1932-07-10: Arrival in Cologne

July 10, 1932

Dear Mother and Dad,

I suppose it seems a long time between letters, but in truth this is the first moments rest I've had since I got off the boat at Bremen, four days ago.  We stayed all night there with some of the Elders and then proceeded on to Cologne the next morning.  Two hours after I landed here in Cologne, they put me to work.  And I had my first experience "tracting" yesterday morning - and what an experience!  I'll never forget it.  To go up to a door and try to deliver a tract without knowing a word of their language is something I'll remember the rest of my days.  Of course we were given a small paragraph to memorize, but what can a guy do when a big fat lady comes to the door and you then forget every word you ever saw in German?  I never knew what embarrassing moments were until then.  In the two days that 've been out, I've already had the door slammed in my face twice.  It's a great life.  It is a good thing I had a senior partner along with me. 

Well, I can certainly say that those letters were a welcome sight.  After being on the way for two weeks, I was rather anxious to get here.  The papers also looked good, try and keep them up.  Having had a pretty good stack of mail waiting for me, the Elders practically knew me when I arrived here.

I suppose you would like to know something of what this country is about over here.  To begin with, I can certainly say that I felt completely lost when I got in Germany.  One of the fellows with me knew just enough of the language to get us by, otherwise, we might have had a hard time getting about.  The fifteen of us that were left, parted at Bremen and took trains to all parts of the continent.  It was even hard to part from some of the fellows, having had such an enjoyable time together. 

I guess the most comical situations we get into are those when we go out to eat.  We batch two meals and eat out the third one.  Some of the food is pretty hard to take and some of it isn't so bad.  It is altogether different from American food, even more so than I had imagined.  The water as you know is almost "passe".  We have a hard time getting it.  At Bremen, I had the pleasure of visiting one of their Beer salons and seeing the artistically carved beer kegs which would fill our front room.  That is, one keg is about that big.  And in passing a wine shop today, you could smell it a block away. 

Their dress over here is practically the same as in America except for the few who wear "kilts" or knee pants.  All the boys up to fifteen years of age wear knee pants.  The buildings are quite a sight to see.  They are even hard to describe.  They are very ancient yet very artistic.  You might say that there is nothing modernistic about any of the new buildings.  Their living quarters or homes re built right next to each other and about four stories high.  One block probably houses more people than eight of ours at home.

And every one rides a bicycle.  Even the women.  Of course there are quite a few cars but none to compare next to those we have.  Most of them are the size of our Austin and smaller.  Their trains are also small and dinky.  In all, you might say they are behind us in some things and ahead in others. 

Well, I'll probably be able to tell you more as time goes on.  I'm hardly settled as yet, due to the strangeness of things.  I don't expected to be here more than a month anyway, so address my mail to Leimen Strasse 49, Basle, Switzerland.  You'll have to let the rest of the family read my letters for a while because I'm pretty well pushed for time. 

Hope you are all well.

Lots of love,
Clarence

My Railroad and Steamship fare from home came to $224.90