By CATHY RIELY
Reporter
The horrors of war are in
comprehensible to most people,
with their only knowledge stem
ming from the media. But the
hardships of war are very real to
a local woman who has become a
successful restaurant owner de
spite facing many adversities.
On May 11, 1944, in the first
of many air raids, a bomb
dropped on Trudie Adams’
home in Germany, killing her
husband and destroying her
house. She was left a widow at 26
with three children.
Adams retrieved one painting
and some books from the debris.
She packed the books in boxes
and put them on a train but the
books never made it.
“I was never sure if something
happened to the train or if the
books had been confiscated,”
Adams said. “Some of the books
had been banned.”
The painting of Mary and the
infant Jesus is the only belong
ing she has from her home in
Germany. The painting is dis
played on the wall of The Black
Forest Inn, the restaurant she
now owns and runs.
Adams bought the restaurant
in 1976 because she had invited
some friends over for dinner
and they said she was such a
good cook she should open a
restaurant.
“And do you know what?”
Adams asked. “The very next
day I opened the paper and saw
this place for sale.”
The restaurant is practically a
one-woman operation, with Ad
ams doing everything from the
cooking to the bookkeeping. A
typical evening has one person
helping in the kitchen and one
waiting tables.
The restaurant is located 20
miles east of College Station, on
Highway 30 between Carlos and
Roans Prairie. The restaurant is
in the front part of a house
which sits on several acres. Ad
ams lives in the back.
Adams attributes her success
at Finding customers, despite her
location, to good food and good
service. She makes the food
from scratch, even down to the
mayonnaise for the salad dress
ings. The sign out front states
that the food is “continental cui
sine” and the restaurant has an
extensive wine list.
Adams was born in Wiesba
den, Germany on April 24,
1917, but when she was six her
family was forced to move to
Saarbruecken. They lost all their
money during the inflationary
years of 1921 and 1922 and had
to start over.
Adams took university prepa
ratory courses in high school,
but was forced to give up her
college plans when her parents
divorcea. At 19 she went to work
to support her family. Adams
and her brother and sister lived
with their mother. She was the
oldest child.
“That made me responsible
for everyone,” she said.
In 1938 Adams married “her
first and only love.” She met
Hans Adams at a ball when she
was 16 and they dated for six
years before marrying. When
her first child was three months
old, the Adams moved to a sec
ond floor walk-up.
“With no water and no gas —
which was difficult with a child,”
Adams said.
Shortly before her husband
was drafted and sent to Poland
in 1940, Adams found out she
was pregnant with their second
child. Her husband received a
medical discharge and arrived
home the same day she came
back from the hospital with their
baby.
Adams’ parents died in 1940
and she took in her aunt and sis
ter. She went back to work to
help support her family.
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“1 couldn’t ask my husband to
support my family,” Adams said.
“Not that he wouldn’t have, it’s
just that he didn’t make enough
money.”
After her husband was killed
in 1944, Adams sent her chil
dren and her aunt to stay with a
relative, and went back to Saar
bruecken. From there she held a
variety of jobs, from digging
ditches to doing American sol
diers’ laundry.
“I’ve done everything,” Ad
ams said. “Except for prostitu
tion.”
Adams said the ditches she
dug were for a wall of fortifica
tions on the Siegfried line.
“The Americans were 18
miles away and we could hear
their artillery,” she said. “They
would fly over us and drop
bombs in the area where we
were digging.”
It was when a woman was
killed near her that Adams de
cided to leave.
“I decided I didn’t want my
kids to be orphans,” Adams said.
“So one night I got on a man’s
bicycle and took off to my chil
dren.”
It took her two days to travel
the 100 miles. Soon after that,
the war ended and she came to
America. Adams had married an
American soldier she met while
working at an air base in Ger
many, so they went to Indiana
where his mother lived.
“The second day I was over
here I had a job,” Adams said
proudly.
Two months later her hus
band got a job in Bryan, and
they moved here. They were di
vorced five years later.
Adams worked as a technician
at A&M from 1955 until 1977.
To help make ends meet she
worked as a waitress at nights
and on weekends. She also went
back to school, and although it
took 10 years she now has a de
gree in modern languages.^
The Inn’s sign and white fence say it all.
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