Festival of Lights in Berlin photo !!

[Sequoia]

Hey Berliners!! Have fun!

From SF Gate Day in Pictures

[jmowreader]

1. Why did I click on that? Now I feel sad...

I miss Berlin so.

How hard is it for Americans to buy summer homes in Germany?

[BelleCarolinaPeridot]

2. When you find out let me know.

I want a summer home near Steinhuder Meer.

[Sequoia]

3. Is Berlin your home?

I'd like to visit some day. My dad was in WWII and said it was a most beautiful country. What's the holiday all about? What do you like about Berlin?

[jmowreader]

4. I was stationed there for six great years

I liked everything about Berlin.

One of these days I need to break down and scan some of the "nighttime" photos I took over there. I got into this phase for about six months where I would go out at night and take photographs. Most people who take night photos open their lenses up all the way and shoot super fast film so they can get their exposure times down. I was shooting Agfapan 25--extremely fine-grain film--in a Mamiya RB-67 with the lens stopped down to F/16. I bracketed my exposures--one minute, three minutes and five minutes. Now this is the important part: When I was doing it, Berlin had a population of about three million people, and the RB-67 was worth about $1500. You can easily buy a used car for that much money. Name another city in the world of that size, or even a hundredth of that size, where you can go out with a used car in a gym bag and KNOW you're going to get home with it.

[Sequoia]

6. I wanted to be stationed there.

I was in the air force but stayed stuck in Washington state. Bummer. Did you see the Red Baron's grave while you were there. It was in East Berlin right beside the Wall (acutally a fence).

[jmowreader]

7. No, but I saw a lot of OTHER things...

This "staying stuck in Washington State" thing you refer to...you weren't at Fairchild, by any chance?

[Sequoia]

8. You betcha'...SAC !

A number of years after I left I read about that pilot who crashed a plane, and a madman runnnig through the hospital dorm. I think the B52s are no longer there but I don't know. I didn't like it in winter at all. Summer's were okay but that sun staying out until 10pm was weird.

[jmowreader]

9. I grew up about 60 miles east of there

I remember one year we were going out to the air show when the sky got REAL dark...yes, that was the year Mt. St. Helens blew.

[Sequoia]

10. I remember reading about that!

And how the ash drifted all over the state and the troops at Fairchild had to help shovel it away. I didn't know the air show was scheduled the day it happened. Those were fun shows and all kinds of military people would come to the base from all over the world actually, and I remember having a big party by the hangers. What I liked about that area was the wheat fields when the wind blew, it was like a golden ocean and I still have photos of those fields.

[foxfeet]

5. Schoen!

Lived in Hamburg for a year. I miss the swans on the canals, the thatched-roof houses, and moonlight on the Alster.