Family Secrets

Years ago – I was just a kid – a cousin that I didn't know very well was visiting us. She was a few years older than I and was actually a second or third cousin. I never could get all that straight. We were in the living room and my cousin was talking to my mother when I heard my mother say, “I can't believe you know about that!” in the sort of shocked tone of voice that makes a kid's ears perk right up. A few days later my grandmother was at our house and I heard her and my mother talking in the sort of low, secretive voices that – well – same thing, make your ears perk up. I tried listening in but I missed most of what they were saying. However I recognized the shocked tones of their voices and I remember my mother saying, “She's too young to hear talk about things like that.”

Now, here's the thing – I have no idea what they were talking about! It's close to half a century later, all the players are dead, and I will go to my own grave never knowing what shocked my mother when she found out my cousin knew about it. Sigh.

Ever since I started writing The Reluctant Belsnickel of Opelt's Wood I have been experiencing a virtual flood of unleashed memories from childhood. Stories told by both my grandmothers and old aunts and uncles, stories about my great-grandparents coming to this country and all that was involved, stories about working in the logging camps, hunting stories. I grew up in a world of stories and story-telling and I have spent much of my life sharing stories. But remembering those whispered voices and stories that I was too young to hear makes me long to know what I missed.

I have to tell you, I really fell in love with the characters and the atmosphere of my Belsnickel story. I have some pretty good fantasies going about Oliver Eberstark and I want to know more about several other people in the story. Recently I started writing a new Marienstadt story which I am calling The Confession of Genny Ritter. It starts out in the present when Father Nick is called to Trish Ritter's home because her 103 year old great-grandmother-in-law wants him to hear her Confession. But first she says she wants to tell him a story and a secret that she has kept for nearly seventy years. The story then shifts back to the turn of the twentieth century when Genny's parents left Germany and came to Marienstadt. Her father went to work for Ollie Eberstark who had just started a sawmill on Pistner's Run and her older brothers eventually go to work for Ollie or for Herman Opelt who has a logging business. Much of what I'm using to shape this story is stuff my Gram Werner told me about her own family and also a few things from Grandma Valentine. Some of it is actually rather painful but I keep typing and I'm stunned at all the stuff that is bubbling to the surface.

The John Woelfel Family, first generation immigrant from Bavaria.
That's my Gram Werner on the far right in the terrible plaid dress.

To tell the truth, I'm not really sure where this is going and if it will be of interest to anyone but me but I keep typing – I need to do this. I'm not sure if there are any family secrets lurking around in the back of my mind that will come out or not. I have this fantasy that deep down inside I really did know what my mother was talking about all those many years ago and, as I type, the story will find its way onto the page.

Start ind Thursday my Belsnickel book will be free for 5 days in the new Kindle Select Bookstore. it will be interesting to see if anyone downloads it. In the meantime I'm writing more. Always writing more.

Thanks for reading.