Music Fight Memory

Funny every time this comes up, I get this annoyed feeling of people constantly arguing and complaining. (Lothar's memory of music being banned and Leutnant's)

I get the impression that the music was night club music and it was considered an acquired taste. Someone, either Lt. Emil Karl Schäfer or one of the mechanics would play one tune over and over and get get all weepy and drunk and then become violent after listening to the tune about 15 times. This was just one of the problems that the phonograph caused.

Others would get tired of hearing the same thing and would either complain to me or complain to the person or persons playing the phonograph. I love to listen to GOOD music while working, but to be stuck hearing something that makes one irritable has got to be one of the more subtle forms of torture. I just got tired of everyone complaining and bickering over it all. It was nothing against Lt. Schäfer unless he was the person who would play it over and over fifteen times! As a matter of fact I think a small brawl ensued after one of these repeated playing incidents.

There are about five or so guys listening to the music and a couple of others come up and start making quips about the music and making statements to the effect that peace and quiet would be more desirable. A couple people start getting nasty and voices raise. More and more pilots and ground crew start to gather near the tables where the music was being played.

This is all happening outside next to a building where a wooden table and chairs are set outside. It is an overcast day and it is about midday. There is a small garden fence? and someone steps towards this small barrier. The ground is a mixture of grass and mud. I see this at a distance.

Before I can make it there to find out what is going on a full fight has begun. And I am thinking OH my GOD!! How do I stop this??! It seems like half of the air staffel is involved now because it now involves insults and class distinction arguments. My head is spinning. I seem to be the only rational person left.

Guys are being punched, shoved, dragged into the mud, kicked, and tables and chairs are being knocked over in the outside seating area. I try shouting at people and getting them to stop, but I almost get pulled into the fight and almost punched until the man who grabbed me by the shoulder realized that I was the commander!!

He apologizes and lets go of me to find someone else to punch. I start to pull out the injured individuals and order them out of the fight while I take note of who was still fighting and not listening to me. I have a later impression of everyone lined up and being lectured to by myself. I think Lt. Schäfer, is away somewhere. Men have bruises, black eyes, scratches, sore shoulders and arms and torn uniforms....mud covered uniform and blood on their hands and faces. I am so pissed that I tell them that the use of the phonograph will no longer be allowed. If they want to act like animals then they don't get the privileges of being men and having music! Everyone is in a glum mood and I don't care. I am pissed.