Bettina

22Apr12

Another small memorial to a person with an unknown fate. Bettina was my my best friend when I was in my early teens. Early puberty not an easy time for most people; in my case it had turned me into a highly combustible package of shyness, insecurity, defiance and yearning. She picked me; I didn’t [...]

Filed under: 1980s, Friendship, Germany, Youth   |  Closed
Tags: adolescence, friendship, hippies, mental illness, pot, punk, school, women

Into the very opposite direction

29Dec11

Dropping out of high school was surprisingly easy. One day, instead of going to school, I went to the local job center to look for an apprenticeship for tailoring. They sent me to a clothes factory a few villages over to take an aptitude test. I had to follow a few drawn curlicues on a [...]

Filed under: Books, Childhood, Clothes, Germany, Thomas Bernhard, Youth   |  Closed
Tags: adolescence, apprenticeship, Der Keller, factory, job center, literature, quitting high school, relief, Salzburg, Scherzhauserfeldsiedlung, school, The Basement, the opposite direction, Thomas Bernhard