Ch 5-2 People of Matzicken

The only other guests at the B&B are a German couple, my mother’s age, who lived near Ruß (Rusne) in the Memel River delta.  Russ is just the other side of the big bridge from Heydekrug. Their name is Schwamberg, a family my mother actually knew!  Her neighbors in Groß Grabuppen were also named Schwamberg.  They’re actually related. How absolutely bizarre! All these years later and there they are.  Oma Redetzki had a big fight with neighbor Schwamberg, but then she had fights with everybody. Old Schwamberg was a mean and nasty neighbor, Mom tells me. An historic feud like the Hatfields and McCoys?  Brumpreisch – Schwamberg doesn’t quite have the same melodic ring to it.

 It didn’t take long for me to discover this current day Schwamberg to be pompous and arrogant, worse a German who belittles the Lithuanians. This guy is a retired truck driver who for years brought in transports of used, unwanted clothing discarded by Germans. We learn from locals he always made it very clear he did this as a favor since they were desperate, poor communist people.  And he certainly did flaunt his magnanimous nature.  The Petrvicienes were civil and friendly to him; after all, he and his wife are regular, paying guests.  But, as we learn, they despise him. Even with a language barrier his arrogance doesn’t go unnoticed. Worse the clothing he gifted them was garbage.

I found him and his politics so unbearable that one morning at breakfast I got very angry.  I simply couldn’t bear to listen to him spew forth complete and utter rubbish about everything! He almost put me off my delicious breakfast! I seriously made an attempt to be a courteous, amiable American, but just couldn’t endure his rudeness and right wing politics and told him off. And this type just can’t keep their views to themselves. What an ignorant old goat. 

After the breakfast episode we hardly see him or his wife. Good for us as it now allowed us a pleasant breakfast time and comfortable use of the house and garden. In the back yard is a greenhouse providing fresh tomatoes every day for breakfast.  We eat them in peaceful quiet.  It surely irked him to come home in the evenings and find us drinking and laughing with our hosts in the kitchen or living room. He, himself, had never been invited in to their private quarters for any reason.

Emilijia is a retired chemist who worked at the local distillery where they make schnapps.  Her husband is also retired.  Due to the collapse of the country’s economy their retirement incomes were reduced, so they opened a bed and breakfast. They catch quite a bit of the German tourist trade.

There are three bedrooms upstairs in the house for guests and they are remodeling the upstairs over the garage into an apartment to also rent to tourists, suited to families. In recent years the Baltic States became a choice holiday destination for Germans and other Europeans looking for inexpensive vacation spots. Western Europe is pricey and crowded. Sadly it is a long journey from America and you can’t fly direct, otherwise they might get more U.S. traffic.  The other problem is how many Americans even heard of the Baltic States – Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia? Of the three, Lithuania has the most immigrants to the U.S. coming right after World War II.  Are their children and grandchildren interested?  Probably not, typical of the children of immigrants. The current President of the country is a Lithuanian-American who returned to lead the country in the post-communist era. 

And who in their right mind wants to vacation where the sea is ice cold?  Not Americans who eye destinations like Cancun and Florida.  Too bad because exchange rates are great, local populations love Americans (except for that American President of Lithuania now in disfavor as the glow has worn off) and historic sites are virtually untouched for 60 years. Unfortunately this area doesn't have the glamour of a long line of movies and books. And no occupying American troops interacting with the locals. Really, who can you impress by saying “Oh we’re spending a week in Vilnius” or “I got my tan at the beach in Palanga”.

Kurische Nehrung

Among my mother’s photos are her and her cousins sitting on the beach on the windblown Baltic Sea and loving it. The guy is in a bathing suit but the women are in dresses, dark nylons and high heeled shoes!  My mother’s explanation is that they wanted to look good.  Must have been hardier back then than we are with central heating and air conditioning.  Another problem on these beaches is that Germans change on the beach, somewhat hidden by a large beach towel. I’d see German families this do at the beach owned by the German club in suburban Detroit when I was growing up. I was horrified! They were taking off their clothes in public!  You could see elbows and limbs poking into the towel in a struggle get clothes off and squeeze on a bathing suit.  After a day of water fun had to reverse the struggle and get out of a wet suit.

We soon meet a close friend of Emilje, Ellie, an ethnic German. Her family chose to stay in Heydekrug after the war; they managed to survive first the hardships of Red Army occupation, and life as a hated minority.  Life was very hard in the post war Soviet occupied zones, for all the residents, harder for these Germans.  They faced constant discrimination at school and jobs. But Ellie had a marvelous sense of humor and a great store of jokes. We enjoyed her company even having dinner at her apartment.   She married twice, the second time taking her to Chicago. With the death of her second husband in America she determined it was either a financial struggle in America or a comfortable life in Lithuania. She chose the later, but regularly visits her doctor son in Indiana.  The other son works for the Kaunas Chamber of Commerce in Lithuania. It was unclear why her doctor son couldn’t help her out financially so she could at least live near him.

Ellie took my mother to the local beauty parlor. Mom was delighted at how cheap a cut and style was.  And, of course, a great place to gossip endlessly with the locals, translation by Ellie.  Bits of Lithuanian were coming back to Mom, but not enough to converse.  I think Ellie also explained us to the local population.  We may have been their first Americans.

One evening we invited Emilija to dinner (her husband declined our invitation) to return her hospitality that went beyond that of innkeeper. It isn’t hard to be generous making grand gestures as everything is so inexpensive, and people are genuinely good natured.  Emilija makes arrangements for us to have a private room at a local restaurant owned by a good friend, everyone benefits. They were so pleased for our visit you might have thought we were dignitaries on tour.  I just regret that we were closed off from the regular patrons and couldn’t interact with locals. 

The meal is wonderful, but Emilija seems awkward about guests taking her out.  We’re Americans – we don’t stand on formalities, something she has little experience with.  We don’t have cultural baggage that drags ethnic groups into decades of conflict.