Trilby's Friend Comments

Thanks. Happy New Year to you as well! We are in the third week of terrible cold. Hope it's warmer where you are.

Happy New Year, Trilby - all the best for 2014!

Oh my! Well, obviously I didn't rectify that update notification!

Did you find out any more about your Dad's book being sold?

Congratulations on your finishing and publishing the book - how wonderful to see you now listed as an author - I wish you every success with it!

So much happened in two years (we moved to Singapore at the end of 2011) and we are on holiday again in Reit im Winkl for a few weeks.

Wishing you all the best in health and happiness with 2013, Trilby.

Perhaps you saw in Ceridwen's latest review that my dad's self-published memoir is being offered for sale on amazon.com.

I can't believe it! He gave away 200+ copies, and I gave away some when cleaning out my parents' house in 2009, and left the remaining 12 boxes for the new owner to recycle. I wonder if these people are selling any of these copies--for $21 a pop.

My dad would be thrilled; my mind is boggled. Truth to tell, none of us in the immediate family read through all of the two volumes. We had heard these tales of personal mythology many time before.

'Hope you had a safe journey to Deutschland.

Hah! You just popped up on Ceridwen's thread and I thought I'd check to see if you had answered and here you are, and guess what?!?!?! I've finally discovered why your responses don't show in my feed, and rectified this. So now there won't be such a long gap between your reply and me passing by :D.

We're heading back to our little village near Muenchen tomorrow (via Singapore) and I think (because everything is still unknown) we'll be there for 6 months. I'll keep you posted :).

Yes, I've met people here in Australia that had never been elsewhere. And my family in Italy: most of them had not been as far as Vicenza (from the village in the hills above Vicenza) except on school outings to Venice or a one-off business trip to Milan. A few of the boys had done military service elsewhere in Italy, but other than that...

Wow, I'm so impressed that you have researched, penned and are now finishing that wonderful history. It's very important to keep these experiences alive - much more compelling to read personal experiences about the past, I find, even if disguised as fiction. Your forebears are true survivors and you have a rich seam to mine. I wish you every success with the publisher and look forward to seeing your novel in print.

Wow, you sure get around. It's great that you can experience all those cultures and landscapes. Let me know where your next home will be.

Excluding university towns, I've lived in only three cities, Pittsburgh, Duluth, and Minneapolis. However, I had a student who at 23, hadn't gotten out of the Twin Cities metro, not even visiting Wisconsin, a half-hour's drive away. Amazing.

Speaking of family stories. . .I haven't mentioned yet that my Great-Grandfather Busch was killed in the Homestead Strike of 1892. He had gotten instant citizenship by joining the US Navy during the Civil War, serving as a fireman. Out of work (and with 11 children), he took the job of restarting the furnaces at the mill. Irish unionist saboteurs set a furnace to explode. He and three other men were killed.

The outcome of the strike was that hundreds of men lost their jobs at Carnegie Steel, and Carnegie and Frick succeeded in busting unions until the late 1930s.

My Grandfather Busch eventually became superintendent of the machine shop at the Works. My dad was obsessed with the strike, writing his senior paper at Pitt on it. I picked up the obsession, and in 2003, started researching an historical novel on the Strike.

Last summer I finished the novel, and am now, after getting feedback, writing the final revision before sending it to a Pittsburgh publisher for review.

Whenever I work on it, it seems like I go back in space and time. My great-grandfather is a character, and I've tried to use as many family stories as I can remember. It's been a long haul, but very satisfying. Much have I traveled in the realms of gold or silver, or whatever metaphor you want to use for writing.

Best wishes for a happy New Year with more wonderful people and places to see.

Hi Trilby, I just dropped by to wish you every happiness for 2011 and found your message from Dec 7!

Until a week ago, we lived the last 3 years in Cairo, Egypt, before that, 3 years in Holland. I'm not sure where we will be after the visit to Australia - it depends on work situations, but could be Duesseldorf, Muenchen, London or Bahrain.

I grew up in an era in Australia when being a 'wog' was automatic if you had either or both parents of a non-Australian nationality. I think in recent years Australia has emerged to have a more distinct culture of its own, but I left when I was still relatively malleable and have lived in many parts of the world. I don't notice the cultural differences as much when I go home because it's usually to visit family. And I enjoy the climate contrast because of the different sport - skiing in the snow, snorkelling in the sea.

