Betty MacDonald's sister Alison Bard Burnett
Betty MacDonald's mother Sydney with grandchild Alison Beck
Betty and Don MacDonald in Hollywood
Ma and Pa Kettle - and Betty MacDonald fan club fans,
it's very sad that Alison Bard Burnett never wrote her autobiography.
What a loss!
But I'd like to say THANKS A LOT, dear Linde Lund and your Betty MacDonald Fan Club Team for publishing Wolfgang Hampel's wonderful interviews with Alison Bard Burnett.
Wolfgang Hampel deserves the honour so much in winning the first Betty MacDonald Memorial Award.
Alison Bard Burnett is a gifted storyteller. She explains us the very special Bard family magic.
Alison is as witty as her sisters Betty MacDonald and Mary Bard Jensen. These interviews with Wolfgang Hampel are Alison Bard Burnett's legacy and she shares it with the world.
Thank you so much, dear Wolfgang Hampel for writing the Betty MacDonald biography and interviewing Alison Bard Burnett and Betty MacDonald's and Mary Bard's family and friends.
Without Wolfgang Hampel's great activity and ability to ask excellent questions these unique Betty MacDonald Memories were gone.
I can imagine very well how Alison Bard Burnett and Wolfgang Hampel hurried through Seattle using Alison's old Volkswagen (VW).
Those were the days Seattle never forgot.
Such a wild couple!
Alison Bard Burnett said to Wolfgang Hampel: You are a great entertainer. The truth is, both are! I can't wait listening to Wolfgang Hampel's other interviews and reading his satirical poems and stories.
Thanks a Million, guys!
I promise: I'll attend the next international Betty MacDonald Event!
I won't ever forget Betty MacDonald Fan Club Royal Wedding Event in Stockholm.
It was a dream!
Yours,
Francesca
You have the chance to win several new Betty MacDonald fan club items.
Tell us please the name of the guy with an egg in his hand and the reason why he did it.
Betty MacDonald seemed to be very happy.
Deadline: September 30, 2016
Good luck!
Do you have any caricatures of beloved Betty MacDonald?
We are working on this subject ' Betty MacDonald in caricatures ' and are very grateful for your support.
Thank you so much for sending so many wonderful Betty MacDonald quotes to us.
We are delighted.
Send us your favourite Betty MacDonald quote, please.
You can find some of Betty MacDonald's most popular quotes below.
In case you can't find your favourite Betty MacDonald quote in it, send us yours, please.
We are working on this subject ' Betty MacDonald in caricatures ' and are very grateful for your support.
Don't miss Vita Magica September with Wolfgang Hampel, Sabine Arndt and tenor Heinz Meisel please.
It will be as great as ever.
Wolfgang Hampel already included Betty MacDonald and Betty MacDonald fan club honor members Letizia Mancino and Mr. Tigerli in Vita Magcia.
More Betty MacDonald fan club honor members will follow.
Thank you so much for sending so many wonderful Betty MacDonald quotes to us.
We are delighted.
Send us your favourite Betty MacDonald quote, please.
You can find some of Betty MacDonald's most popular quotes below.
In case you can't find your favourite Betty MacDonald quote in it, send us yours, please.
New Deadline: September 30, 2016
Don't miss it, please.
You can win several new Betty MacDonald fan club items.
Betty MacDonald fan club organizer Linde Lund posted on Facebook about a possible Betty MacDonald fan club meeting on Betty MacDonald's magical Vashon Island.
( see info at the end of this posting )
We are going to present Betty MacDonald fan club book cover winner.
Betty MacDonald fan club letter research team got some very interesting letters and documents some days ago.
If you'd like to share some of your letters by Betty MacDonald, Mary Bard Jensen and other family members join our Betty MacDonald fan club letter research team, please.
Betty MacDonald fan club letter research team got some very important letters by Betty MacDonald, Mary Bard Jensen and other family members.
Betty MacDonald, her sister Mary Bard Jensen and the other family members wrote very witty and interesting letters.
We got several new outstanding letters from Betty MacDonald fan club fans whose relatives had been in contact with Betty MacDonald and other family members.
Thank you so much for your outstanding support.
