Corinna Currier and Olivia Garcia

00:05 My name is coconut. I am 51 years old. Today's date is Saturday December 14th, 2019 and we are in Yuma Arizona. My interview is with Olivia. Olivia Garcia. And Olivia is a friend a co-worker and a former Girl Scout. Hello. I'm Olivia so I kind of wanted to ask ukrayna.

00:36 My name is Olivia Garcia. I am 19 years old. Today's date is Saturday December 14th, 2019. We are in Yuma Arizona and my the name of my interview partner is is Corinna Currier and my relationship to partner is she is my girl scout troop leader, my friend and my coworker.

00:57 Okay, so Crenna I kind of want to know like where you were born exactly. I know you're born in Germany, but I never really asked. Yeah, I was born in high Bosch. Which is a small town in Zach's not an addict in the former East Germany.

01:19 How is it like living in East Germany like when all of that was going on, but it was.

01:26 I think it was very unique because our country was approached to be a communist country and we we will lead a lot. So we were talk pretty much.

01:48 A straight way into our future we we learned from a very young age about the second world war we learned about what happened. We saw a lot of documentary about that and I actually grew up not really being proud to be German because we were kind of thought that while everything that happened happened by Germans. So if we would go to places on trips things like that, we've always been taught don't speak loud be quiet. Don't show that you're from Germany.

02:37 And I remember on a trip a cast trip when we were in I think in ninth grade we visited Czechoslovakia and I was with a group of girls be we were just walking around that little town we visited to see sights and

02:59 All of a sudden there was a gentleman and older man who stood in front of us and he looked at us and he said Nazis and he spit in front of us, which we were horrified. I mean, we it was a hard for us to to understand and

03:24 That is one of the things from growing up that I that I always remember and that makes me feel kind of sad at times that

03:38 People thought because the history that because of the history that everyone from our country would be the same. I know it's it was crazy. When I first learned that you lived in Germany during that time. I I was like, oh my God because we learned about it in school and everything but you actually know somebody that went through it and then to see you every day at work and you were just like happy and you were doing stuff like you always have a smile on your face. I was like you never would have like guess that you live there that time when I went through all of that, I must say that the

04:13 I had a lot of negative things through the media I grew up in a tiny village we had about a thousand people everyone knew everyone and we will always remember my mom would always be behind me and telling me I had to greet everyone even if there was a group of ladies just hanging out talking we had to say good afternoon or good morning loud enough so they would understand us because otherwise somebody would go to my mom and tell her that I was not for spectral Soviet, but we had to know we we had a good at bringing my friends and I we attended school together. So we kind of met when we were really little before preschool.

05:13 Then we got to preschool. We got through 10 years of school and then everybody would go a different way, but we still really still lived in our small village. And so the connection was very very strong with with another. So when whenever I would see somebody somebody now, it's like I make them a day before and we just move on and do you know we we just I feel like we have connected forever and we have our groups like click of girls. We would go hiking quite a bit because there was no no, sweetie.

06:03 But we didn't have a driver's license. We didn't have any form of transportation except bicycles. So we would walk across a forest that was behind a wall a village to a restaurant and we would have coffee together on Sundays afternoon coffee, which is usually we have at 3 coffee with sit down. We have a new piece of cake or something I told

06:38 We made I think I always made the best out of the situation and this is what Perry kept me from being a

06:50 Sad or upset person because

06:55 I I didn't like

06:58 A lot of things that was put on to us through the government.

07:07 But I also knew that.

07:11 This teenager had no other way, so I would kind of go with the flow, but I never felt brainwashed because I felt.

07:24 That I was informed about things and I felt that I I knew that not everything that was going on in our country was what's good and especially things were going on in West Germany planted always bad and people went on that. I remember that I was working as a preschool teacher and we had a conversation because we would tell all of preschool children. Yeah people but we would have to tell them people and West Germany all bad. So we had a staff meeting and one of our co-workers mentioned that she had a she had Todd a

08:13 Kind of a cast we would do 15 minutes of class during the day and she told one of the children she told the group that yeah, we shouldn't look to West Germany because the people are not nice and one of the children said but my uncle who comes visiting from West Germany, he's really nice. And so we had a discussion how we would tell children if we ever would get a response like that and

08:55 Can I eat I always took people at their kind of face value if somebody is it's nice to me. I I will be nice to that person if somebody is mean to me, but I will still be nice because it doesn't make me feel any better if I mean if I'm negative. Do you still know any of the other teachers that used to work with?

09:27 I run into one a few years ago when I was in Germany and we saw each other and we immediately connected she gave me your email address, but I I never got around to contact her Were You There When The Wall fell down. I was actually in the Lynn that weekend. I took the train to visit a friend on November 9th of 1989 and I got that by midnight and it was kind of strange it was

10:05 That was kind of a calm feeling in town. There was not much traffic. But then again.

