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.And she said, You have an accent. And I said, Yes, I am French. And she said, Oh, I went to Paris last year and bought a book for thechildren but I cannot translate it. So, I gave her my card and said, Comeon over anytime.I won t charge anything and I d have pleasure doing it. That s what I do now.I teach French to anybody who wants to learn.Ten HI, RED! Raymonde D.is a pretty woman who does not look her age.An only child, shewas born in Mons, Belgium, in 1927.When she was five years old, her parentsmoved to Valenciennes, where they stayed more than 76 years, all the whileretaining their Belgian citizenship.As for Raymonde, she considers herself to beValenciennoise [an inhabitant of Valenciennes] and remains very attached tothe north of France.I interviewed Raymonde twice at her home in a residential suburb of Detroitwhere she lives with her second husband.The mother of two children by her firsthusband, the G.I.she met in Valenciennes, she has three grandchildren.Easy to talk to and an extrovert, Raymonde put me in touch with other warbrides in the Detroit area and showed and lent me photos.Her original accountin French was charmingly sprinkled with American words and English expres-sions.In the following translation, I have used italicized French expressions torender this use of franglais. I was very young, about 12, when the war began.It was as if I grew upduring the whole time it lasted.Papa was a coal merchant, and Mamanhelped him by taking orders.In a way, during the war, I was lucky my fatherhad his own business, because we were able to do a bit of trade what theycalled marché noir [black market trade] which helped us to survive.The Germans would come knock on our door, often at night, wheneverthey wanted something, and we had to give it to them.My father had ahangar where he kept his coal and his truck, and they d come at night, even86 French War Brides in Americaat four in the morning, and say, We need 100 kilos of coals, or we need. So my father had to run around and give them whatever they wanted.Andthey d often ask my father if he had any children.When my father answeredhe had a daughter, they d say, Ach, gut, and then give us some bread.Thebread was as hard as wood, so they told us to wet it and to roll it in a toweland then we could cut it.We were often happy to have at least that.I remember once a friend and I went to a potato field that was guarded byGermans, that is, a German guard kept watch over the field by walking backand forth.And when he was on one side, my friend kept watch while I duginto the earth with my hands and pulled up some potatoes, and then after-wards it was my turn to keep watch while she dug.Maman was furious withme afterwards and told me I could have been killed.But I was happy andsaid, But at least we have some potatoes to eat! At one point, the Germans requisitioned my father s hangar.This wasbecause they wanted to bring horses from the front, from the battlefield,there.When horses were wounded, they were sent up to our part ofthe North, since there were German veterinarians near my father s hangar.The veterinarians treated the horses, bandaged them, did everything theyhad to.And if the horses survived, they d send them back to the front in trainsgoing through our part of the country.If some of the horses couldn t befixed up, they d kill them, and we were the ones who ate them, because theGermans would sell the meat to the butcher, and he sold the meat to civilians.This was in 1942, 1943, and 1944, and we were happy to be able to gethorsemeat.During the summer, there were horrible invasions of flies! That s becausethere were all the horses and their open wounds.We used a lot of things tocombat the flies, and they d fall everywhere.So if you were in a café or athome, you d have to cover your glass all the time because of the flies.Youhad to be careful.And when the horses died, the Germans buried theminthe fields.A lot of people got sick.We didn t know from what exactly; it camefrom everything.It was very dangerous in the North where I lived because German airplanesflew over us on their way to London.So we heard them all the time.We alsoheard the bombs during the night, and we often had to go down into thebasement to protect ourselves.Everything was requisitioned.We didn t haveanything to eat.It was really hard.The Germans requisitioned my aunt s house, but fortunately they didn trequisition our house or my school.I could go to school, and I got my certif-icat [after finishing primary school] during the war.The Germans were Hi, Red! 87around all the time.Afterwards, in 1945, when there were battles with theAmericans, the Germans left Valenciennes.Then the Americans came andsettled in our region.The war wasn t even over yet.I met my husband in March 1945.He d just arrived.The Americans hadset up camp in a silk fabrique [factory] where the Germans were before them.I d often see the soldiers passing by our house on their way to the factory,where there was a mess hall.When my friends and I were outside, the Amer-icans would say, Hello. I saw this one man pass by two or three times a day,and I thought he was cute.I had red hair at the time, and he used to call out Hi, Red! I didn t understand what he was saying. Red? I asked myself. Why does he call me Red? After seeing him several times, he stopped oneday with a friend who could speak French and could translate.The friendsaid, Bonjour Mademoiselle.Comment allez-vous? Then he asked what myname was and if my girlfriend and I could come out and meet them some-time.After that, we d go out for walks, and I d show them the town and soon.Then one day my parents invited him over and gave him something todrink.He came over more and more after that, and voila!He was charming, but at the time he didn t speak French, and I didn tspeak much English, just a few words.In the beginning, his friend fromNew York would translate, but later on I taught him to speak French.The Americans had a Rec Hall [sic] where we danced on Friday, Saturday,and Sunday.I d never danced before.I was only 18, and, of course, during thewar we didn t go out.I went with him to the Rec Hall, but Maman wouldtake us and be our chaperone.My girlfriend came, too.We learned how todance there; it was really nice.We d never seen anything like it because we dgrown up during the war and never had anything like that.We learned howto dance the jitterbug.I really liked music and could play a little piano.That s how it happened.And it happened fast because I met him in Marchand come July, I was married.My husband was a sergeant in the Signal Corps.He took care of all thewedding papers.He asked for permission from the army in May, and it tooktwo months to have the papers.The army didn t like those marriages, and ittook a long time.They tried to dissuade the soldiers and would say, Wait tillthe war is over.Come back [to France] later. Maybe they had doubts thatthe marriages would last.I don t know.There were a lot of marriages in mycity, though about a dozen.My neighbor married a month after me, andI have another friend who married two months afterwards.There were a lotof marriages, but a lot of divorces, too.As for me, I actually stayed marriedfor 20 years.88 French War Brides in AmericaOur wedding took place in Valenciennes on July 16, 1945.We had topublish the banns for two weeks before that.We were married by the townmayor.We didn t get married [afterwards] in a church because my husbandwas Jewish
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