"salute to BerlinWallCrosser perseverance in meming"

***** Salute to both of you!

"B/c Heroes resonates"

Berlin was where it was AT, during the Cold War. Chilling, Spy vs Spy and so much more. Movies and reality. The images from 1961 when JFK allowed the wall to be put up b/c too many Germans were fleeing to the West?!? The German soldier running over the barrier. The windows blocked up on the East side of the wall so they could not even see their relatives waving from the west. The people SHOT in the dead man's zone; the people who tried to escape and some did. Checkpoint Charlie Museum.

Going across the Helmstedt Corridor in a POV. When we had to put all our documents in a bin for the Soviets to review, hoping we got them back again! [The "Helmstedt Corridor" refers to the crucial Cold War transit route connecting West Germany to West Berlin across the former East German border. At its core were Checkpoint Alpha (in the West) and the Marienborn border crossing (in the East).] Seeing the DDR citizens driving in cardboard Trabis while the traffic from West Germany was in Mercedes and BMW and etc. OH the Ossies noticed!

Once on an Army trip we road the train on the corridor; the Soviets went through the cars looking at our papers when we crossed the inner-German border.

Checkpoint Charlie. Due to status of Force agreements, we were allowed to go into East Berlin, in uniform.

We had just left West Berlin, which was beautiful. Markets in the street with flowers and fruits galore! East Berlin had very ugly concrete block housing, the older buildings still pockmarked. NO FLOWERS! Can you imagine a Germany with no flowers?!? Their shops were empty. Their books and paper products were inferior (I still bought some). When we ate there, the spoons for the soup were so light we had to adjust our soup eating approach.

Heroes resonates for the struggle. Some made it, most did not, until 1989/1990.