Your family history sounds wonderful and poignant and deserves to be recorded. How lovely that you have been able to reclaim that connection. I'm always amazed and awed at how roots develop in one country and spread to another and in some cases return or go in a new direction. Travel makes cross-cultural relationships much more likely and will lead to more and more interaction between different cultures, although parents suffer when the offspring depart for new lands. I'm glad that for us at least, it is a matter of personal choice, although for many people it is a matter of necessity because of conflict in their own homelands. One day, hopefully, those conflicts will cease to be a reason for wandering.

It's wonderful that you can spend the holidays in Germany and Australia--although there must be a marked contrast between their cultures and climates.
You have family all over the world--very cosmopolitan. I gather that you don't live in the US. The UK?

I have relatives in Lithuania (whom we lost contact with--long story) and relatives in Wales/UK(whom I haven't tracked down yet).

'Scary story about your Italian grandfather having to change his name. Wanting to assimilate, many immigrants to the US in the 19th century anglicized their names by choice. It's just as well our name was changed from Pösch, as folks would probably pronounce it "posh." My great-grandfather became an instant US citizen by agreeing to serve in the US Navy during the Civil War.

My grandfather Busch had "lost" his father's family in Germany until WWII. Hanne's father Max was captured by the British during the Battle of Monte Casino and got sent to a work camp in Alabama, where he became fluent in English. My grandfather didn't dare go see him, as he might have wound up in a camp himself. After the war, the Red Cross contacted my grandfather, asking him to send donations to his starving relatives in Weißenstadt. We sent boxes of clothes, with cigarettes tucked in the pockets to sell for cash. That was the beginning of the reconnection, which continues with Hanne and her children.

Und sprechen ist auch noch viel leichter. Danke schoen - aber fuer jemanden der nicht so oft Deutsch spricht, schreibst Du auch wunderbar.

Ich war in Duesseldorf wohnhaft fuer 4 Jahren.

My relatives live in Australia, Italy and the UK. My partner's relatives are in Germany. Christmas alternates between Brisbane and Haiger. But we have a very small apartment in Reit im Winkl, so that is home when we are in Germany (not often).

Muenchen isn't far from Weissenstadt; I had to google it to find the location. Spas are something we still have to explore. You must be looking forward to Hanne's visit. My English family has never been to Australia (apart from 1 cousin) and no-one from my Italian family.

Name anglicisation seems to have been quite intense in the US, correct? I know in Australia my grandfather's name became Johnny, from Giovanni. He also had to rescind his nationality or face incarceration in a POW camp in the north of Australia during WW2. I guess given the date of your great-grandfather's emigration, your family would have been integrated before this became an issue? Or did it never occur in the US?

Für mich es ist leichter zu lesen als zu schreiben.:) Du kanst ja gut schreiben.
You have relatives all over Deutschland--lucky you.

My great-grandfather, Johann Paulus Pösch emigrated from Weißenstadt in 1864; the US Immigration people changed the name to Busch. The people still in the town (near the Czech border)are descendants of his brother. Hanne is also a Weißenstaedter, but was assigned to Rottweil by the German school system.

My last visit in Weißenstadt was in '05, when I was at a conference in Prague, about two hours away. We checked out local sites like the spas, the Festspeilhaus, usw, and drank a lot of white wine. Hanne and her husband Otto will be coming to Minnesota next August.

English it is, then (oder wenn Du (Danke) mal moechtest ein Bisschen auf Deutsch zu reden ist es kein Thema).

Do you visit often? We have family in Duesseldorf, Nord-Rhein Westfalen, also near Muenchen, Bayern and in Haiger, Hessen. Christmas this year is in Haiger, New Year in Reit im Winkl on the German-Austrian border.

G N wrote: "You like WB Yeats?!?!?! Me, too. Thanks for the add, Trilby.

Sprichst Du/Sprechen Sie (Ich weiss es nicht ob man sich jetzt sofort Duzen oder Siezen soll) immer noch Deutsch, oder lieber Englisch?"

Ich habe nicht Deutsch für eine lange Zeit gesprochen. Ich habe Verwandten in Deutschland, einige in Weißenstadt, Bayern (Stammsitz) und auch Rottweil, Swabia.
My cousin Hanne in Rottweil is an English teacher, so we usually stick to English on the phone and during visits.
PS "Du" is fine.

You like WB Yeats?!?!?! Me, too. Thanks for the add, Trilby.

Sprichst Du/Sprechen Sie (Ich weiss es nicht ob man sich jetzt sofort Duzen oder Siezen soll) immer noch Deutsch, oder lieber Englisch?