1981 -1984

John and Susanne

My Parents Die

Camping in the Indian Country

Susanne's Wedding

A Summer in Europe

1981

March-Skiing in Mammoth with the Forrests.

.Since 1975 when we discovered the Coffey house in Mammoth, we went skiing in March, takeing selected friends along: Heike, Irmchen Gernand, Sherwin Amimoto, and the Forrests. A regular ski-camp. Here you see them all at breakfast.

Robert, Illa, Christopher, Barbara, Marc, Cornelius and a high-school friend at breakfast in Coffey's Cabin.

Robert, Illa, Christopher, and Barbara

Susanne had fallen in love with John Wood, a photography strudent at Art Center. John had patiently waited out all her previous suitors. One morning at Mammoth, there was a bang on our window. I discovered a laughing Susanne below, who had thrown the snowball. She had stayed in Pasadena and borrowed the BMW to spend a weekend with us. In her tow was John!.

All day John hardly said a word. Suschen did all the talking: John does, John says, John means... until I shut her up. Allow him to talk for himself! At night, after a long discussion between the two, he went out to the car and returned with a guitar. I had made a big fire in the fireplace and John sung the whole evening - love songs, some of his own making. Soon the entire crowd lay open-mouthed on the sofa and the floor listening transported to his music.

.This was how we met John for the first time.

Both my Parents die

Dieter visiting my aged parents in 1979 or 80. Udo took the picture. Father had lost his hearing in both ears. We communicated with him by writing notes on snippets of paper. Even our visits did not animate him any longer like in the past. Dieter, despite his crippled condition, always retained his sarcastic gallows humor

On March 20, 1981 my Father died in an hospital in Orb, despaired and restless. Barbara and I flew to Gelnhausen for his burial, March 25, where we met Brigitte, Udo, and Onkel Gerhard. A large number of his neighbors and friends from the Geschichtsverein attended the ceremony. We buried him on the little cemetery at the end of the Alte Leipziger Strasse, in the grave in which Grandmother Hammer and Tante Gretel Laffert were already buried

Brigitte, Mother, and Barbara at Mother's house after the burial

Mother and Onkel Gerhard Hammer

Mother was relieved and almost cheerful. Father had been a difficult burden. We made plans for her to visit us in Cafornia. Tante Käthe, whom the DDR-officials had refused to give an exit permit for the her brother's funeral, was finally able to come and stay with mother. We flew home. As always Mother feared the Grosse Käthe. At the end of March Mother collapsed from an aneurism in the basement of the house trying to get Schlagsahne to celebrate Käthe's arrival. Unconscious, a neighbor took her to the hospital. She never woke again in the two weeks she stayed there. Christine flew in from Hongkong but arrived too late. Mother died on 9 May, 1981. Käthe treturned home and left Christine alone with the preparations for mother's funeral. Eventually Dieter and Evelyne came to help at the burial.

In 1999, when Irmgard Hammer died, Udo and Franka buried her in the Hammer-Gross grave and Udo had a new stone made. This will preserve the grave until 2023 before it will be removed to make room for someone else.

Peter's Graduation from High-School

Peter with Anneliese and Frau Geibel, her mother, on the porch of their house in Palos Verdes. Peter eventually went to Long Beach College to work for a Batchelor in Fine Arts degree, chosing gold-smithing as his major!

June 18, 1981

Summer 1981, Trip to the Indian Country.

Click here for many more pictures from the Southwest

It was Babrara's idea to invite Lorentz and Carola Graef, the children of her cousin Karla in Tubingen, and Johannes, the son of her friend Anne Unger in Lucklum. Barbara borrowed an old Volkswagen bus and took the three children, Cornelius, and me from 5 - 21 August, 81 on a camping trip through the Indian Country. Susanne had to remain at Art Center in Pasadena.

Johannes, Lorentz, Cornelius, Barbara, and Carola at a picnic-stop in the Utah moutains on the way to Brice Canyon.

It became a difficult trip, the Graef children were very independent and resented the discipline imposed by me. Johannes was love and home sick, and all three were bored by this large landscape

But the weather was glorious. At Brice Canyon we went on a day's hike. At night Johannes suddenly ran from his tent and remained missing until we found him, after a desperate search, sitting on the public toilet with diarrhoea!

At Canyon de Chelly Barbara had organized a full-day's excursion with a six-wheeler truck into the canyon. We had a blazing fire every night and Cornelius and Johannes smoked a peace-pipe.

