Family Business

This is a photo of the old Seckler house in Langenlonsheim, Germany. For the first six years of my life, I grew up in this house. It was built in 1789, and was located on the main street of Langenlonsheim. My family, parents and grandparents on my father's side, lived on the first and second floor of that house. My parents ran the small business, you can see, at street level. They sold everything from newspapers, pencils, and postcards to home decorating products such as paint,wallpaper, and carpets...

The advertisement on the building depicts a character holding a paintbrush. He was known as "Krautolmaennchen". (in transl. the little Krautolguy) The ad says:" Do it yourself with Krautol." If you haven't guessed it already, Krautol was a brand of paint. I am sure being around paint all the time really fostered my artistic sensibility...

This picture, like most of the pictures from my parents photo album, was taken in front of the family business. My dad must have taken it from the other side of the street, in order to get the whole storefront into the picture. I think, the car was also very important to him. You can't see the features of the people, but you could easily make out the car model my parents were going in debt for that year if you tried...I deduct the picture must have been taken in the year 1966/1967. I don't have an exact date and can only tell by the number of children. The two kids on the left hand side of the car are my two oldest sisters, Susanne and Christine. On the other side is my mom holding my sister Sabine. She was my parent's third daughter born in 1966.