Schweinersdorfer Verwandtschaft - Geschichten_en_v3

Relatives from Schweinersdorf *

My father was an agriculture teacher, and in his heart, remained always a farmer. He used to walk a lot with us kids and explained, while we played school, about the plants and animals that we had seen or found along the way. We spent hours together hunting mushrooms in the forest and gathering potatoes in the field at Thalbacher street behind our house, or in the small-scale potato field at the vocational school in Moosburg, where he was the principal. We flew kites, and every year, at the end of the summer vacation, we went to Aunt Mali and Uncle Hans's farm in Baumgarten, and helped with the hop harvest.


I have the most beautiful memories linking me to Schweinersdorf.This would have taken place in the years from 1967-1979. At that time, my grandparents, Maria and Georg Wiesheu, Aunt Resi, my Godmother, Uncle Schoß, and my cousins, Mary, Monica, Reserl and Georg all lived on the farm. In addition to the current farmer, there were also Binn Resi, Resi's aunt, who leant a hand with child care, Anne Stadler, the cowhand who took care of the milking, and also her husband and four sons, Miche, Pauli, Martin and Bartl living on the farm. The farm hand family had the second floor apartment.

We did not have a farm. We were city kids, but because my father came from Schweinersdorf, and he had a very intimate relationship with his hometown, siblings and relatives; we were there on many Sundays and holidays and often visitied for lunch.
Weather permitting, we children spent most of the time outdoors. The adults sat in the living room, and entertained themselves indoors playing cards. We also frequently took the short walk to the family grave in the nearby cemetary. Grandpa had his place in the rocking chair between the stove and the sofa. There he sat, among his descendants, and puffed his cigar with relish. I remember the ashtray piled high with brightly colored cigar bands.
And when the weather was at all bad, we played games in the big house, like: ''Who's afraid of the black man?", ''Fisherman, how deep is the water?'', or ''Don't turn around, the fox is coming!''. We sometimes played leap frog and suddenly I was the goat (being leaped) and collapsed under the weight of the springer, banging my head on the stone floor. I had a huge bump on my head and a terrible headache. I was tired of leap frog. Never again!

One summer, we were in the hayloft jumping from the rafters into the hay. My sister, Gabi, lost her sandals in the hay. We searched and searched, but couldn't find them, so we went into the house. Our grandmother told us to pray to St. Anthony, who helps when you have lost something. Wonder of wonders, we actually found the sandals!

Whenever we visited Schweinersdorf, the prayer bells rang at the church at 6 o'clock in the evening. Then we had to come in, and we all prayed together in the parlor to the Angel of the Lord. We usually went home soon after. Before we left, grandmother went into her bedroom and slipped us children hazelnut or dark chocolate.

Written down in October, 2012 by Irmi Schaffer, born Wiesheu (*1961), Moosburg
Translation by Maximilian Grötsch and Peggy Chong

*The name of the village "Schweinersdorf" originates from "Schwanhildendorf", where „Schwanhilde" is a female name. The swan is still in the coat of arms of the gun club in Schweinersdorf.

e10040_SI_Schweinsdorfer_Relatives_en_21Mai14_revjar