Diary of Annie's War (17 page)

Carole took her metal things to the call up and told me that she took six bronze candlesticks and got more money for them than they cost twenty-five years ago.

Frau Pastor met us going to the station. She had been to Hildesheim to buy a few things for the winter. She had bought shoes for her son William, similar to the ones I had bought for Arthur last November and had cost me twenty-eight shillings, and they were now sixty-five shillings a pair.

We read that the military are to have shoes for the winter with wooden soles and leather uppers. The people are advised to buy them also. Leather is so short.

We had a letter yesterday from a son of the Stoffregans, brother to Hermenia, and he has a new address and he says that they are waiting for new guns as they lost all theirs on the 8
^th
of this month. Most of his friends were taken prisoners and twelve were shot dead. He has luck has Detrick. He has now twice escaped capture by a very small item.

No war news of any note just to say each night, “Making progress in all directions”. But it never says how much.

The fruit is ripe now and I am very busy during the day. I feel very well again as this air is so pure.

My stay here is getting short and I leave on the 10
^th
or 11
^th
of October. I am busy now getting the house in Wörth Strasse in order.

I had a letter from Arthur saying that he dreads the coming winter for last winter he lived under such very bad circumstances. Also his cough, which he has not had for four years, has returned. I must make him some chest preservers.

I planted our garden (we have three acres of vegetable garden) with oats and potatoes and for the oats I get fourteen shillings and sixpence a hundredweight and for the potatoes I get four shillings a hundredweight. So I have done very well. The fruit is rather difficult to sell and the pear trees are so full. All corn has been called up by the government and you are allowed to keep nine pounds a week for each person and for horses you are allowed three pounds of oats a day. For other cattle you must buy from the miller who gets it from the government. All prices are fixed and eggs must not be more than two pence each and so on. It’s a good idea as it prevents one person buying more than another.

Frau Pastor took her brass and copper kettles, candle-sticks etc. last week and she got seventy-two marks for them. Some have been in the family for a hundred years.

The third war loan is overpaid as everyone has put money into it.

I am much better and go for my last kohlensäure bath next week and have gained two pounds in two weeks.

I have had no news from my people for over two months.
It’s too bad.
It makes me wonder if there is bad news and they will not write it.

We are having lovely weather and the harvest is all in and only a few potatoes are left in the fields. Today is Harvest Thanksgiving so all are at church.

I went to Hildesheim yesterday to arrange about the boiler going away. It is copper and all copper is called up. With so many being called up at once the iron boilers fail for the workers are scarce and you must wait three or four weeks before the copper boiler is replaced.

A police officer called and told me that our house is large enough for six soldiers in quartering so I am sure of having two. Hildesheim has so many military there.

Grebe the agent for the property was here Monday last and said that he could not get half the rent and some people said that they must give up the land for their men fail and they cannot work it themselves.

It is a dreadful time for the poor people and now they are limited to butter at so much per person, as lard and dripping are not to be got. You can go to six or eight shops for flesh and fat and get not one ounce. We have made a lot of jam but it is not good to eat too much. Still it is better than nothing.

Belle came to me with a Frau Degenhart and her sister and the Frau D. would like our place for her son. They were delighted with everything around it.

It is decided that I go tomorrow to Hildesheim and Hermenia goes with me. I don’t know whatever I should have done without her. Her great kindness I will never forget. I go to the hotel after a few days until the house is in order. The furniture comes on Wednesday and I hope to be soon in order. It has been very hard to get workmen. In fact there is no light in the house yet and oil is so scarce that you are only allowed one quart per household per month. The plumber also fails us and we cannot tell when he comes for all people want gas putting in their houses on account of the scarcity of oil. I can see us being upset for a long time. Thank goodness the painter and decorator is able to come though we cannot have any oil paint for the oil fails. I have had water colour put in one room and it looks very nice.

I went yesterday to Woltershausen as I had a permit until the 15
^th
just to say goodbye to a few. I shall not be allowed more than two and a half miles away after today.

The furniture is in my house and two rooms are in order. I am glad Belle is in Celle for we are so plagued with workmen and I should like her rooms to be in order before she comes back. If only we had light. I am very comfortable in the hotel and Herr and Frau Roeder are very kind to me but I am anxious to be settled in my own home.

Hermenia came yesterday to stay a few days with me so we’ve slept in the house for the first time. We got some oil so we were able to use the lamp. It is surprising how many houses have no light - only oil here. Houses at thirty and forty pounds rent a year with no gas or electricity! This town is fifty years behind one of its size in England. Many houses of fifty pounds a year rent do not have bathrooms and it is only this past three or four years they have water closets. Thank goodness we have both.

We have been very busy this past few days and we are as far in order as it is possible to be for we are only waiting for the men. The new girl came on the 20
^th
. Hannah is her name and she seems a good worker and pleasant. But she can’t cook. Hermenia is here yet so it does not matter.

Today we have our first frost and it is very cold with five degrees of frost. There is every promise of a long and severe winter.
God help the poor soldiers in the field.

I had a letter from Alice Graeinghoff, Mrs. Durselen’s daughter, from Königswinter. She and her husband are in Berlin and Herman is using his influence to pay Arthur a visit. I also received yesterday a parcel of old clothes from Arthur and a parcel with tea and biscuits. It was such a welcome surprise and it gave me great pleasure.

