We waited several days in Brooklyn before we were notified our ship was in and we would leave the next morning. The trip is whole new story.
We had waited four days at Fort Hamilton for our ship to be ready for us. Finally we were told to have our bags packed and ready to be picked up by 7:00 a.m. the next day, have breakfast over and ready to board buses by 8:00. We got up at 5:00 to get everything ready and the morning was a typical Army morning, hurry up and wait. We finally got on the ship in time for lunch. Then we tried to get settled in our cabins. Doug and Diane took naps and David spent the afternoon sitting in the porthole watching the tugs nudge the ship out of the channel into the big waters. Afterward he went to sleep and was still sleeping when it was time to go down to eat so I let him sleep. When we returned he was still sleeping so I left him and put the other children in the tub. Soon I heard a small voice saying, "Mommy, I am so sick" and I turned to see that it is really true, you do turn green when you are seasick. I started to hold his head and then said, "Move over, son" and the sickness I had been feeling all day could not be denied any longer. The next morning none of us got up for breakfast and when the steward came in to clean the cabin he found us. I could not put my feet on the floor without getting sick, David did not feel too bad and Doug and Diane were fine. At noon a steward took David and Doug down to eat and brought food back for Diane. He told me that David got sick at the table but they took his plateaway and brought him another and he was fine. That night they tried the same thing and shortly brought David back up to me and said that if he kept going down everyone at the table was going to be sick. David got in bed with me and said, "But I am still hungry."
The next day I could get up but still could not eat. I found out the hard way that crackers and apples would stay down. I lived on them the entire ship trip, while all the other people were talking about the great food on the ship. The children were fine until about seven days out and Doug kept having a sore throat. I took him down to sick bay and finally the doctor told me he had channel fever and would be fine when we docked in Bremerhaven. Well, the 10th day he did not feel like going down to breakfast and I left him in bed and took the other two. Down there the talk was about the little black boy with the Measles. I came back and checked Doug and sure enough, he had a rash. They put him in the hospital on the ship. When we docked that night they insisted we had to put him in the military hospital that night. By the time we completed the paperwork, Diane was screaming in our stateroom, David was really clinging to me and I was supposed to go to the hospital to sign Doug's papers. Some friends on the ship took Diane for the rest of the night and David and I rode in the ambulance with Doug to the hospital, where he was put in isolation.
The next day we were assigned a room on the third floor of a walkup hotel and I called Orville. He said he would take leave and be up the next day. He arrived and went to see Doug right away. They would let him see Doug as he had been away for so long, but I couldn't. Then Orville went to see about the car and found it could be picked up the next day. He extended his leave an extra day, arranged for Doug to get out of the hospital and three days later we all left for Heidelberg.
When we got to Heidelberg we were placed in a two-story German home which had been taken from the owners for the Americans to use. We shared this large house with two other families. In those days the Army furnished all of us with a fulltime maid. Ours was a 65 year old named Kate who openly did not like children. She did a great job with the house and ironing, even ironed the underwear. She would not do laundry but had found a washfrau named Marta Galla to do our laundry. About two weeks into our stay there was an Officers' Wives Club luncheon and our commander's wife said she would pick me up. I told Katie she should do nothing but watch the children that afternoon. I came home and she met me at the door and said, "Frau Eckberg, I will never watch your children again." It seems she thought the ironing had to be done and she locked the children in their bedroom. There was a sink in the bedroom and they found out how much fun it was to turn the water on and put their hands over the faucet. It was a mess. I fired her that day but she had done me a real favor. Marta needed a parttime job so I hired her to work three days a week, and babysit when I needed her and she could have fulltime pay. Marta and her family were jewels and remained friends as long as she lived.
Our apartment was across the Neckar River from the Old Castle and every year when they had the illumination of the castle we always had a big party as it was such a beautiful sight. After we had lived there about a year and a half the Army quarters in what they called "Little America" were finished and we were told we had to move to them. It was while we lived there that Doug was hit by a German truck and had his leg severely injured. He was in the hospital for many weeks. He had to have extensive skin grafts and rehab but was extremely fortunate he did not lose his leg or the feeling in it.
When we were ready to come home, the doctors told us that Doug should not travel by ship as he might injure his leg so we were to fly home. I had always been terrified of the thought of flying, (and by this time of ship travel, too). The day we got on the plane and they said to fasten your seatbelts I thought I was going to have a heart attack but I did not think I should let the children know how I felt. That was a great trip, even though it took 18 hours, with a stop in Newfoundland for refueling, (or was it Iceland?). I have loved flying ever since.
