Except for his father's frequent illnesses, the family was normal, living a stable and uneventful life as most families do. It was, however, a noisy family that greeted even mundane events with passion and enthusiasm, living life with pleasure and good humor.
He begged to be allowed to go to church, so at about age three or four he went with his mother and a servant girl. He was fascinated with his father's presiding over the congregation. If he yawned or sang too loudly, the servant girl would put a cotton gloved hand over his mouth.
Albert was more impressionable than most children. He became frightened in church, thinking he saw the devil, which in reality turned out to be the reflection of the organist in a mirror. The village gravedigger teased Albert, telling him he had horns. Worriedly, he felt his head repeatedly to see if they were growing yet. The joke was not dispelled until he told his father about it. The same jokester told him the Prussians were going to put all boys in the country into armor, and that he would need to go to the blacksmith for a fitting. His mother had the honor of dispelling that one.
On the first day of school, Albert cried all the way to school. He did not do well as a student. Reading and writing were difficult and he determined that book learning was an unnatural waste of time. His mother often wept over his school reports. These added to her growing tendency towards depression.
In spite of his distaste for school, Albert loved to play the piano, improvising even before school age. By the time he was ten, he sometimes substituted for the church organist.
Albert didn't get along with his peers as well as most boys did. One day, after school, he got into a fight with a boy bigger than he, and won. The boy, George Nitschelm, hurled back a parting statement, "If I could have a bowl of soup twice a week like you do, I'd be as strong as you are!" Albert's sensitive nature kicked in full force at that. He didn't want to be one of the middle-class, when so many of his classmates were so much poorer. From that time, he refused to wear his overcoat which had been made over from one of his father's old coats; he insisted on mittens instead of gloves, and clogs instead of boots – except, of course, on Sundays, when he had to act the part of the pastor's son. These behaviors caused continual conflict with his father, who worked so hard to keep his family in the middle-class, and it didn't improve his relations with his peers.