10:13 You know it was East Germany that was not much going on. That was not much nightlife. So we just drove to my friend's place and

10:25 We went to to sleep the next morning we get up for breakfast and we turn on the TV.

10:34 And that was enough strange interviews and we we we we didn't really understand what was going on the interviews on TV about what are you different? And that was a commotion in the background whenever and a reporter would interview someone and people who talk about what they want. And so he flips to the few channels that were available. I mean back then that was not a whole lot.

11:10 Until we heard that the night deposit the afternoon before the East German government, and I don't announce that every East German citizen could travel now.

11:27 And it can be the way we were raised and we were thinking was okay and how how can we do that? And what we need so there was not much information just be new the wall kind of was open. So we went to a friend's house who had worked the night before or the evening before and he told us that after work they met up in a pub and they were talking until a person came in and said I just went to West Germany it to West Berlin and everybody there was like yeah, whatever, you know, you just made that something and he then showed his documentation and everyone left the pub and they all went to the next border crossing. They hopped into a bus and then

12:27 Driving through Berlin

12:30 So we said okay. We will give it a try.

12:34 We find the next the closest border crossing and we had to wait about 15 minutes. So why we were waiting and we were on a motorcycle. We didn't have a car out there while we were waiting. Somebody a friend of my friend came from the back and said hey after you crossed you want to wait for me so we can go together cuz we had no clue where to go. That was not you know, we didn't have a map of West Germany. We just thought well we would go over and see what will happen. So we

13:17 We crossed over over and when we reach the part of West Germany ever people on both sidewalks and they were applauding us and I felt like where they doing that I'm not doing anything anything special. I'm just cute and to visit so we stopped we were crossing on I will never forget that name on bornholm a bridge. That was also a bridge that was used in the past to exchange spies and that they would use the bridge to exchange people. So we will be waiting on the bridge for the other person and we were approached by a gentleman who was also on a motorcycle and he asked us if we would like him to show us the city.

14:18 We were very happy because that was all a chance to not just drive and get lost in Berlin. They were also people who took pictures and I asked them if they would if they would send me a picture in the mail cuz he know if there was no internet that's so email and they actually sent me two pictures by snail mail. You don't see my face, but you see me riding by the standing by the motorcycle riding down the address and then there's another one where I was I think it was talking with the person so I still have those two pictures and I iv-vi barometric pressure them to Denby did we did a tour and we stopped at a kiosk

15:14 And we walk towards the cute.

15:17 Remember we did not have any money any West German money. So I'll

15:24 Biod see the motorcyclist stop till we walk towards the kiosk and the kids put sell newspaper. They would have coffee they were all kinds of things and it was a man who was talkin man standing outside was talking with the men inside and so they had a conversation. We were closed and the man on the outside ask us are you from East Germany? And we said, yes I said, okay. Well, I will pay for your coffee.

15:59 And then he told us that he was worried to go home because he thought that a lot of his relatives would be at his apartment waiting.

16:10 So then as we get our coffee, the gentleman in the in that little asked us if we had already pick up picked up. I will welcome money West Germany had I was part of the law that for every East German person who comes to visit they would give them $100 each marks a year a lot of people who were able to visit so

16:44 I I don't know the background about that. I just know that my mom she was able to travel a few times to West Germany to visit my uncle or brother, but we were not allowed to go. So I always knew that my mom get the $100 each month, but at that time when when we were in West Berlin, I was not thinking about anything. I would not even have thought that

17:15 We had a right to that because my we were just there to visit and we would go back there was no plan that came up in my mind. I want to stay here. So he told us about the next Bank was and he said yeah, they are on lunch break right now. But if you go at 3, you will get in and you can pick up your money.

17:42 Simulacra. I don't know. Let's give it a try. We went to the bank. We had to fill out a very simple form and I remember when the bank teller gave me the money. He asked me are you staying?

18:00 And I said no because I have my my family at that time. I was so up living with my parents and I told him no, I will go home.

18:14 So we got the money but we were just so overwhelmed with everything that had happened. We didn't we didn't even spend the money. And also we were thinking be going to keep it because East Germany we pretended to hold on to things. We were not quick and in spending so I was thinking I want to take the time and think about what I want to buy from that money because also we we didn't expect to get any money again and to exchange money while before the Wall came down you even if you would go and visit you couldn't just exchanged an amount that you wanted to you could also you could only Exchange

19:06 What the government allowed you?

19:10 So we stopped at that that was a big event kind of building up that they were balloons politicians. What do some speeches?

