| Back in the olden times, everything was a bit
different, even Christmas. It has been more than 50 years ago that we were
allowed to write our wishes on a Christmas List. At the orphanage in Zurich,
every year, many children wrote a Christmas List: «To the Christ
Child (St. Nick) - In Heaven.» And we knew that our wish could only
be fulfilled if the hopefully expected gift would not cost more than 10
Swiss Francs. The choice of gifts for 10 Francs seemed limitless! We found
many things in the catalogues of the toy stores: ”Only 7.50 Francs - only
10 Francs…!" |
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We had to choose carefully. There were many things
that cost only 5 Francs and that we would have liked, but we did not simply
want to squander this once-a-year chance. It was not easy, and one time,
it proved impossibility for me. I was not able to make up my mind; nothing
I had seen in the catalogue I had liked, nothing that had a price tag of
10 Francs or less. And the truth of the fact was that I really did not
want a toy; I was wishing for a duck. Yes, a real, live duck, to be exact:
a white duck. A duck all of my own.
In the orphanage, we only had chickens, which
gave us eggs. |
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| We also had ducks. Our cooks said that duck eggs
should only be used for baking. We had chicken and duck eggs, which I had
to collect everyday and bring into the kitchen. Counting and weighing of
these eggs was my chore - and each Saturday I had to clean the chicken
coop and the two duck houses - of course I had to feed too. It was a much-wanted
job in the orphanage, much better than cleaning the stairs or emptying
the trash. I was ”Master” over chickens and ducks - or maybe rather a ”servant,”
the ”Mistress” was Miss Lehmann, an older woman with a large goiter and
devout words |
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