Christmas in rural Austria, 1970

Thinking of that Christmas in 1970 in the rural Austrian Tirol, I am aware of how we were still affected by the post-war frugality of people-- simpler decorations, mostly homemade, and fruit and nuts figuring prominently on the tables--- tangerines, oranges, and the need for "real" nutcrackers for the hard-shelled nuts! Snow fell a iittle lightly that year, and we had brought ski equipment, but the slopes still had green grass poking through, and we had no business skiing on the rocks and bumps! Still, for kids from the beaches of Cailfornia, it looked like a fairyland; and the lights in the cemetery on Christmas eve were very magical. We sang "Stille Nacht" at midnight mass in the little town where I was (Rauris), and there was a zither and glockenspiel bells. Several of us had taken an Austrian carols class from Frau Brossman, and I can still sing the words to "Still, Still, Still," and "Susser die Glocken nie Klingeln" and "Leise rieselt der Schnee". The church was small, and there were no pads on the kneelers, and there was "bitter winter" for anyone with arthritis... I called home for the only time that year, and the sound of my voice was tinny, and there were funny pauses and echos, making it obvious that we were a long way from home. Most of us waited in a line for a long time, to get the access to the only phone, and the international operator. The tables had snowy linen, hand-embroidered, and the beds had starched white stiff sheets on the featherbeds... the walls were smoky pine, and some highly varnished, and there was some intricate woodwork in the bannisters, or on the lintels... hand-carved I think...
I have thought a lot about what the hausfraus taught me, about the time after the war-- very small pensions, very frugal lifestyles. "Tea with jam and bread" like the song from "Sound of Music" was really how many of those old ladies lived through the winter months--- a few precious eggs, and a bit of poor-quality and fatty meat once in awhile, or a sausage. Our hausfrau, Frau Kluge, used to talk about the wonderful balls in the season between Christmas and Mardi Gras, before the war; and how she and her husband would stay out all night dancing, partly to eat and partly to keep warm. We were very cold in our house, as she wouldn't waste money on the heat at night-- we would come home in the cold and go to school early in the cold, blowing our hands and having the air freeze as we did so. Until I got a winter coat, I put every layer of clothing I owned on for sleep at night, and I slept with my mittens on. When I got the winter coat, I put it on top of the featherbed to help keep the heat in! She maybe would turn the heat on for a few hours in the middle of the day, but not at night. We often stayed after school to go to the opera, and I had to walk home late because our streetcar didn't run that late, and it was so cold at midnight, out in the 7th district, with the wind whistling down the corridors between the big stone buildings. At Christmas there was a Christkind market in almost every quarter of the city, with a lot of little wooden carved things, and embroidered and hand-sewn tchotchkes. ( A word I learned in Brooklyn...) I got a cup with my actual name on it, which was a name which was not uncommon in Austria, although for me it came from Spain, via my great-great-grandmother. I still have the cup, cracked and patched, because I have never seen one with my name on it here! I wish now I could go back and see what they were selling--- one of the things I remember were the little Christmas tree decorations made from straw and light wood, and the lebkuchen. Probably there were some people drinking Schnapps. It always seemed medicinal to me, that Schnapps... but I did like the cherry brandy. And the weinacht's brau(umlaut), that stronger-than-usual beer...
If any of you send any other scraps of memories, I will pass them around-- it was a very precious time, and I feel so grateful for the way the IES program was structured, so that we would get that experience of a small town Christmas...