The great event became a two-day excursion with a power boat on Lake Powell. Barbara had oredered the boat in advance and everyone wanted to drive the roaring Evinrude engine. But without it, even Barbara and I would have succumbed to the immense space. We explored several side canyons and camped at the confluence of the San Juan River. A thunderstorm drove us back home.

Picnic lunch in Monument Valley.

From Canyon de Chelly we drove through the Hopi villages, saw a dance-festival and eventually continued through Monyment Valley to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.

Cornelius hanging up-side-down from the roof of the picnic shack.

Grand Canyon, North Rim.

While an exhausted Barbara took a rest from driving, I tried in vain to prevent Lorentz and Carola from climbing over the precipitous edge to take movies of each other....

In a big loop Barbara drove us to the South Rim, and late in the afternoon to the entry point to Havasupai Canyon west of Grand Canyon National Park

Carola flying on a rope into one of the pools

Carola, Barbara, Lorentz, Johannes, Rolf, and Cornelius resting on the strenuous climb from Havasupai Village back to the Rim

The three-day trek to the Havasupai Indian Reservation became my high-point of the trip. It took us four hours to hike down to Havasupai Village and six hours, before sunrise, to climb out again. The Indians, drinking Coca-Cola by the liter, were a sorry sight, but the travertin basins and the waterfalls deep in the Canyon below the village are one of the magical places on the North-Amercan Continent.

From there we drove home through the desert in one hot day, tired but more or less happy.

During the remaining school vacation Cornelius worked at a supermarket in the Palisades. These were some of his best years.

In September Irmgard Hammer came to stay with us. Part of the four weeks she went on a tour of the Southwest with one of Barbara's groups.

Susanne's Graduation from Art Center

In September Susanne and John graduated from Art Center in Pasadena.

This time we were all there. Mumin with an elegant new haircut. John took the picture.

Later in the Palisades. As you can see she was more than happy. She had worked hard and deserved her degree and she had found a faithful new man. It was a beautiful day.

Susanne and John in Europe

As a graduation present Barbara had booked a flight for Susanne to explore European job opportunities for fashion photographers. One day she informed us that John would come along

. At the end of September they flew together. They had a wonderful trip, John's first to Europe: Paris, Milano, Rome, München. In Tübingen they stayed with Marga and took flowers to Father Lattmann's grave.

Susanne's and John's Engagement

She never had an interview, but they returned "engaged"! Barbara was on tour when she came back, and Cornelius took it upon himself to tell her what the family thought of their irresponsible and expensive joy-ride. Tensions went sky high, but who could change Susanne's mind? Finally, in December Barbara invited John's parents, and we celebrated their official engagement in a Hollywood restaurant. A strange meeting. On this evening, to rile me, Susanne's future father-in-law asked with a smirk, "Can your daughter at least cook?" He knew, of course, the answer.... On the way home, Barbara said , "Cornelius, you'll learn to cook. From now onyou will, once a week, do all the preparations for dinner from planning and shopping to cooking!" In time Cornelius became an excellent cook. Susanne was lucky, because John only ate fast food and hamburgers. For a long time there was no demand for much serious coocking in their house.

Cornelius stirring the food in the kitchen. (1982)

In October I flew to a Laser Conference in Leipzig, in the DDR. I returned filled with ambiguous impressions, which were only mitigated by my Georgian and Russian friends. This remained my only visit to East Germany until 1989 when the Wall came down.

I was also honored at Aerospace. Harold Mirels, Don Spencer, Ted Jacobs, and I had been granted a patent for the invention of the HF-chemical laser. An Aerospace vice president (right) presented each of us with $100 and a pewter plate with an inscription - which we still use to serve cheese on at suitable occasions. Despite the man's simle our relationship with management had become strained. Ted Jacob's had already left for better pastures at TRW.

Christmas 1981

Barbara, Susanne and John, Peter, Tamriko Japaridze and Geoffrey, and Cornelius on Christmas Eve. We had become like second parents to Tamriko and Jeffrey, mediating their frequent maritual discords and Tamriko's unhappiness. They spent much time with us..

Peter and Anneliese spent the evening with us and stayed overnight.

Susanne and Anneliese

Next day John took this revealing family portrait. Happy Susanne is the only one relaxed.

