1963 Letter: Roger Blick

Hello Mr Nash,

Roger Blick hat seinen Fahrtausweis beigefügt, da er während der Exchange-Zeit Gast in einer Familie zu Rösrath war.

As promised, herewith my fondest recollections of Doc Deutschkron.
 
I attended Redditch County High School from 1959 to 1964. During that time it was my good fortune to have had “Doc“ Deutschkron, as my German Teacher. He was a lovely man and a great teacher. German came to be my favourite lesson, thanks mainly to “Doc“. Unlike other teachers, it was always “Doc“, never “Sir“. I managed to pass my 0 level German exams with high grades but I never went on to pursue this to A level.
 
Here are a few amusing stories about our time together:
 
My surname is Blick, which I understand has german origins, so when we first met as teacher/pupil, he made a particular reference to it. “Blick, Blick, we have a der Blick in Deutsch“. So from that point on I became Der Blick, not Herr Blick.
 
I think I was one of his favourite pupils, so I often played him up. If I was doing German to English translation and came across a word I did not recognize & could not translate, Doc would get very animated & shout “same verd“, same verd“. So, if for example I was translating . . . in those times, life was “wunderbar“... & stumbled, Doc would tell “same verd“, same verd“. So I would continue  “In those times, life was wunderbar... .“. Nein, nein, he would respond, same verd, same verd, and so it went on.
 
He had a unique way of handing out our exercise books in the morning, after having marked them the night before. He would shout out our names, for me it was “Blick, Blick, where is Der Blick?“ & when we put our hands up, he would hurl our books across the room to us as though they were frisbies. Often, we had to dive to our left or right if his aim wasn‘t particularly good & on many occasions, loose pages flew all over the classroom.
 
We didn‘t just do written and oral German with Doc. Oh no, that was too easy for him, he taught us how to sing in German as well. I don‘t remember all of them, but the one that sticks in my head was “Tannenbaum, oh Tannenbaum, wie treu sind deine blattern“ (hope that‘s correct).
In August 1963, it was my good fortune to go an exchange visit with Doc to Germany. We were all supplied with travel passes of some sort. l‘ve still got mine, so l‘ve enclosed a photocopy of it.
I stayed with a family in a village outside Cologne — I think it was Pfingst or something like that. I can‘t rernember the family‘s name but I do remember that the father was a fisherman and the son‘s name was Karl Heinz. lt was so long ago now, but I do remember that they made me very welcome. While we were there we had a boat ride on the Rhine, a visit to the parliament buildings (Bundes something or other) and a trip to the top of Cologne Cathedral. I used to remember how many steps there were, they seemed never ending. I can also remember a visit to the German Grand Prix at the Neurbergring where I saw the legendary Jim Clarke.
 
I hope that these insights into the life of Doc will be useful. Please pass my best wishes to Herr Schmitz. Im sure his book will be a great success.
 
lf I can be of any any further assistance, please don‘t hesitate to get in touch. Yours faithfully
Roger Blick ("Der Blick").

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