Betty MacDonald fan club event team is very happy to hear from you and they got some really great ideas for the next International event.
Thanks a lot!
Betty MacDonald fan club honor member Mr. Tigerli and our 'Italian Betty MacDonald' - Betty MacDonald fan club honor member author and artist Letizia Mancino belong to the most popular Betty MacDonald fan club teams in our history.
Letizia Mancino's magical Betty MacDonald Gallery is a special gift for our Betty MacDonald fan club fans.
Letizia Mancino's magical Betty MacDonald Gallery is a special gift for our Betty MacDonald fan club fans.
Greta is going to share new info on her latest Betty MacDonald fan club project ' Betty MacDonald on Vashon Island '.
We are looking for signed or dedicated first editions in great condition with dust jackets by Betty MacDonald and Mary Bard Jensen for our fans.
Betty MacDonald Memorial Award Winner Wolfgang Hampel and Betty MacDonald fan club research team are working on an updated Betty MacDonald biography and new Betty MacDonald documentary.
Dearest new Betty MacDonald fan club fans you'll receive a very important message by Betty MacDonald fan club event team.
This message includes a very nice Betty MacDonald fan club surprise and many info on our current Betty MacDonald fan club projects.
Join one of our Betty MacDonald fan club research teams, please.
Thanks a million in advance for your outstanding support.
Betty MacDonald Memorial Award Winner Wolfgang Hampel and Betty MacDonald fan club research team are working on an updated Betty MacDonald biography and new Betty MacDonald documentary.
Dearest new Betty MacDonald fan club fans you'll receive a very important message by Betty MacDonald fan club event team.
This message includes a very nice Betty MacDonald fan club surprise and many info on our current Betty MacDonald fan club projects.
Join one of our Betty MacDonald fan club research teams, please.
Thanks a million in advance for your outstanding support.
Enjoy a new breakfast at the bookstore with Brad and Nick, please.
Betty MacDonald fan club honor member Thomas Bödigheimer did a great job.
His voice and music are outstanding!
Thank you so much dearest Thomas!
Don't miss fascinating Vita Magica program September - December 2016, please.
Vita Magica was celebrating its 1st anniversary.
Jamie-Lee with Ghost got over 8 million views and more than 69.000 people like the song.
This is our Betty MacDonald fan club ESC 2016 TOP 5 according to Betty MacDonald fan club ESC fans in 40 countries.
I'd like to visit Betty MacDonald's very beautiful Vashon Island.
Yours,
Martine
Betty MacDonald Quotes
Don't miss this very special book, please.
Vita Magica
Betty MacDonald fan club
Betty MacDonald forum
Wolfgang Hampel - Wikipedia ( English )
Wolfgang Hampel - Wikipedia ( English ) - The Egg and I
Wolfgang Hampel - Wikipedia ( German )
Wolfgang Hampel - LinkFang ( German )
Wolfgang Hampel - Memim ( English )
Vashon Island - Wikipedia ( German )
Wolfgang Hampel - Monica Sone - Wikipedia ( English )
Wolfgang Hampel - Ma and Pa Kettle - Wikipedia ( English )
Wolfgang Hampel - Ma and Pa Kettle - Wikipedia ( French )
Wolfgang Hampel - Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle - Wikipedia ( English)
Wolfgang Hampel in Florida State University
Betty MacDonald fan club founder Wolfgang Hampel
Betty MacDonald fan club interviews on CD/DVD
Betty MacDonald fan club items
Betty MacDonald fan club items - comments
Betty MacDonald fan club - The Stove and I
Betty MacDonald fan club groups
Betty MacDonald fan club organizer Linde Lund
Linde Lund shared Pictures of Heidelberg's photo.
Dear Aashish Bernd Rudi Friedrich Pascale Heiderose Nunzia Pieter Michail Waseem Ursula Thomas Tatjana Theresia Franziska Nicole Ernst Wolf, Michael Sabine Winfried Schwab Immo Sascha Karl Angela Ulrich Wellhöfer Perkeo Thomas Barth Kirsten Birthe Andre Horst Dawid Dr. Karl A. Lamers Europäischer Hof Heidelberg
and all our other friends don't miss Vita Magica on Tuesday 28 th, 2016
please. The subject is magical Heidelberg with Rudi Lerche and other
surprising guests. http://wolfvitamagica.blogspot.de/…/vita-magica-juni-2016-m…
Bernd Kunze we will be there, one year vita magica, congratulations Wolfgang Hampel and Rita Kocher.
