The weeks news. Getting closer to Maine, moose, and a pencil drawing that perked my interest.
It’s been a quiet week up here on the mountain, my little slice of heaven in the great northwest. The temperatures have been cooling off a bit, and last night I lit the stove for the first time this season. I don’t think it will be needed for a few more days, but winter is coming.
We found a nice little house in a small town in Maine and got in touch with the Realtor who had listed it. She will be forwarding paperwork for us to sign, so the process is moving forward, and like a locomotive, it starts slowly, then builds steam, until it’s up to speed. The Realtor who will be listing this cabin should be back from her vacation this coming week, and we will sign some more papers with her so she can list it. She thinks this place will sell fast, and that’s what we are hoping for. Towards that end, we are starting to sort through what goes with us and what we are leaving behind or throwing out.
The twin sister to the moose that has given birth near the cabin has been in the yard this past week, and as usual, she didn’t seem to mind me being close, didn’t mind the sound of the generator running, or even the dogs. She munched on a few leaves, looked at me as I talked to her, then ambled off up the bank behind the cabin.
A few days ago, my sister emailed me a picture of a pencil drawing she found at her boyfriend’s house, and wanted to know if I could identify what military the person in the drawing had been in.
It was a beautiful drawing of a young German officer, and it looked as if it had been drawn only a few days ago. It was drawn in1915 in the town of Lille France, a town that had been occupied at the start of the first world war and remained in German hands for most of the conflict. There was some writing in one corner, and my sister wanted to know if I could figure out what it said.
Well, between the lovely wife and myself, we think we have managed to translate it. The lovely wife had taken German way back in college, and still remembered a lot of the verbs, nouns, etc, so she got most of it, though I managed to stumble on a couple of things that helped her figure it out. Roughly translated it says: “His Feldwebel-Lieutenant/ For good camaraderie/ dedicated to von A Reinecke/ 1914 Lille 1915.” Feldwebel-Lieutenant could be attained by an NCO who had risen up through the enlisted ranks. However, even though a Lieutenant himself, he would still be considered below the lowest Lieutenant of commissioned officer ranking.
My sister said the frame fell apart as she was moving it, and there at the bottom of the paper was the artist’s name, a French girl by the name of Yvonne Valembois, probably trying to make a living in an enemy occupied town. It seems likely that the German officer had just attained this rank and was celebrating by having it memorialized on paper for family back home. It must have been framed as soon as it was finished, since it didn’t have a crease, smudge, or blemish on it, and it would have had to have been shipped back to Germany shortly after it was done. My sister is going to get the frame repaired, and write everything on a piece of paper to leave with the drawing so future generations will have some idea of what it’s all about. Quite an astonishing find!
Well, that’s all the news for the week. Bye for now.
