Ken Pattison: “The exchange brought Jo, my late wife, and me  together! Dok and his wife came to our wedding in 1970!”.

Ken Pattison: Redditch Cologne Exchange Memories, December 2015

I participated in Redditch – Cologne exchanges from 1964-1967, both staying with German families in Cologne and receiving guests from Cologne at our home in Redditch. I followed brother Frank in this, but not in his love of, and prowess in, German!

 My memory is that I stayed with Detlef Heinz in summer 1964, and he stayed with me at Easter 1965. I stayed with Ewald Balfer in summer 1965 and summer 1966 and he stayed with me at Easter 1966 and 1967. Also a German student stayed with us in summer 1965, coming to England with the returning English students, called Eddie Gieseler (?). Ewald was the nephew of Dok’s German opposite number latterly, Gunter Zervas, but Dok was always the driving force.

 Also my late wife Jo, Jo Wragg as she was then, participated in the exchange, visiting Cologne on one occasion, and receiving her German host (Inge or Ingrid?) back to her home in Alvechurch, a village a few miles from Redditch. However the Wraggs were such good and generous hosts, and Dok was so persuasive, that they ended up hosting not only children but staff, including Gunter Zervas, and Karl Heinz Bochynek on two occasions. Karl Heinz, or Bokky as he became known, became a family friend, and Jo and I stayed with his family in Cologne in 1967(at the start of a tandem holiday down the Rhine!) and 1973, and the whole family stayed with them in 1987 and 1994, leaving our daughter Helen there for a week as she was studying German at A level (and subsequently at university). Helen again visited them in 2005/6 when in Germany as part of her Post Graduate Certificate in Education course to become a qualified primary school teacher, specialising in bringing modern languages into the primary school curriculum. We received his younger daughter Sabine to our family home in Shrewsbury in 1990 for an extended stay at the time of the World Cup in Italy, when we briefly made a football fan of her, and an English one too!

Through Dok the Wraggs also hosted as a paying guest Connie Von Nell from Bad Godesburg, part of the Von Nell family owning the Thiergarten vineyard on the Moselle. Connie also became a family friend and stayed at the Wraggs again, and we stayed with her at the family home in Hamm in 1987, and went to her husband Peter’s 40th birthday party at the Thiergarten vineyard. Connie’s daughter Carolin has also stayed with us on two occasions. So many connections, and all through Dok. Dok never taught me, but he taught Jo and her younger sister Judy, who also participated in the exchange. Jo loved him, and did German A level with him, and also Spanish O level, and subsequently did a BEd degree at Sheffield City College of Education in French and German, but she preferred German. I first asked Jo out as we were saying farewell to the German guests at Easter 1966 and Dok and his wife came  to our wedding in 1970, so the exchange brought us together, I’m very glad to say. Dok was inspirational, and liked by everyone.

Karl Heinz was a very good photographer, and took lots of photos, partly to promote and publicise the exchange. I have copies of some (at present still in storage as I have moved this year) but he will have far more. I am still in Christmas card contact so I could ask him to make contact with you if you would like?

Best wishes, Ken Pattison

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