Detroit, Michigan
January 1, 1936
The freezing wind and snow almost blew him off his step. It kept most of the smell of this neighborhood away from his nose, which was a small blessing in itself. His black coat covered most of his worker overalls and his boots crunched the slush and snow on the sidewalk. Twice now he passed different wrecks from the snowstorm, but luckly noone was hurt.
Just another normal day in Detroit thought Karl Dietler. It was indeed pretty normal for him. The snowstorm that has lasted for about 2 weeks seemed nothing to him, having survived worse storms in the past, especially in '32 where his family had their heat cut out and almost froze to death for seven days. He was unemployed then, fresh out of highschool and looking for a job. In the Depression, noone was hiring anyone, so he had to spend a year looking till he was lucky. Some customer at his fathers business talked about needing some new workers to replace some that went to jail for bootlegging. His father mentioned Karl and soon the customer, a factory manager for Chrysler, hired the young man and paid him $2 an hour; not bad money. So for most of his time, he went to work, painting the chasis, and went back home. At first, he was glad he had the job to get by, but now...It's just too damn boring Karl said in his head, grimacing as he did so. But he knew when he was well off.
Karl rubbed his temples as he went around the corner. Like most American families, his celebrated the coming new year with alot of beer. Like any German, he took it well enough, but not enough to keep him from having headaches. He just grumbled and walked on.
Detroit seemed dull at this point. The tall smokestacks of the autoplants the only structures penetrating the thick fog. Having lived in this city for most of his life, Karl took them for granted. Every once in awhile, he stopped and admired the power of this city. He had one of these moments when he suddenly bumped into another man.
"Hey watch where the hell you're go--". Karl snapped out of it before he saw his co-worker, Tony Jenkins. Tony halted in his roar when he recognized his buddy for five years. He grinned when he caught a glimpse of Karl's eyes. "Seems you had a fun night."
Scowling, Karl simply replied, "Oh shove it Tony, not like you're a virgin to alchohol your own self."
"Oh, but I hide it better."
"Sure, just like a elephant in a whore house." Both men laughed and embraced each other. Tony Jenkins was, like Karl, a car painter at the same plant who came from some town in Ohio from a family of doll makers. When that business bankrupted in the fall of the Stock Market Crash, Tony managed to get a job up in Detroit painting cars instead of dolls.
Tony handed Karl a cigarette and lighted it before they kept walking to work. "Heard some interesting news yesterday in the plant."
Karl raised his eyebrow and took a puff before going on. "Oh, enlighten me."
"Well apparently I heard the company is looking towards these new machine tools that supposedly are the latest. Ford and GM are also looking into them, thanks to FDR from what I heard."
"More cars to make eh?"
"Yeah, supposed to make more supply. The government wants everyone to start buying stuff on the market so one way to do that is make more cars I guess."
Karl blew some smoke out of his nose. "Eh I don't care much, as long as I got a job and money,.I don't care if we're making 10,000 cars for the masses or 1 car for King George, as long as we're useful."
Tony nodded "As long as we're useful." Both men finished their cigarettes before entering the Chrysler autoplant and clocking in. Karl made sure the paint compartment was full and that their machines were operating well enough. He managed to don on his mask before the line started up again. He took his paint gain and started sweeping the front of the Airstream chasis with milk white paint. Another painter did the other side, looking concetrated. Karl simply shrugged, Just another normal day.
He worked without much further thought. Only a couple times did he stop to unclog something in his paint gun, but his supervisor didn't mind. When the lunch bell rang, Karl set down the paint gun, took off his mask and breathed in fresh air that wasn't exactly fresh. He went into the meal hall and ate his burger without much small talk. Everyone else was talking about either the new year parties they had or telling dirty jokes to their companions. Some of the jokes he heard were quite funny, while others...just bored him. Today, he just kept quiet through his lunch hour and went back to work after the bell rang again.
Four hours later, the bell rang one more time, signalling that was the end of the shift. Karl picked up his lunch box and clocked out, putting on his coat before going back out in the elements. His route back home wasn't that far, so he walked back instead of taking the trolley. Although this decision had it's cons.
"Care to spare a dime pal?". A homeless man with a long black beard and tattered rags came up to him. Karl usually helped those he thought needed it, but smelling the whiskey in this man's breath, he simply walked past him. Instead of cursing him, the hobo sighed heavily and waited for another passerby.
