Chemistry and Biology, as well as English, French, History and Geography, Scripture, Art and Sewing, and I do the piano as an extra. I looked up Hamburg in my atlas, to see where you live. This term we play netball, hockey and lacrosse. My favourite is lacrosse.
Hamish and I have never been skiing. It sounds fun. Some winters there can be lots of snow up in the mountains in Scotland but I donât think there are any proper ski lifts like you have on the Continent. We donât have any skis, anyway.
If you really want me to tell you, there were five spelling mistakes in your letter. Itâs cold, not kald; house, not haus; summer, not sommer; young, not jung; and photograph, not photographie. And if you were English, youâd probably say âI thought youâd never answerâ and âweâve had a lot of snowâ, and âat Christmas we wentâ, not âwe have goneâ, and youâd say âIâve skied since I was four years old.â You got some other things a bit wrong, too, but I knew what you meant.
By the way, you have very nice handwriting. I wish I could write as well as that. Do they teach you at school?
I havenât got any photographs of me here, but Iâll see if I can find one at home. We break up for the Easter holidays in three weeks, thank goodness. I wish we were going to Craigmore, but we will be stuck in London, worse luck.
From,
Stroma
12th March, 1937
Dear Stroma,
Thank you for your letter and for correcting my mistakes. Yes, I really do want you to tell me when I make them. And, yes, they teach us handwriting in school. We must always write very exactly.
I think you will soon be at home for the Easter holidays (we call this Ostern) and so I am sending this to your address in London. I also have a short holiday for Easter and I will finish at the High School in July, after I have done more exams.
The weather is warmer and we will be sailing
Sturmwind
again. First, we must clean her very well after the winter, and then we will go to sail out on the Baltic Sea. Bruno and I look forward to this. It will be very gud to be free from our studies.
What are you doing in London? There must be many things to see and I should like very much to visit there one day. We have interesting things in Hamburg, too. We have gud museums and historich buildings. There are some very old steamships in the harbour and also old barges on the canals. We have many canals and, of course, the River Elbe which is very important for the city. We can take a boot to England from the port. Perhaps one day I will do that.
Please do not forget to send a photograph of you (I spell it correctly this time).
Bruno and I give our best wishes to you and to Hamish.
From,
Reinhard
PS. When is your birthday?
17th April, 1937
Dear Reinhard,
Thank you for your letter. There isnât really any news to tell you at the moment. Hamish has gone away to stay with a friend from his school and I havenât done much except go to the zoo once in Regentâs Park and read and practise the piano. I have to practise a lot because my piano teacher at school gave me a new piece to learn by heart in the holidays and sheâll be furious if I havenât done it properly.
I went shopping with my mother, which was boring, and Iâve been to see friends in London, but we didnât do anything very interesting except go to the cinema and walk in the park.
Our cat, Delilah, had six kittens at the back of a kitchen cupboard. Theyâre all black, like her, except one which is a ginger tom. We are going to keep him and find homes for the others. I wish we could keep them all because theyâre so sweet.
I go back to school for the summer term next week. We have to wear hideous brown and white frocks and a straw boater. We play tennis and rounders, and swim in the school pool (which is even colder than the lochs on Islay). Some of the girls play cricket. We have exams in July, like
Hamish and I have never been skiing. It sounds fun. Some winters there can be lots of snow up in the mountains in Scotland but I donât think there are any proper ski lifts like you have on the Continent. We donât have any skis, anyway.
If you really want me to tell you, there were five spelling mistakes in your letter. Itâs cold, not kald; house, not haus; summer, not sommer; young, not jung; and photograph, not photographie. And if you were English, youâd probably say âI thought youâd never answerâ and âweâve had a lot of snowâ, and âat Christmas we wentâ, not âwe have goneâ, and youâd say âIâve skied since I was four years old.â You got some other things a bit wrong, too, but I knew what you meant.
By the way, you have very nice handwriting. I wish I could write as well as that. Do they teach you at school?
I havenât got any photographs of me here, but Iâll see if I can find one at home. We break up for the Easter holidays in three weeks, thank goodness. I wish we were going to Craigmore, but we will be stuck in London, worse luck.
From,
Stroma
12th March, 1937
Dear Stroma,
Thank you for your letter and for correcting my mistakes. Yes, I really do want you to tell me when I make them. And, yes, they teach us handwriting in school. We must always write very exactly.
I think you will soon be at home for the Easter holidays (we call this Ostern) and so I am sending this to your address in London. I also have a short holiday for Easter and I will finish at the High School in July, after I have done more exams.
The weather is warmer and we will be sailing
Sturmwind
again. First, we must clean her very well after the winter, and then we will go to sail out on the Baltic Sea. Bruno and I look forward to this. It will be very gud to be free from our studies.
What are you doing in London? There must be many things to see and I should like very much to visit there one day. We have interesting things in Hamburg, too. We have gud museums and historich buildings. There are some very old steamships in the harbour and also old barges on the canals. We have many canals and, of course, the River Elbe which is very important for the city. We can take a boot to England from the port. Perhaps one day I will do that.
Please do not forget to send a photograph of you (I spell it correctly this time).
Bruno and I give our best wishes to you and to Hamish.
From,
Reinhard
PS. When is your birthday?
17th April, 1937
Dear Reinhard,
Thank you for your letter. There isnât really any news to tell you at the moment. Hamish has gone away to stay with a friend from his school and I havenât done much except go to the zoo once in Regentâs Park and read and practise the piano. I have to practise a lot because my piano teacher at school gave me a new piece to learn by heart in the holidays and sheâll be furious if I havenât done it properly.
I went shopping with my mother, which was boring, and Iâve been to see friends in London, but we didnât do anything very interesting except go to the cinema and walk in the park.
Our cat, Delilah, had six kittens at the back of a kitchen cupboard. Theyâre all black, like her, except one which is a ginger tom. We are going to keep him and find homes for the others. I wish we could keep them all because theyâre so sweet.
I go back to school for the summer term next week. We have to wear hideous brown and white frocks and a straw boater. We play tennis and rounders, and swim in the school pool (which is even colder than the lochs on Islay). Some of the girls play cricket. We have exams in July, like
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