Hong Kong Charlie

In Berlin we could go in and out the gate dressed in fatigues during the daytime, but at night we had to be either in class A uniform or civilian clothes. Not just any civilian clothes either, we had to wear a suit and tie. At some point they modified the rules so that you could take your tie and jacket off if you were at an event where the local Germans weren't wearing ties and jackets. The only time I remember seeing Germans downtown without their ties and jackets was at a Halloween party. My friends and I hadn't set out to go to that particular party, we just kind of stumbled into it.

Another time I got to dress informally was when a few of us went skiing. Most of Berlin was flat as a pancake, but they had a few hills that had been constructed out of the ruble of World War II, and one of them featured a small ski run. My friends talked me into it, even though I told them I had never been skiing in my life. They said they would teach me but, when we got there, we found there as no place to practice, there was just the one straight run, which had a lodge type building right at the bottom of it. My friends said that I shouldn't have any trouble because it was an easy run, but I was worried about crashing through the plate glass window at the bottom of the run. They showed me how to "snowplow", which was supposed to be a way to stop myself, but I never did get the hang of it. They also told me that, if I was ever out of control, I should lay down on my side, and that would stop me for sure. I did get the hang of that. I would snowplow all the way down, and then lay down on my side right at the end. I don't know how many times I did that, but I was soaking wet by the time we left. None of us had any proper ski clothes, and I was wearing a bulky knit wool sweater, which my friends told me later was a mistake. I asked them why they hadn't told me that before we went, and they said they had figured that I knew what I was doing, in spite of the fact that I had told them in the beginning that I did not.

The first time I went downtown in Berlin I wore my class As because I didn't have a civilian suit to wear. Nobody in our outfit ever wore class As downtown, and they all told me to get a proper suit from Hong Kong Charlie, who visited our barracks about once a month. Charlie sold really nice quality suits for a really cheap price. He would wheel several clothes racks right into the barracks and set up shop in the hallway by the orderly room, which is what we called our company office. We didn't buy our suits off the rack, those suits were just samples for us to look at. After we picked out the suit we wanted, Charlie would measure us all over, order one like it custom made for us, and bring it with him the next time he came around. I think the suits were actually made in Hong Kong, which is why we called the dealer "Hong Kong Charlie". Some guys bought several suits and sent them home to wear after their discharge because the prices were so cheap. I just bought the one, and it served me well for two and a half years. I don't remember what happened to it after I got out, but I probably outgrew it before it wore out.