Category: Herman de Jong
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Grades One and Two
Read More: Grades One and TwoSoon I entered grade one. A female teacher — although sometimes other young teachers, who couldn’t find a teaching position because of the Great Depression, would hone their skills on us. I remember especially a jolly young man, Mr. Zoutman. He taught us how to subtract. He would have five red, little balls in his…
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St. Nicholas Day
Read More: St. Nicholas DayDecember 5 … St. Nicholas Day. Maybe even then I wasn’t totally with it, but I can’t remember that the teacher prepared us that morning for the momentous things that would happen in the afternoon. I’m suddenly hearing a noise right above my desk. All the other children are looking up and finally I dare…
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Kindergarten
Read More: KindergartenBut to kindergarten I went. In wintertime much too heavily dressed. I walked all by myself about 1 1/2 km. on a, for that time, quite heavily travelled road along the canal. I was to walk on the less busy road on the other side of the canal, but since I had to walk all…
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Move to Winschoten
Read More: Move to WinschotenI did all of my growing up in Winschoten. My parents rented a brand-new house on the outskirts of Winschoten, the Acacialaan. Indeed, the street was lined with Acacia trees. My first memory of that house was the smell of fresh paint, as I climbed the stairs to the upper floor which held three bedrooms.…
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Toddler Years
Read More: Toddler YearsAs a toddler I lived in Vlagtwedde. My wife was also born there! I remember little from that period in my life. Grandfather Blokzyl lived with us after his wife died. This was the time when there were few, if any, old people homes where older people could live in peace. Opa went from family…
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My Mother
Read More: My MotherMy mother, Wine Blokzyl, (short for Hebowina Jantina Klazina) was born and grew up in Ten Boer, in the province of Groningen. She spoke the Groninger dialect, while my father talked Terschellings, a Frisian dialect with remnants of the English language. In 1666 Terschelling was occupied by the English for a short time, and because…
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My Father
Read More: My FatherMy father, Hendrik de Jong, assisted my mother during my birth, something I have been excluded from doing when I became the father of seven children. Since I was the third baby in the de Jong family, my father was by now somewhat used to the hectic activities surrounding a home birth. I’m told that…
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Baby, Toddler, Child
Read More: Baby, Toddler, ChildMy body, which shall return to dust within the next 30 years [Herman returned to dust on twenty-seventh day of July, 2004, after enjoying thirteen years of retirement], was born on the eleventh day of January 1932. More than a body, a living system of flesh, blood and bones, was born. This body had a…
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Aylmer, Canada, church, family, God, Jordan Station, London, music, organ, Sarnia, school, ship, Vennekerk
Occupations
Read More: OccupationsOpa Herman de Jong had the following occupations As you can see: a multi-checkered career. Of course, now these occupations were on a part-time basis, otherwise I would have had to live two lives. And now let’s start at the very beginning… Herman at work
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Retirement
Read More: RetirementFor My Descendants Living During The Year 2050 Moses had no computer. Yet the books of Moses have been written faultlessly, all the events within them seem to be in perfect chronological order, and Moses’ style of writing is to the point, succinct, and in places wonderfully poetic. Like Moses, I have no computer either.…