Frau Baumann's Messerschmitts

Messerschmitts are very small three-wheeled German cars that looked like a WWII fighter canopy on wheels. Powered by a motorcycle engine, but heavier than a motorcycle, they had a top speed around sixty miles per hour. They were tiny commuter cars with no safety features and were, for all practical purposes, deathtraps on wheels.

Frau Baumann, a German civilian who taught piano and accordion to several American civilians kids, drove a Messerschmitt. One quiet day, while she was busy teaching in someone’s apartment, several of us decided it would be great fun to move her car….to actually hide the car. There was a large clump of bushes between the apartment buildings that featured a clearing of sorts inside, a clearing big enough for a Messerschmitt. Several of us managed to actually carry the locked car to the bushes. After securing the location, we waited a while for her to come out and find it missing. She took too long, we got bored and went to the playground for some baseball.

While we played, a couple of Air Police vehicles arrived. Frau Baumann was raving in German and English, confusing the situation. The police looked around, drove up and down the streets of the housing addition, but could not find the car. In the meantime, we had heard the commotion and came out to see what was happening. Too afraid to tell anyone what we had done, we told no one about our prank. The Messerschmitt was still secure in the bushes. Frau Baumann took a bus home. We felt bad about what we had caused, but what could we do? We waited until the next day. We gathered at the bushes around lunch time. It seemed quiet…no one watching. We mustered our nerve and disappeared into the bushes that had hidden the car so well. When Don Renard gave us the signal, we lifted the car and moved it back to the same parking spot from which we had found it.

We felt pretty good about the whole affair until Frau Baumann showed up later that day to give lessons. She had not taken the bus. Instead, she was in a new Messerschmitt – at least a different one. When she saw her original Messerschmitt sitting where she had originally parked it, she went ballistic. Now, she had two Messerschmitts. The police arrived to investigate. Most of us had gathered on the playground to watch the goings-on. Frau Baumann was rattling on and on while the confused police searched for an answer. Finally, someone volunteered to follow her home in one of the cars while she drove the other. It was a real hoot.

The next day, she was driving the original Messerschmitt. She told Marsha Wilson’s mother that the local dealer had let her return the newer one and returned her money. Nice guy. Ever after, no matter where in the housing area she was teaching, she would look out the windows frequently to verify that her car was still in place. We never told her what we had done. I did tell my Dad about it and he found it hilarious. He must have told someone, because Frau Baumann managed to find out what we had done.

We were all playing baseball at the playground when she came walking over to speak to us. She was smiling when she had found out what we had done. She had made a large batch of cookies and she shared them with us. She must have found some humor in the situation.

It was great fun and it gave her a story to tell.

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