I also received a letter this morning from Arthur and it made me so sad. I am afraid that he is ill. Or losing his hopes and that is just as bad. Though it is a long time since we met, eleven-and-a- half months, still we must live in the hope of it coming to an end. But when one is not well things look so very black all round.

Our Ettie’s birthday.

Received a letter also a wire from Alice Graeinghoff and Herman has permission to visit Arthur on Friday 29
^th
. How very delighted he will be. I hope that it is a long visit and not just a few minutes. They promise to come for a visit on their return so we can have a long chat.

Hermenia had to return yesterday as her mother is not so well. I am sorry. Still, the maid shapes very well.

Grebe the agent for the land sent for me yesterday. He has had notice that he must give an exact account of all my belongings, the estate, monies etc. so I have left all in his hands.

Belle came home yesterday and is very pleased with her rooms and they are very comfortable. She has had a nice time with Rosie in Celle for three weeks.

The Graeinghoffs came today and leave tomorrow. Herman tells me that he saw Arthur for three quarters of an hour but of course four soldiers were in the room. Arthur looks well but thin, and seems to be in good spirits. He tells Herman that he is constantly busy and I am glad to hear it. It must have been a very difficult task to obtain permission to visit. Herman tells me that he was three whole mornings visiting various officers before he got permission to visit the General Commander and state his wish. I had written to Königswinter to say I was afraid Arthur was ill because of a letter I had received. That was the ground that Herman obtained permission to visit Arthur.

We are told today that all pfennigs (they are made of copper and about as large as a three penny bit) are to be called up for bullets and we are to have them made of iron.

I received also a letter from Ettie and she says that they have had such a lot of letters returned. I cannot understand it as I get letters from friends much more often.

I have such worrying thoughts about our Kittie in Canada and last night I had such awful dreams and she was in every one and in such trouble. It does worry one especially as I have no news of her.

From the 1
^st
of November all meat shops have been closed for three days a week and the restaurants dare not cook any meat, or the lodging houses, on two days a week. When we do have meat allowed we are not to fry or roast it but boil it to save the fat being wasted. It is so very dreadful to get any fat to cook with and we get fat cards now with the bread cards and no one is allowed to sell to a person without a card. These we get every week from the giving out offices. We are allowed half a pound of bread per person per day and quarter of fat, either bacon or lard, per person per
week.

When you have cooked a quarter of bacon fat you can eat it once, but you can fry three times in a quarter of lard. It’s to make it last longer but it’s rotten to keep house on. Just imagine no meat at all for three days and two out of the remaining four you are only to eat boiled stuff. That is five days a week without fat.

Butter you are allowed to buy without cards, when you can get it and it costs three shillings and three pence a pound. It is very scarce and so is milk for we have the foot and mouth disease as well as a shortage of cattle. I get fits when I go out shopping as prices change so quickly and are always higher. I wonder if on November the 1
^st
they are paying in England four pence a pound for white bread, three shillings and threepence for butter, one shilling and eleven pence for lard, one shilling and nine pence for margarine, a shilling for rice, six shillings for tea, two shillings and nine pence for roasting beef, one shilling and ten pence for boiling, pork two shillings and four pence, ham two shillings and sixpence, bacon two shillings and a penny, and eggs at three pence each. Most things in the household are double the price. Soap is at one shilling and a penny a pound, candles three pence each and matches at sixpence a dozen boxes.

On November 5
^th
all prices are to be set fast by the government so perhaps they will be cheaper and then they cannot make them any higher. Anyone selling above this price will get twelve months imprisonment and their place of business will be closed. One man had six months imprisonment (no fines) for doing something like that and his place of business closed up.

Now there are new rules as regards drink. You can only buy spirits during certain hours with none to be sold after nine o’clock at night and to no householder. You must sit in a hotel and drink what you buy. You cannot take a drop home. I wanted three pence worth of rum for cooking and it was not to be got for love nor money.

We were in a shop today and a man came in to order champagne and asked for a French brand. The owner said that he had a few bottles but during the week the police had been there and counted what he had and he was forbidden to sell any of it. The maker of that brand, a Frenchman, had said something insulting of the Germans so not a drop of his champagne must be sold. I think that is cutting off your nose to spite your face. The champagne is lying in the cellar and that is as good as money lying there. But one does not understand things and perhaps there is another motive for it all.

I have received during the week a newspaper and one letter and they have been in Köln for fourteen months. The paper is of August 2
^nd
1914 and the letter July the 30
^th
and though so old were very welcome.

There is an announcement in the papers asking the people not to do all their work themselves. But to leave some for after the war as so many poor men will come back and require labour. They certainly do look ahead here.

Today when I went to report to the police a mother was dragging her boy in because he had been naughty. Here the police see to them for, as they say, the fathers are away at the front and someone must control them and women are not fit to look after boys. He did howl and was terrified when taken in the police room. You are summoned by the police here for the smallest thing.

It is sometime this week that the eighteen-year-olds are called up. The soldiers one meets in the streets are wonderful and so many. But they are not the fine looking men that were here at first. Many have been wounded once, twice, and three times and some have gone back for the fifth time into the field. It seems strange to see soldiers with dark blue glasses and one or two have such bad coughs. Our plumber has been called away. He has a glass eye and never thought he would be called.

Had Carole and Rosie v.d. Busch here to tea and supper and it was very nice and comfortable.