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1 May 60

Hi Sweetheart + Ma + Pa - all of you together, as usual with a big letter.

Well today was May Day in Berlin, so long awaited by us visitors
from Stanford and by the people of east + west Berlin.

We began by taking the train (i.e. an inter-city rapid transit system - there are
two, one underground and with more stops, one above with fewer stops, thus faster)
to the Marx-Engels Platz in the east sector, the site of their huge
parade rally. We arrived just at the 9 AM starting time, and couldn't
get within a couple of blocks of the square because of the number of people
and some blocked off streets. The initial feeling when we got off the
train was like that of a big football game or parade - huge crowds,
band music in the distance, various groups forming to march, a
sense of excitement and carnival-like activity in the air. In each
of the many side streets leading toward the Marx-Engels square were
a block or two of groups preparing to march in the parade - this accounted
for about 3/4 of the people, since almost everyone was marching in some
group or another (if not "regimented", East Berlin is certainly well "organized".
The first part of the parade was the actual military part - marching units
of soldiers + sailors carrying tommy guns or rifles, and even doing the
goose-step. After the armies came the weapons - tanks, big cannon,
anti-aircraft, troop carrier trucks, etc; unfortunately these went along
another street and we only saw them at a distance. The rest of the
parade was at least semi-civilian, though the pervasive sense of a
people organized into a chain of little fighting units existed for us.
There were thousands in sports clubs, youth organizations, "factory
fighting groups", all carrying colorful flags, posters, pictures of
party heros, etc, all marching in step before the review stand. (By
this time we had managed to slip with a small crowd of people through
a gap in police restraining lines, and stood in good positions at one
corner of the square itself, a fine view of the proceedings).

At about 10:30 we (oh, we was Dr. Tarshus, Dr. Whittaker, Dr. + Mrs. Boerner,
Laurie Hutton and I) worked our way through the crowds back to the
train to go over to the west side rally, just across the border (between
east + west Berlin) in the gigantic Platz der Republic. This is a
huge open space about (a very rough guess) 1/4 to 1/2 mile each way; there
were estimated 750,000 people there, to hear three speeches by west
German and Berlin officials. To get any feel for the magnitude of
the occasion just try to imagine that many people assembled in one
place. Big game is 100,000 and this made that tiny. I was held