Linde Lund Dearst Rita Kocher und Wolfgang Hampel Congratulations!!!! Happy Birthday Vita Magica and all the best for the future! All our love and best wishes from Linde, Astrid and Lund family
Thomas Bödigheimer i am there Linde
Rita Knobel Ulrich - Islam in Germany - a very interesting ZDF ( 2nd German Television ) documentary with English subtitles.
Angela Merkel's party slumps as far-right surges in Berlin election
Berlin Christian Democrat Union candidate Frank Henkel saw his party slump to just 17.5% of the vote.
Story highlights
- Angela Merkel's CDU knocked out of ruling Berlin coalition
- Big gains for anti-immigrant party AfD
- Merkel acknowledges mistakes regarding the refugee crisis
(CNN)Germany's
two largest parties were facing up to losses in the nation's capital
Monday after large numbers of Berliners turned to the far-right.
Anti-immigrant party Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) will enter Berlin's state parliament for the first time, after winning 14.2% of the vote.
Angela
Merkel's center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) was knocked out
of a ruling coalition with the center-left Social Democrats, after
winning just 17.6% of the vote.
After
the poll result, Merkel acknowledged mistakes and shortcomings with the
controversial refugee policy which allowed hundreds of thousands into
the country.
"If I could I would
play back time so I and the German federal government and leaders could
have been better prepared," she said.
"We
have not done everything right in the last few years. We are not world
champions in integration," she added, highlighting that the asylum
process was taking too long, that there were too few language courses
and not enough labor market integration.
Merkel's party defeated in Germany state election 01:39
While
the Social Democrats won the largest share of the vote, 21.6%, they
will have to enter a coalition with two other left wing parties, Die
Linke (15.6%) and the Greens (15.2%) to govern.
The Berlin result marks the second recent defeat for Merkel since Germany adopted its open-door refugee policy.
AfD
was set up by a group disgruntled by Merkel's eurozone crisis
management -- most notably the Greek bailouts -- but it grew into a more
nationalist party that strongly opposed rising immigration levels,
particularly of people from Muslim countries.
Merkel
has stood firm on Germany's position of accepting nearly all asylum
seekers found to be legitimate refugees. Germany took in more than one
million refugees in 2015, making it the most open country in Europe to
asylum seekers.
In response to a
poll indicating that 82% of Germans are unhappy with the refugee policy,
Merkel said Monday: "If those 82% means that people do not accept
foreigners, particularly people with Islamic background, this is against
our constitutional rights, against our Christian democratic... and
personal convictions. I and the CDU cannot represent this course."
CNN's
correspondent in Berlin, Atika Shubert, reports that refugees were not
the top issue there, with rising rents and increasing gentrification
being ranked as more important.
But
she said: "The nearly 15% win for the right wing AfD even in this very
liberal city shows that, like many other parts of the country, it has
surged to become a real political force that Merkel cannot ignore."
Although
this election is for regional parliament and has no impact on the
government, Shubert said Merkel will have to acknowledge that voters are
unhappy with her party, especially the refugee policy.
Rise of the right
"She
remains the strongest most stable politician not only in Germany, but
arguably, Europe. And the European Union needs a strong Germany, not
just to deal with the refugee crisis, but also Brexit and the debt
crisis," Shubert said.
The rise of AfD in Germany reflects a surge in far-right populist parties across Europe.
"Because
of its history, post-war Germany has lacked a viable right-wing
political party. But the refugee issue has galvanized some voters to
get behind the AfD as a palatable right-wing alternative," said Shubert.
"German voters are not convinced the government is fully prepared for the task of integrating so many thousands of people."
Alliance strained
In an interview with CNN this month, AfD party leader Frauke Petry claimed the CDU was "falling apart."
"We see that in many regions of Germany the CDU bases, the party bases, don't agree with Merkel's policy any more," she said.
