is somewhat of a history encyclopedia.  Ask him what happened on a specific day and he could spout off a list of ten things and then wonder why you couldn't do the same.  I'm still certain that if he went on Jeopardy he’d be a winner.  One does not become an encyclopedia without the help of reading and watching LOTS of history channel. This means WE got to watch a lot of history channel!

The combination of weekends together and the history channel seemed to be the perfect recipe for the creation of the perpetual game of the Nazi’s are coming!  Somehow 7 children and 2 dads ended up in the living room watching a riveting documentary about Nazi Germany while the Momma's made dinner.  I don't remember anything I learned from what I watched about the Nazi's I do remember the 7 of us doing our best to reenact history.  Marie and Jillian would usually be the frightened mother's of LuLu, Me, baby Emma and E.  Matthew would be a Nazi.  At first it started as a glorified neighborhood game of hide and seek.  But as the weeks progressed the plot would change.

On the particular game day of this vivid memory we were at my house in Pleasanton.  Our parents sent us outside to play in the yard.  We met in the garage to set the premise for the day's game.  All of us would be running from the Nazi's today and it was the middle of winter.  We dressed up to go out in the pretend "bitta cold." We prepped the little red wagon with blankets and put all our babies and scraps of food to take on our journey through the streets in search of refuge.  We lived on a fairly long street and were lucky enough to grow up knowing almost all of our neighbors who seemed to be pretty tolerant of the noisy children always playing outside.  

The 7 of us set off down the street yelling on the top of our lungs "The Nazi's are coming!  The Nazi's are coming!" Warning all the neighbors, I mean towns people of the arrival.  Bushes became cellars and woods while neighbors became the Nazi's.  Good old friendly Fritz, I know what you're thinking, this has GOT to be a made up name of your neighbor.  No! No! This is really his name.  Well, Fritz was outside gardening and the teenaged boy who lived next door was washing his car.  On the one hand, they might have thought it was funny.  There is also the great possibility they wondered what on earth we were watching on TV!  All I know is to this day I laugh every time I think about it.  Here’s a pretty picture. 7 barefoot children dressed in baby blankets and bonnets,  running down the streets of Pleasanton, CA in the 90’s with a wagon full of dolls, pretending to be in an era of terror and mass genocide.  I am forever grateful for my understanding neighbors and parents for providing an environment that was conducive to pretend scary rather than real.