Seeing the Sights

A short story by Rosemary

In the summer of 1905, in a rural area of western Pennsylvania, two boys were born into the Wenger Mennonite community on the same day. They were pretty typical kids, and they went to school together. Played together. Worked together, and determined that when they went on rumspringa, it would be together.

Leroy was born in the morning of July 2^nd, and Eduard, later that night, and they considered that it was God’s will that they be friends. They loved each other like brothers, and when they were eighteen years old, they left home, and went to Philadelphia on their Rumspringa.

There, they decided to sow their wild oats. Normally, the Mennonite young people on Rumspringa would not get into nearly the trouble that an Amish child would. Perhaps the Amish allowing their children to go at a younger age was at fault. Whatever it was, Leroy and Eduard wanted to see what the world had to offer beyond what they had ever known.

Prohibition was still ongoing, but the two wanted a taste of alcohol before they returned home, so they sought a place where they could get some. It wasn’t terribly hard to find a place. A speakeasy, as they learned, was where they could find what they wanted.

The liquor hit them hard, but they somehow ended up in their hotel room.

The details were understandably fuzzy of what happened next, but somehow the two found that their love for each other was deeper than what they had thought, and for the next several days, they explored the possibilities. One need not have a very vivid imagination to realize what would have happened if they returned home, and were baptized into their church, so they decided to forgo the return.

Most kids returned home, but it was not unheard of to abandon the church during this time.

They decided to move farther east so they left Philadelphia, and headed to Pittsburgh, where the coal mines were.

Eduard was a genius with mathematics, and he got a job working with the company ledgers, while Leroy worked in the mines.

It was several months after they had been in Pittsburgh that over the dinner table Eduard looked up from his plate. “You know we’re never going to make enough to get away from here, don’t you?”

Leroy glanced up. “I know it. He looked down at his plate and started shoveling food into his mouth again.”

“I’ve got an idea.”

“What’s that?” Leroy kept eating.

“I can arrange it so we have enough money to leave.”

Leroy stopped eating and looked at his lover.

“Are you thinking of theft?”

“How long do you think we can go without people figuring out that we’re lovers?”

“What does it matter?”

Eduard shook his head, and tried another tack. “Don’t you think it would be nice to get away from such hard work? To be able to go and do what we want. When we left we wanted to see the world. We haven’t even left Pennsylvania!”

“We would have to leave town.”

“Certainly.”

“How do you propose we do that?”

“In disguise.”

And so it was, two weeks after the next pay was given out, two young women, Lena and Hedwig boarded a train bound for New York. Everyone boarding trains for the last week had been checked, but all of their papers checked out. Lena came from Illinois, and Hedwig from Missouri. They were traveling separately.

On reaching New York City, the two went their separate ways, and Hedwig never saw Lena again. However, by happenstance, she met a young man named Leo while she was checking into a hotel. He too, was new to the city, although he had come from North Carolina, not Pennsylvania.

Hedwig was having trouble with her bags, and he offered to help her. They enjoyed each other’s company, and made many friends in town. It was no surprise to anyone when they got married in 1932.

Not long after their wedding, Hedwig once again, pushed the boundaries. “Lee, I’d like to see more of the world.”

He laughed and asked, “Where do you want to go, Heddy?”

“I’d like to see where we came from.”

“Pennsylvania?”

“No,” she giggled. “Germany.”

He nodded. “It would be fascinating, wouldn’t it?”

“Yes, I believe it would.”

So they wrapped up their affairs in New York, and set sail across the Atlantic Ocean. In Europe, they visited many countries, and were enthralled by the heritage. Eventually, in 1935, they settled in Frankfurt, and lived there for two years.

This time, it was Lee who decided he wanted to see more of the Americas. They had seen so little, that he felt that they really hadn’t done it justice.

Heddy agreed that it would be fun to see the sights again, and on March 3^rd, they boarded an airship to take them to New Jersey.

It was a wonderful flight, and they enjoyed looking down on New York as they flew toward New Jersey. They were standing by the angled windows, watching as the ship prepared to dock. Suddenly, a sound like a tornado came through the passenger areas!

Someone screamed, and Heddy turned to ask Lee what had happened. He was on fire! She looked around for something to grab to help him, but realized that her dress was in flames. Her next breath seared her lungs, and as she fell, she caught a glimpse of her husband, already laying on the floor. Her eyes ceased to function.

It's practically standing still now they've dropped ropes out of the nose of the ship; and (uh) they've been taken ahold of down on the field by a number of men. It's starting to rain again; it's... the rain had (uh) slacked up a little bit. The back motors of the ship are just holding it (uh) just enough to keep it from... It's burst into flames! It's burst into flames, and it's falling, it's crashing! Watch it, watch it, folks! Get out of the way, get out of the way! Get this, Charlie; get this, Charlie! It's fire... and it's crashing! It's crashing terrible! Oh, my! Get out of the way, please! It's burning and bursting into flames and the... and it's falling on the mooring mast and all the folks agree that this is terrible; this is one of the worst catastrophes in the world. Oh, it's crashing... oh, four or five hundred feet into the sky, and it’s a terrific crash, ladies and gentlemen. There’s smoke, and there’s flames, now, and the frame is crashing to the ground, not quite to the mooring mast. Oh, the humanity, and all the passengers screaming around here! I told you; it – I can't even talk to people, their friends are on there! Ah! It's... it... it's a... ah! I... I can't talk, ladies and gentlemen. Honest: it's just laying there, a mass of smoking wreckage. Ah! And everybody can hardly breathe and talk and the screaming. I... I... I'm sorry. Honest: I... I can hardly breathe. I... I'm going to step inside, where I cannot see it. Charlie, that's terrible. Ah, ah... I can't. Listen, folks; I... I'm gonna have to stop for a minute because I've lost my voice. This is the worst thing I've ever witnessed.

— Herbert Morrison, Transcription of WLS radio broadcast describing the Hindenburg disaster.