Alone again

The Black Gate at Trier

     One of my aims in this trip was to find out if the French remember the United States' contribution, and my question was answered yesterday.  But before explaining that, I turn to breakfast at the small Continental Hotel in Reims where I talked to another American who is here for the 100th anniversary of Meuse-Argonne.  He is from State College, Pennsylvania and here because of his interest in the 28th Infantry Division made up of the Pennsylvania National Guard. They were to the left of Dad's 35th Division at Cheppy.  It was into their sector that Harry Truman had his artillery fire, an act for which he was almost court-martialed.  There will be a commemoration ceremony at the big (14,000 graves) American Argonne Cemetery this afternoon (Sunday).  This man has volunteered to participate in the reading of the names of the 14,000 dead. He is assigned 39 names.  It is expected to take 30 or 40 hours.  He will also help place electric candles on each grave for an illumination tonight.  We exchanged learning and maps.  We met again later at the car rental place at the train station in Reims, two blocks from the hotel.  The Continental, we discovered, is popular because it is within walking distance of the train.
       And so it is at the car rental place, Enterprise, that my question was answered.  It is a tiny, almost sleepy business.  I was the only one there for ten or twenty minutes, before the other Americans wheeled their suitcases from the hotel.  But a short time later, two Frenchmen arrived to turn in their car.  When they learned that the Americans were here to commemorate WWI, especially me, a man whose father had fought here, they began shaking my hand vigorously.  They were muscular men in their fifties.  They hadn't been born when WWI was over.  Indeed, they were probably born after WWII.  But they still knew the history.  Speaking in French, one said 'We were defeated and then the Americans came and saved us.'  Then referring to Trump's attitude of neglect for the defense of Europe, he added, 'But we are alone again!'  Another older Frenchman arrived with our rental car. When he heard that my father fought in WWI, he too shook my hand and thanked me for what my 'pere' had done.  Dad would have liked to hear that.
    I write this from Trier, Germany.  We drove here yesterday past roadsigns for exits to the places Dad recorded in his diary.  St. Mihiel, Claremont-en-Argonne, Varennes and over the Aire and Meuse rivers.  Distances that took Dad a day or two to march in 1918, we passed in five or ten minutes on the A4 highway at the posted speed limit of 130 km/hr or 78 mph.
     We decided that it is best not to mention the purpose of my visit to the people in Germany.  We are instead just two of thousands of tourists.  Last night we visited the Black Gate the Romans built. Trier was surrounded by a high wall that ran for 6 kilometers in Roman times.  This one gate to the city was preserved because a priest name Simeon converted it into a church in about 1000 AD.  No cement or mortar was used in its construction, we were told.  The old Roman amphitheater still is here as well, contained within the now-vanished walls.  So Rome's influence and the bellicosity of the area can still be seen and felt.  I fell asleep last night imagining a farm boy from rural Italy conscripted into the Roman army and dispatched to man the wall at Trier.  Like Dad, army service took him away from a narrow farm existence and let him see the world.
     I will end with a return to WWI history.  Trier is also famous for Karl Marx's presence.  The house he lived in is a tourist site.  It was suggested we eat at the same restaurant he ate in here, but we found a better place just down the street.  And whereas Dad was critical of the French fighting spirit because of their stopping every few hours to drink wine, the wine from the Moselle Valley around Trier that we had at dinner last night was exceptionally good.  We talked to the elderly German woman dining alone at the table next to us.  Although we couldn't speak each other's language, she communicated that we should also try the beer and after dinner wine.  Perhaps we will do that today.