The outdoor pools need help, the sports halls are crumbling and the schools, oh, the schools. Yes, that’s Bavaria, the country where milk and honey just flow – only that the municipal infrastructure obviously didn’t notice anything.
But before such a culturally pessimistic, notoriously mocking tone enters here: It’s good that things have their expiration date, nothing is permanent and everything is only temporary. And if you don’t want to believe or hear that, you’re welcome to ask Elfriede Korder in Schwabach. For her, affectionately called “Elfi” by her husband and happily married to exactly that man for 44 years, nothing could have been more daunting than the thought of a gymnasium that would always be flawless and immaculate for all time.
44 years happily married – there’s no such thing? Yet. And there is something else entirely, Ms. Korder has known that since 1997. She took her white gold wedding ring off her finger for an hour of volleyball in the Helm-Schul-Halle in Schwabach. And when she wants to put it on again after sport, the thing rolls dreamlike safely into a gap in the hall. Well, as the older generation remember, it was at the end of the 20th century when all sorts of things were technically possible. Just a piece of equipment to guide this ring out of that gap that wasn’t invented in 1997. And that’s how it stayed until 2022.
A call to the city administration at the time revealed that they – despite all the marital love – could not remove the floor of the hall now. Ms. Korder says she really isn’t superstitious on principle. But on that day and according to the information, she was “done with the world”. At that time she had been married for 19 years, really good years. And then the common symbol falls victim to a stuffy hall. You got yourself a marriage replacement ring, logically. Only: is there such a thing at all? And can he do the same?
Anyway, a new double gymnasium replacement is now the salvation. Before the old hall was demolished, Reiner Korder, that is the 44-year-old husband, unpacked the Flex and circular saw. The thing with the “We can’t remove the hall floor after all” no longer applied, 25 years later. The ring was found on a sealing foil, in tip-top condition. Nothing is permanent? Some things are.