One of Merkel's current allies, Bavaria governor Horst Seehofer, told German newspaper Der Spiegel that a rift in policy between them could worsen if the Chancellor fails to impose a ceiling on immigration.
"We
don't want unlimited immigration like we saw last year and that's why
we need binding measures as a guarantee," he is quoted as saying.
"Our
constitution does not require us to take everybody who appears at our
borders and demands asylum. And when someone comes from a safe country
of origin, we can immediately repatriate them. The ceiling will work and
it is consistent with the constitution."
In the run up to the election, current mayor Michael Muller warned that a large showing by AfD "would be seen around the world as a sign of the return ... of the Nazis."
"Berlin
has transformed itself from the capital of Hitler's Germany to a
lighthouse of freedom, tolerance, diversity and social cohesion," Muller
wrote on Facebook.
Following in Betty’s footsteps in Seattle:
or some small talk with Betty
Copyright 2011/2016 by Letizia Mancino
All rights reserved
translated by Mary Holmes
We were going to Canada in the summer. “When we are in Edmonton”, I said to Christoph Cremer, “let’s make a quick trip to Seattle”. And that’s how it happened. At Edmonton Airport we climbed into a plane and two hours later we landed in the city where Betty had lived. I was so happy to be in Seattle at last and to be able to trace Betty’s tracks!
Wolfgang Hampel had told Betty’s friends about our arrival.
They were happy to plan a small marathon through the town and it’s surroundings with us. We only had a few days free. One should not underestimate Wolfgang’s talent in speedily mobilizing Betty’s friends, even though it was holiday time. E-mails flew backwards and forwards between Heidelberg and Seattle, and soon a well prepared itinerary was ready for us. Shortly before my departure Wolfgang handed me several parcels, presents for Betty MacDonald's friends. I rushed to pack the heavy gifts in my luggage but because of the extra weight had to throw out a pair of pajamas!
After we had landed we took a taxi to the Hotel in downtown Seattle. I was so curious to see everything. I turned my head in all directions like one of the hungry hens from Betty’s farm searching for food! Fortunately it was quite a short journey otherwise I would have lost my head like a loose screw!
Our hotel room was on the 22nd floor and looked directly out onto the 16-lane highway. There might have been even more than 16 but it made me too giddy to count! It was like a glimpse of hell! “And is this Seattle?” I asked myself. I was horrified! The cars racing by were enough to drive one mad. The traffic roared by day and night.
We immediately contacted Betty MacDonald's friends and let them know we had arrived and they confirmed the times when we should see them.
On the next morning I planned my first excursion tracing Betty’s tracks. I spread out the map of Seattle. “Oh dear” I realized “the Olympic Peninsula is much too far away for me to get there.”
Betty nodded to me! “Very difficult, Letizia, without a car.”
“But I so much wanted to see your chicken farm”
“My chickens are no longer there and you can admire the mountains from a distance”
But I wanted to go there. I left the hotel and walked to the waterfront where the State Ferry terminal is. Mamma mia, the streets in Seattle are so steep! I couldn’t prevent my feet from running down the hill. Why hadn’t I asked for brakes to be fixed on my shoes? I looked at the drivers. How incredibly good they must be to accelerate away from the red traffic lights. The people were walking uphill towards me as briskly as agile salmon. Good heavens, these Americans! I tried to keep my balance. The force of gravity is relentless. I grasped hold of objects where I could and staggered down.
In Canada a friend had warned me that in Seattle I would see a lot of people with crutches.
Betty laughed. “ It’s not surprising, Letizia, walking salmon don’t fall directly into the soft mouth of a bear!”
“ Betty, stop making these gruesome remarks. We are not in Firlands!”
I went further. Like a small deranged ant at the foot of a palace monster I came to a tunnel. The noise was unbearable. On the motorway, “The Alaskan Way Viaduct”, cars, busses and trucks were driving at the speed of light right over my head. They puffed out their poisonous gas into the open balconies and cultivated terraces of the luxurious sky- scrapers without a thought in the world. America! You are crazy!
“Betty, are all people in Seattle deaf? Or is it perhaps a privilege for wealthy people to be able to enjoy having cars so near to their eyes and noses to save them from boredom?”
