My earliest memories all involve being hungry and the fear of going without food. We were starving.

After WWII ended, Mom, my brother and I we lived in Russian occupied East Germany. Russian soldiers did not treat civilians well, especially women. But they never bothered children. My brother and I would go on walks. He was six and I was three. Mom instructed him to always hold my hand.

My brother was fully aware of our serious food situation and took it upon himself to help feed the family.

Unbeknownst to our mother, my resourceful brother used those walks as an opportunity to get food. As we were walking, my brother was on the lookout for anyone, who looked like they could not run fast, and was walking a small dog. Usually, it was an old lady with her little dog that became our target.

My job was to engage the old lady. Invariably, the cute-blond-kid trick worked. The lady would talk to me, and maybe stroke my head. Meanwhile, my brother would pet the dog, making sure it was friendly. Once the lady was fully engaged in a conversation with me, my brother would pick up the dog and sprint away with it. When he was out of sight, that was my signal to run after him as fast as I could.

My brother would then find a middleman, usually a boy around 16, and trade the dog for something valuable. The most common items traded for the dog were cigarettes, a cereal-like of coffee, and socks. All those items were scarce and valuable. He then traded them for provisions. Much of the economy was on the barter system at the time. Cigarettes, in particular, were more valuable than cash. Survival is a powerful instinct. My brother knew the dogs would become fido-burgers, but having something to eat was more important to him than the fate of the dogs.

The above story never made it into my memoir. Had I included all stories, the book could have been useful for weightlifting. I am posting this story to remind people how blessed we are to live in this country. Those who complain about our country, and want to change it drastically, by dancing with socialists and Marxists, have always had the basics of life. They have never experienced true need. We who have experienced starvation, fear, socialism, Marxism, and Nazism, even while young, know that those forms of government lead to tyranny, genocide and want.

If you want to read the stories that did make it into the book get your copy here!