Our family had grown by then. I remember that the atmosphere in our home was good. The only exception revolved around names. Tradition was very important so my oldest brother, Adam, was named after Opa de Jong, Jaap after Opa Slingerland, Stiena (Christina) after Opoe de Jong, Jannigje after Opoe Slingerland, the third daughter, Geertje after dad’s oldest sister, etc. All went according to tradition until I was born. Mother had wanted me to be named after dad, but dad didn’t want a son named after him. He said the son would be called ‘young Jan” and he would be called “the old Jan” and he didn’t like that, so I was named Cornelis, named after his oldest brother. When Henk was born he refused again. Then Judith was born and named after mother’s oldest sister and then Bertha Chiela was born and named after dad’s second sister. The name Chiela is actually not a Dutch name but French. I was in grade 1 when the tenth child, the fifth son, was born, and my mother insisted he be named after dad. However, when dad came back from City Hall he told mom that he had named him Maarten Jan after his 2nd brother. Mother was very angry and refused to name him Maarten but called him Jan, his second name and Dad had no choice then to give in. Mother was angry with Dad’s refusal but also didn’t like Oom Maarten who must have been a strange man. It was never mentioned but something must have been odd there.

Jan was 22 months younger than Bep. When I was in grade 3, on March 3, 1936 another baby sister was born named Gerrigje Maria (Gerry) after mother’s two sisters. Nineteen months later came Jan and then on August 26, 1938, my sister Jacoba, named after my mother’s third sister. It would have been dad’s family that this baby was named after but dad only had 2 sisters whose names had already been passed on, so then Mom’s family had another turn.