“When the fog democratically allows everything to disappear into nothing, it makes a bit of a change, Letizia”
“ Your irony is incorrigible, Betty, but tell me, Seattle is meant to be a beautiful city, But where?”
I had at last reached the State Ferry terminal.
“No Madam, the ferry for Vashon Island doesn’t start from here,” one of the men in the ticket office tells me. ”Take a buss and go to the ferry terminal in West Seattle.”
Betty explained to me “The island lies in Puget Sound and not in Elliott Bay! It is opposite the airport. You must have seen it when you were landing!”
“Betty, when I am landing I shut my eyes and pray!”
It’s time for lunch. The weather is beautiful and warm. Who said to me that it always rains here?
“Sure to be some envious man who wanted to frighten you away from coming to Seattle. The city is really beautiful, you’ll see. Stay by the waterfront, choose the best restaurant with a view of Elliott Bay and enjoy it.”
“Thank you Betty!”
I find a table on the terrace of “Elliott’s Oyster House”. The view of the island is wonderful. It lies quietly in the sun like a green fleecy cushion on the blue water.
Betty plays with my words:
“Vashon Island is a big cushion, even bigger than Bainbridge which you see in front of your eyes, Letizia. The islands look similar. They have well kept houses and beautiful gardens”.
I relax during this introduction, “Bainbridge” you are Vashon Island, and order a mineral water.
“At one time the hotel belonging to the parents of Monica Sone stood on the waterfront.”
“Oh, of your friend Kimi!” Unfortunately I forget to ask Betty exactly where it was.
My mind wanders and I think of my mountain hike back to the hotel! “Why is there no donkey for tourists?” Betty laughs:
“I’m sure you can walk back to the hotel. “Letizia can do everything.””
“Yes, Betty, I am my own donkey!”
But I don’t remember that San Francisco is so steep. It doesn’t matter, I sit and wait. The waiter comes and brings me the menu. I almost fall off my chair!
“ What, you have geoduck on the menu! I have to try it” (I confess I hate the look of geoduck meat. Betty’s recipe with the pieces made me feel quite sick – I must try Betty’s favourite dish!)
“Proof that you love me!” said Betty enthusiastically “ Isn’t the way to the heart through the stomach?”
I order the geoduck. The waiter looks at me. He would have liked to recommend oysters.
“Geoduck no good for you!”
Had he perhaps read my deepest thoughts? Fate! Then no geoduck. “No good for me.”
“Neither geoduck nor tuberculosis in Seattle” whispered Betty in my ear!
“Oh Betty, my best friend, you take such good care of me!”
I order salmon with salad.
“Which salmon? Those that swim in water or those that run through Seattle?”
“Betty, I believe you want me to have a taste of your black humour.”
“Enjoy it then, Letizia.”
During lunch we talked about tuberculosis, and that quite spoilt our appetite.
“Have you read my book “The Plague and I”?”
“Oh Betty, I’ve started to read it twice but both times I felt so sad I had to stop again!”
“But why?” asked Betty “Nearly everybody has tuberculosis! I recovered very quickly and put on 20 pounds! There was no talk of me wasting away! What did you think of my jokes in the book?”
“Those would have been a good reason for choosing another sanitorium. I would have been afraid of becoming a victim of your humour! You would have certainly given me a nickname! You always thought up such amusing names!” Betty laughed.
“You’re right. I would have called you “Roman nose”. I would have said to Urbi and Orbi “ Early this morning “Roman nose” was brought here. She speaks broken English, doesn’t eat geoduck but she does love cats.”
“Oh Betty, I would have felt so ashamed to cough. To cough in your presence, how embarrassing! You would have talked about how I coughed, how many coughs!”
“It depends on that “how”, Letizia!”
“Please, leave Goethe quotations out of it. You have certainly learnt from the Indians how to differentiate between noises. It’s incredible how you can distinguish between so many sorts of cough! At least 10!”
“So few?”
”And also your descriptions of the patients and the nurses were pitiless. An artistic revenge! The smallest pimple on their face didn’t escape your notice! Amazing.”
