Christa

Christa is a member of the “Recycled Teenagers” group (with Liz and Di). Her hearing and sightare fading so our chat was brief and it was clear that she didn’t want to dwell on some things. She is
German, born just before the 2nd World War and was a child when Hitler came to power. “Yeah,
yeah – Hitler and all that....” she said before directing the conversation to other more wholesome
topics. I was curious, but if she didn’t want to talk about it then I wasn’t going to pursue it.
Instead, she talked of holidays, of skiing with her sons – and I was impressed to learn that she’d
gone on a cruise on her own in the last year. She loves to travel and told me that she’s been all over
the world visiting other countries and enjoying their hospitality.
     

Christa has six children, three in Germany and three in England. Her husband was a British soldierthat she met in the fifties. She was living in Leipzig, which was part of the German Democratic
Republic (communist East Germany). Unlike many who were effectively trapped behind the iron
curtain in a post war communist regime, she was able to move away to start life as the wife of a
British soldier who was posted all around Europe.
     

I sent the recording of our conversation to Shane. There was space for artistic licence, filling in thegaps that I was curious about but too polite to ask. His lyrics paint a picture in my mind of how
things might have been for Christa in post war Germany before she met her husband. We hope
we’ve done justice to her story.
     

Alison sings the lead part and I love her vocal and the backdrop of the texture of Gustaf’sbeautiful lap steel supported by the studio band. I can hear a ton of musical influences in the
arrangement which is very gratifying for me as a music producer.