My Dad's Response

After my dad and I got on the same page about my question. he wrote the following:

I'm afraid this exercise has triggered some memories, perhaps best left dormant.

I'll try to make you understand what life was like at that time. First, kids had no fear of the bombs. They were everywhere in the buildings of Munich from which they were removed and so were the kids, as I recounted earlier. Second, parents couldn't be with their kids all the time. There was no refrigeration so food had to be acquired everyday. I don't know what was involved with that or how long it took. Before the new currency went into effect, the kids would gather cigarette butts and the parents would spend time making cigarettes. After the new currency at least one parent would spend time trying to make money, doing all sorts of things. So kids were basically on their own for most of the daylight hours, the strict rule was you had to be home for supper. The young kids, like me, generally followed the lead of the older kids.

Something I didn't mention before, crawling through wrecked buildings put a lot of wear and tear on clothing, including shoes. Parents spent considerable time doing repairs. Couldn't just run over to the local Walmart and pick up a replacement. There were no hot water heaters, water for bathing had to be heated on the stove so people only bathed once a week, if that often. Soap, where do you get soap in a destroyed city?

So I don't know. I hate to have him dig up painful memories for my edification.