Karl managed to survive the cold and snow to get to his parent's apartment, just 2 miles from the auto plant. He scooted off the snow on his boots before walking in. Taking the stairs to the third floor, he knocked on the door.
"Wer ist es??" called a voice from behind the door.
"Ihr Sohn Karl" he replied. The door opended and his mother Heinretta, a middle aged woman with long blonde turning grey hair, embraced her son.
Still speaking in German, she went on. "Glad you're back home dear."
Karl nodded "So am I. Almost busted my rear getting to work because of Tony." He hung up his coat and workers cap on the hooks near the door. It was a big sized apartment, able to accompany three people. His parents took one room while he took another bedroom. Along one part of the living room was the fireplace, already burning wood to keep the apartment warm. On the mantle stood five photos, Karl and his brothers. His elder brother Heinz died long before he was born, dead from clashing with Socialists while part of one of the numerous Freikorps that sprung up after the armistice. The next one, Albert, was currently a German officer whom was able to stay in the 100,000 man post war Reichswehr and become an infantry regiment commander in Essen. The twins, Luther and Joachim, were long married now, the former living in New York while the other lived in Miami. Then there was Karl, a picture in a suit and tie.
His mother returned to the kitchen while his father, Ulrich, smoked a pipe in his favorite chair near the fireplace. He puffed out a smoke cloud before saying "Evening son. Glad you're here, got something we need to talk about."
Karl's interest peaked. "Oh? What is it?"
However his father shook his head. "Not right now, waiting till dinner." Karl shrugged and sat down in his own chair, reading the newspaper that his father was done with. Most of the news was on the presidential primaries and on some corruption case in city hall. Karl didn't much care about the city hall and he was a rock-ribbed Republican in a state full of Democrats, an oddity to most of his friends. In international news, more news on the war in Abyssinia. There was also an excerpt on a speech Hitler made to the Reichstag on the New Year. "Germany is moving foward and 1936 will be a year where Germany will retake her place on the world stage." one of the soundbytes were. Karl took most of the speech seriously. Unlike his parents, he was not a big Nazi, but he supported their policies as of late. He was just four years old when Germany signed the Armistice in 1918 and like any native German, his heart swelled up when he heard of Germany's rearmament under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. While he disagreed with some of the party doctrine, he couldn't very well argue about their progress.
"Dinner!" his mother called from the kitchen. The dish of beefs tongue with cloves made Karl's mouth water. The family tried beef tongue for the first time when the Depression hitted hard and found out they liked it. After a prayer, the Dietlers dug into their supper.
After the tongue and beer was finished up, Karl patted his belly "Mother, if you feed me like this, you and father are probably going to have to roll me to work."
"Oh nonsense Karl, no matter how much I cook, you still stay skinny." His weight being 158 lbs and standing at 6'3", he did look like a tall giant like Abe Lincoln was in his day.
Whiping his mouth with the napkin, Karl looked up at his parents. "So, whats the news all about father? You usually don't wait this long to tell me stuff." Instead of answering, Ulrich shifted his eyes to his wife. Her smile fading, she nodded to him and Ulrich cleared his throat.
"Well son...to get to the point...me and your mother are thinking on returning to Germany this spring and living there again." Ulrich waited for his sons reaction.
Whatever Karl expected, this wasn't it. His family have been U.S. residents since 1919 after World War One and citizens in 1931. Through most of his life, he only knew about the United States and nothing about his homeland. His thought American and spoke English most of the time, only German for his parents. However, his parents still thought themselves as Germans and Germans only.
Before Karl could ask why, his father held up a hand. "I know what you're going to ask. We're moving back because me and your mother are confident that Germany is strong again and we wish to go back to Essen again. We already made up our minds on the matter. Karl, Hitler brought back the respect we had before those traitors in Weimar took it away from us! I want to go back to a happy Germany, the Germany I knew in my youth." It was too much for Karl to take in. He stuttered before he blurted out something.
"B-but....w-where would I live father?!" he sounded panic.
"Oh my boy, it's no problem. Your brother Albert was kind enough to send you enough money to buy a permament residence here in Detroit with the furniture and all included. We understand you'd rather live in here than come with us." His father gave a kind smile, understanding his sons shock. He gotten the same reaction from Albert when they left Germany.
Karl Dietler just sat there, in shock over what his parents told him. Well...well....I guess it's not a normal day in Detroit afterall....
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