We kids loved the elderly in the family. We were raised to respect them, be polite and always listen to them... We would travel to an old family farm in Semlach, about 2 miles from Knappenberg to see the Pirholt family. She was the sister of my grandpa and made the best home made elder blossom juice. We would go to Guttaring in the valley and see the Kaiser family, another of my prandpa's sisters; Huberta. Mr Kaiser was a pro on poaching and Huberta knew everything about everyone and she most gladly updated us all on the latest news ;).
Museum in today's Guttaring...
Hansi Macher (once married to my grandma's sister Irene) would come visit us all the way from the city of Klagenfurt in the south and he would always bring a whole bag of goodies for us kids... Hansi was kind as a lamb but very brashy when drunk... The elderly would tell stories from the war... The records from the war seemed to be played over and over again in a traumatic way...
Franz (grandpa's older brother) and his wife Clara Sonnberger lived next door to my grandma, they had no kids... I would sit in their kitchen and be served wine or drinks... I probably wasn't more than 10 years old when I was served for the first time and I always felt so grown up with the glas in front of me... Franz would always tell stories from the war and show all his scars and bullet holes. He still had his uniform in the closet and would proudly show it off to us kids...
I would serve Franz a cold beer when he was chopping wood behind the house, and sit beside him on a little bench when he was smoking his pipe... Franz showed me all the old trails through the woods from Knappenberg to Heft... He could be angry and irritated and would often agrue with his Clara and the rest of the neighborhood, but we were all still best friends... I liked his bullet hole in through his chin and he was a war hero and living legend in a way... He was cool in a way :)...
See ya!