19:25 And there were a lot of people that got to that place and we decided we would go home that was enough for one day. We just drove home and yeah after that I

19:40 The next day I took the train went back to my family. And the first thing my mom asked me was did you go and visit West Berlin and I told her yeah, and my mom said yeah, we went to West West Germany v. We took the next border crossing and they were waiting in line I think for

20:07 Real five hours because they were just a few Crossings and people people just wanted to try it now. It's not that was not really an expectation that people had it was just what we can do if we want to and so it was almost like, you know, you you set one foot over the line and then you turn around and you know, what's really funny my dad. He actually I don't know where he got it. He said it was either his friend or one of his relatives from while ago that he got he brought a piece of the Berlin wall and I have it in my room. It's like in this little clear box thing and I was just like this is so crazy. Like I didn't even know that that's what this was cuz it was just sitting in the garage for the longest time. I solve when I finally open the box now it's going through it. I was like, oh my God, I have this I was like, this is so crazy so I can I have it in my room and I always seen I'm always like this is crazy. Like it just blows my mind.

21:08 Well, when when everything happened I would have never thought to go to the wall and take a piece because in an admirer thinking that would have been you know, destroying something. I I I I never had the thought of doing that so when they started to dismantle of the wall is strange thing for me.

21:41 Then I stayed in my hometown for quite a few years I moved away in 1994 because the problem in our small town was a lot of the businesses stopped working because the demand was not there any more people wanted to buy items from West Germany and people lost their jobs working at the daycare at the kindergarten which was a government institution. It was really difficult because we didn't have many children anymore. So I finished my year with my class. I had a class with 21 children.

22:35 Alone, and everything was working because from a young age children were just

22:44 They weren't we were always just following and it was never we were never told about individual individuality. It was always you are part of the great idea. You're part of the team that is moving to kind of make these great idea come true. So the kids were they what kind of in that straight line following the rules. I mean every once in a while that was you know, someone who tried something different, but other than that it was it was no problem to work with 21 children of my own. So I always been like how did you end up in Yuma like all the places it was when I went to I move to from my hometown I move.

23:44 To Nuremberg to work at a at a business because

23:53 At some point I was I didn't have any work. So I had to figure something out and I a friend of mine live close to Nuremberg and she told me and she was a friend who also lived in my hometown before she taught me. What why don't you come here and you apply for job and see if you can find for him. I did that and I applied for job at a software company that was

24:29 Booking with the German Telecom to create a public phone booths where you could do video chats, so they were way ahead of their time and fortunately they never got it to

24:50 To work out because of the whole because of the technical developed developments afterward, but I applied with them I had and they invited me immediately to an interview and then I had a second interview and two days later. They called me and they asked me when I can stop so I had about a week to move I lived in an apartment. I had to move every most of my things to my parents house because I only drove a small, and then I took the most important pieces and I moved to number.

25:37 Living in them that at some point. I met my my metrolist and and

25:47 He was he was stationed in Germany, and he was in the army.

25:53 So

25:55 We met and he was in his last year with the army. So we had to kind of figure things out really quick and I told him well, I I've never been to to the United States before I move there. I want to see it. So we booked a flight to come to Yuma because he grew up here. Okay, so we came to Yuma in June and the few things that I saw here. We're not too bad. And we also got married at the Old Courthouse because it was easier to get married here then in Germany because in Germany, all the documents had to be translated.

26:47 And it was kind of pricey. So here we went to the courthouse.

26:53 Which I was very surprised we filled out the paperwork and then we asked when we could come in and they told us while you go to the next window. Ask for an appointment.

27:07 And at the next window that hold us. Yeah, you can come in this afternoon and we were like, okay. Let's do it while waiting we came back in the afternoon. And while we were waiting in the hallway on a bench on a really long bench.

27:29 That was a prisoner who I guess was walked to his hearing and that was something I had never seen before he was in an orange jumpsuit and shackles and just seeing that person. But first of all, I did not even want to make eye contact because I felt

27:58 Little bit embarrassed not so embarrassed for the prison. I felt embarrassed that I was sitting there seeing seeing him in that position.

28:13 But then you walked away while we got married and we had lunch and then in the evening, we went to the movie theater and I fell asleep because I was also completely and it was two days after we we came to you to your mom and then coming back to Germany. I restarted the the process for me to get my Visa. We had to travel from Nuremberg to Frankfurt to go to the Embassy.

28:50 Get the paperwork and then we had to come back for a few interviews and Christmas Eve of 2002. I got my letter with my Visa and I knew end of January we would leave for you, That's crazy. How did it how is it like adjusting like to Yuma and I like not being at home anymore.

29:20 I'm I'm a

29:23 Bi-curious person so I like to try out new things seen you things the first 6 months.

