Hot Times During the Cold War:


An American Comes of Age
In West Germany

By Scott W. Hawley

From 1985 to 1988, Scott W. Hawley, the son of a U.S. Air Force officer, lived on Rhein Main Air Force Base, a bustling U.S. military installation located in the heart of what was then West Germany. One of six hundred children of U.S. military personnel attending Frankfurt American High School, he lived the unique experience of being an American teenager in Germany during the Cold War.

While Hawley and his friends studied calculus and chemistry and sold candy bars to send the track team to Brussels, their parents commanded tank battalions, flew transport aircraft, and honed their combat skills. Hawley came of age in a community preparing for Armageddon, yet he reveled in the wondrous "so-what" cacophony of stoners, drama geeks, skaters, letter-jacket athletes, and break-dancers.

A memoir in poetic verse, Hot Times during the Cold War artfully captures the energy of "living on the edge" at a time when the world held its collective breath.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Aug 16, 2007
• ISBN: 9780595885633

Scott W. Hawley

A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Emory University, Scott W. Hawley is the author of Frohes Wandern and coauthor of Museums of Atlanta. After serving in the U.S. Army, Hawley finished climbing all fifty-four of the fourteen-thousand-foot mountains in Colorado. He currently lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with his wife, Portia, and their son Luke.

Book preview

HOT TIMES DURING

THE COLD WAR

AN AMERICAN COMES OF AGE

IN WEST GERMANY

SCOTT W. HAWLEY

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HOT TIMES DURING THE COLD WAR

AN AMERICAN COMES OF AGE IN WEST GERMANY

Copyright © 2007 Scott W. Hawley.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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ISBN: 978-0-5954-4233-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-0-5958-8563-3 (e)

iUniverse rev. date: 09/23/2020

To

the sons and daughters

of American military personnel,

fellow nomads

from everywhere and nowhere.

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Preface

Arrival

Transatlantic

Piccadilly Circus

Bomb Threat

Base Commander’s Son

Tunnel Rats

Daily Grind

Sand Pits

Base Exchange

Expectations

Look Behind You

Libya

Bush

Movie Night

Back Gate

Polizei

Fasching Parade

School Days

English Teacher

Pea Head

Greased Buns

Creative Writing

Angela

The Frau

Soccer Balls

Autobahn

Lonely

Friend

Cock Watcher

Say What?

Skeet

Dinner

Almost

Finally

L.O.S.T.

L.O.S.T.

Joe D’lonra

Eric the Bassist

Pickles

Toenail

Hardcore

New Line-Up

Prom Night

Hitting the Road

Goggles

Haircut

Meet and Greet

Pompeii

Butt Lint

Andorra

Ugly American

Dutch Ducks

Homesick

Auf Wiedersehen

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am grateful for the copy-editing skills of Valerie Davis

Most of all, I am grateful for Portia.

I couldn’t have seen this through without