Gram's Story Part 2

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My Paternal great grandparents Adam Max Hopfengartner and Wilhelmina Hutteman had a house in Holubkov, Czech Republic which is now used as a nursing home. Adam Max Hopfengartner was the owner of Zbirožský Machinery Hopfengärtner an Ironworks company in Holoubkov The house was about an hour outside of Prague and was very spacious with a large garden and stream going through it. I spent a lot of my holidays at this house with my grandmother Kunigunde Hopfengartner. Oma used to have a German Sheppard named Putsa which I loved dearly, and she would follow me wherever I went when I was at the house. Putsa was my babysitter when I was young. This is where my love of dogs started.

You could say I was adventurous even as a child, during the summer I would sail down the stream near my great grandparents house. I would use a wooden washtub and large wooden spoons, with Putsa always next to me splashing at my side, It was great fun. In the winter I would sleigh ride down the great steep road with bumps near the house., if I was lucky when Ollie was home he would attach my sled to his motor bike and we would slide across the frozen lake.

Holidays were always a special time when Easter arrived, Oma Kuni, Uncle Ernie, and Uncle Ollie would hide the eggs and chocolates, I used to spend all morning looking for where they were hidden. And Christmas was spent seeing the beautiful tree on Wenceslas Square. On another trip Oma Kuni and I went with Putsa to Hradchine, which had a lot of steps to get to the Cathedral. The view of Hradschine was great as you could see all of Prague.

Prague was known as the Golden City (Zlata), and it was a very beautiful city. I used to go to the old Town with Oma Kuni and Putza, to see the big Clock which on the hour the 12 Apostles would come out by one door and leave by the other, it was a wonderful site.

One time my mother and I went on a vacation to the Brioni Islands in the Adriatic Sea. While there I did a lot of swimming and bike riding. The day that I was leaving the island I was bike riding down a steep hill too fast and almost crashed into the ocean. Instead I landed in sand and gravel and scraped my knee. My mother was very angry at me because we were leaving that afternoon. Lucky for me my Oma Kuni came and picked me up in Gardone. Oma Kuni and I headed to Austria and stayed in Saltsburg for a few days. We had a great time sightseeing.

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Xfaith

David has been an avid home genealogist for 15 years, researching surnames: DECKER, KONDRC, MACZEK, HOPFENGARTNER, PERUTZ, LEDERER, and more.