29:34 I was not doing much. My husband was working. I was I would stay at the house with Willie and we lived at my in-laws house released on the property. They had to Guesthouse so really at that time was

29:54 Shows to his 2nd birthday. So he was a toddler. I was taking care of him and it was just him and I most of the time so I would watch TV and kind of trying to expand my English because we had English in school, but I never really had any conversational English with

30:18 With anyone else then my my castmates so I watch TV and I thought oh, yeah. I I understand what they're saying, but

30:29 I was always thinking I was very shy but talking to you. I was always thinking that I don't want to say the wrong thing and often when I listened when I was with a group of people and I listened it took me way too long to find the answer they would be with another topic and I would think we on now I have to answer but somewhere else I started working on base at the day at the Child Development Center because I had a I had a degree in early childhood I started there cuz I felt it would be easier for me to learn English and it was I learn so much from the children working with the parents. So but then after a few years I felt like

31:26 I need to do something else and I applied at the at the art center and this is where I met Lori and it's some point Laurie asked me if I want to call eat because Mary is Troup was not continuing. So when she asked me I said so I will do that. This is how I met you. I know I feel like being a girl scouts cuz I was in Girl Scouts when I was smaller. He was like in the Brownie troop, but then I had stopped for a while and then I started up again with you and Lori and that's when I was in Middle School and I don't know going to be in Girl Scouts. You have to kind of put yourself out there like with everything like we did the commercial for the recycling and everybody at school is like only saw you in the commercial and at first it was like okay, but then I don't know why I feel like Girl Scouts like one of my Stepping Stones cuz and after that like I was in band I was like a student leader and

32:26 I would like I was tried practicing like my public speaking and everything. And then now I can College it's I don't know. I feel like Girl Scouts is always my start is always my star and it was so much fun with you guys. And then now like being at you to BC. I know Lori there. I know you like it. It's just like Network. You know, it's everywhere. I was like, okay, like I didn't know you worked here. I didn't know Lori work Daddy to be seen until I saw her dinner theater, but not Last Ship with the year before and I was like, this is crazy. And then now I'm being in student government there and having a position. I don't know. It's just a I don't feel as nervous anymore. But yeah, I still get nervous but I feel more confident in what I do. I am. So happy to hear that.

33:17 Yeah, cuz girls got like we would do all kinds of stuff and Girl Scout to know at first. It was kind of like I don't want to do this. It's embarrassing but then you do it and it just like that was five. I got to do to get a Vive not. Kind of holding off. We were just going and doing different things different projects and Love You by hoping that you know, what we did with you guys was helping you with your future. I am so happy to hear that because I was walking out every once in awhile. I'm thinking of that and then I feel like I'm all we don't really have so much time at work to talk. So yeah, it it is so great for me to hear that. Yeah, and then it was all so funny cuz I was the oldest one in the in the true. So it was like, oh goddamn the oldest wine and then like they weren't that much. I'm in there like

34:17 One or two years younger than me, but still it was you were like I was the oldest one that's like that thing but then like you get to learn how to talk to them like to like see what they like and everything and then that's how I kind of am with my little sister cuz she's like she's she's a little younger than you like 10 years younger. And so I use that with everything like that's how I first started to learn how to communicate with it and people who is really cool. I feel like Girl Scouts as my start all the time that is wonderful and I feel I feel very happy and I tell quite often friends about it that we know we have this history from Girl Scout and then we got back together because you started working and we started working together and also seeing you at work. It makes me always feel so happy because

35:13 I know that you are a very reliable person and you know, it's times.

35:21 Like when I close and I don't really know all the things I need to do even though I should but it's just not my area of work because I always help out with the closing. I know that if I walk with you everything will be taken care of and also you remind me of things that I might need to do. I know I thought it was just crazy how we ended up working at the same place. And now I remember it was my junior year of high school that I was in the UEFA leadership and we would go to different places in Yuma and learn about them and we came to the Arts Center and I saw you but I was like, I know if she remembers me so I was kind of like there and then the next day I had applied nose like this is crazy like and then when I heard about you have breast cancer that what that made me sad cuz I was like like she did not like after everything she's gone through but then when you came back to work I was so excited.

36:21 I'm back at that is that is really a a really great connection that we got to establish. I really liked it and I'll I really enjoyed having you in my life me to yes, cuz I always see you and I always know that you make me smile all the time everytime. I see you I'm just like so I guess I just get a warm feeling especially like when you would talk to me like about when you came back from Germany when you visited and you're talkin about how Christmas is like, I don't know what to say. I don't know. I just so happy to know that.

37:00 So that's all I had for you.

37:03 Yeah, I

37:07 I think we it was a very nice interview with you.