1982

Winter, Anthony and Cornelius' first love Jill

During that winter Cornelius fell in love with Jill Glikbarg. Seen here with Anthony Rossilli, who was then Cornelius' inseperable friend.

He and Anthony went skiing in Big Pine invited by the entire Glikbarg Clan - too numerous to name.

Easter at Dos Cabezas in the Anzo Borrego

At Easter we went camping at our beloved Dos Cabezas in the Anzo Borrego, east of San Diego. We took along Peter, Sherwin Amimoto, wo worked with me, and Genya Ryabov, a Russian friend who was staying at USC.

Picnic lunch at Dos Cabezas. From right to left: Genya, Sherwin, Rolf, Peter(?), Cornelius, and a friend of Peter.

A happy Rolf at Mortero Palms

. One day we took a hike in the hills above Topanga with Tamriko and Jeff, hiding in a rock cave

In April Suschen and John went to Mammoth and Mono Lake,. where John took this wonderful picture of her

March 19, 1982 Susanne and John's Wedding

Susanne could barely wait. John had found a job at Coor's in Boulder, Colorado and at 4 pm on Friday, Mar 19, 1982, with Barbara's help they got married At the Wayfarer's Chapel. in Palos Verdes

Richard and Dolores, John and Susanne, and Barbara and Rolf, for once in an elegant suit!

Susanne and her beloved Cornelius

John standing a step higher than she!

Here are some unofficial photos of the many guests, ours and theirs

Heike and Barbara

Anneliese and Heike, who had flown in especially for the occasion

...

Hans and Herta Heil

and a beaming Bela Lengyel with Barbara

Frau Bautzmann and Barbara, Yost and Cindy in the background

Richard Wood, and Zanette and Robert Kohlmeyer

Peter, Cornelius and Kris Malkiewicz

Monica Willumsen and Bernice Wade rushing the bride at Barbara's reception at our house in the evening. Bernice had sewn Susanne's wedding dress

And one day they packed their two hot-rods and left for Colorado. We missed her badly.

Cornelius and Barbara in Europe Summer '82

This summer we flew to Europe on three separate flights. In June Cornelius flew to Lucklum to meet Johannes Unger and go on a bicycle tour to France. It was a strenuous undertaking. Somehere in France he became ill with German measles.

.In August Barbara also flew to Germany. She met Cornelius in Lucklum to celebrate Anne and Hans Unger's "Silberhochzeit" - silver wedding anniversary. Klaus and Lilo were there too.

Cornelius and Lilo

Lilo, Anne, Cornelius, Barbara, and Klaus in Lucklum

München and Greece, 1982

Click her for pictures from Crete and Greece

Finally I followed Barbara. We met in Munich and invited all our friends to the Biergarten Am Chinesischen Turm, the Chinese Pagoda in the Englische Garten.

The colorful and happy life in the beer garden

Norbert May, Heike, Horst Krause, and Wilhelm Schneider, the (then) husband of Carola (now) Bakir.

Together we flew to Athens, to meet Norm Cohen, a close friend from Aerospace, and flew to Crete. We rented a car and explored the ruins and mountains of Crete: Herakleion, Knossos, Faistos, Kritsa, Zeu's Cave, and the Plain of the Windmills

Barbara cooling off in Knossos

The Horns of King Minos in Knossos and hundreds of tourists

Barbara and Norm in Phaistos. The days with conciderate and thoughtful Norm were a true and special pleasure.

As part of a day-excursion by boat to Santorini, we explored the fabulous Minoan excavations at Akrotiri (1750 BC). Norm on the far left.

Eventually we separated from Norm, who had to return to Los Angeles, and tried to hike along the South Coast of Crete. It was so hot that I became sick, and we were forced to flee after a few days. A night-ride by boat took us to the cool and friendly of Paros. We fell in love with the island and spent the days mostly on the beach until my birthday in September.

Walking on the roofs of Paros: The dome of the Church of Konstantin and Helena at sunset.

We returned to Munich. Barbara flew home to guide two tours in a row, and I drove with a rental car to a Laser Conference in Stresa, Italy with Sherwin Amimoto. Around 19 September '82 we were finally reunited after this long summer.....

December 84 Illa and Robert's Visit

Since Robert and Illa had moved from Santa Barbara to Napa, we saw them rarely, once a year in Mammoth, occasionally in Napa. In the late Spring they came down to Pacific Palisades, and on a walk in Venice I took these two rare portraits of them.