“ I was also pitiless to myself. Don’t forget my irony against myself!”
Betty was silent. She was thinking about Kimi, the “Princess” from Japan! No, she had only written good things about her best friend, Monica Sone, in her book “The Plague and I”. A deep friendship had started in the hospital. The pearl that developed from the illness.
“Isn’t it wonderful, Betty, that an unknown seed can make its way into a mollusk in the sea and develop into a beautiful jewel?” Betty is paying attention.
“Betty, the friendship between you and Monica reminds me of Goethe’s poem “Gingo-Biloba”. You must know it?” Betty nods and I begin to recite it:
The leaf of this Eastern tree
Which has been entrusted to my garden
Offers a feast of secret significance,
For the edification of the initiate.
Is it one living thing.
That has become divided within itself?
Are these two who have chosen each other,
So that we know them as one?
The friendship with Monica is like the wonderful gingo-biloba leaf, the tree from the east. Betty was touched. There was a deep feeling of trust between us.
“Our friendship never broke up, partly because she was in distress, endangered by the deadly illness. We understood and supplemented each other. We were like one lung with two lobes, one from the east and one from the west!”
“A beautiful picture, Betty. You were like two red gingo-biloba leaves!”
Betty was sad and said ” Monica, although Japanese, before she really knew me felt she was also an American. But she was interned in America, Letizia, during the second world war. Isn’t that terrible?”
“Betty, I never knew her personally. I have only seen her on a video, but what dignity in her face, and she speaks and moves so gracefully!”
“Fate could not change her”
“Yes, Betty, like the gingo-biloba tree in Hiroshima. It was the only tree that blossomed again after the atom bomb!”
The bill came and I paid at once. In America one is urged away from the table when one has finished eating. If one wants to go on chatting one has to order something else.
“That’s why all those people gossiping at the tables are so fat!” Betty remarks. “Haven’t you seen how many massively obese people walk around in the streets of America. Like dustbins that have never been emptied!” With this typically unsentimental remark Betty ended our conversation.
Ciao! I so enjoyed the talk; the humour, the irony and the empathy. I waved to her and now I too felt like moving! I take a lovely walk along the waterfront.
Now I am back in Heidelberg and when I think about how Betty’s “Princessin” left this world on September 5th and that in August I was speaking about her with Betty in Seattle I feel very sad. The readers who knew her well (we feel that every author and hero of a book is nearer to us than our fleeting neighbours next door) yes we, who thought of her as immortal, cannot believe that even she would die after 92 years. How unforeseen and unexpected that her death should come four days after her birthday on September 1th. On September 5th I was on my way to Turkey, once again in seventh heaven, looking back on the unforgettable days in Seattle. I was flying from west to east towards the rising sun.
 |
Betty MacDonald's Vashon Island is a paradise.
info to: Sandra Lorinda Traci Petr Dana Jana Michaela Rebekah Swiss Charrd Tru John Darsie Darsie Toby Jeanine Carol Justin Lila Daniel Mo Nika Steve Neal Jitka Jitka Tami Pete Laurie Maia Nancy Kelly Pam Mary Jan and all our other friends
www.bettymacdonaldfanclub.blogspot.com/
info to: Sandra Lorinda Traci Petr Dana Jana Michaela Rebekah Swiss Charrd Tru John Darsie Darsie Toby Jeanine Carol Justin Lila Daniel Mo Nika Steve Neal Jitka Jitka Tami Pete Laurie Maia Nancy Kelly Pam Mary Jan and all our other friends
www.bettymacdonaldfanclub.blogspot.com/
Take an illustrated day trip through Washington state’s largest city with artist Candace Rose Rardon.
gadventures.com
Linda White yes,if my health allows.I have a few problems but is something I have always wanted to do,especially as I reread her books.
Unlike · Reply · 1 · August 1 at 6:37pm
Linde Lund Dear Linda I'll keep you posted.
Like · Reply · 1 · August 1 at 6:42pm
Bella Dillon · Friends with Darsie Beck
I still read Mrs Piggle Wiggle books to this day. I love her farm on vashon.
Unlike · Reply · 1 · August 1 at 10:32pm
Lila Taylor Good morning...Linde Lund
