Chapter 9
THE FINAL YEARS IN HOLLAND
After the war ended, everything started to recover. However, the Brouwers were faced with another big problem. Their farm was too small to support their family. Four of the children had already finished school, and they now needed to look for work elsewhere. Hendrik often worked for some of the big farmers, such as Nusselder and Van Beek, who lived in the neighbourhood. Jantje did housekeeping and cleaning jobs for other families. Derk went to stay with Oom Teunis, Oma’s brother, at his farm in the Betuwe. Geertje was allowed to continue her schooling by taking courses in housekeeping and sewing.
Geertje went to Catholic schools in Giesbeek and Westervoort for these courses since there were no such Christian schools in the area. She learned a lot there and had many interesting discussions with the nuns about faith. One time a nun told her that there was more in the Catholic Bible than in the Protestant one. She said that the book of Jude was missing from the Protestant Bible. The next morning Geertje took the big family Bible along on her bike to prove that the nun was wrong. After taking these courses Geertje worked for an organization that sent out girls to help families whenever the mother was ill.
Wim was never interested in farming. He preferred to help Oma in the house rather than help Opa out in the fields. After he finished school he found a job with the firm Nagtegaal in Doesburg where he learned the upholstery business. It was quite a long trip every day on the bike.
To help make ends meet during this time, the Brouwers also began to take in summer guests. These were city people who, in the beginning, usually came for health reasons and who could afford to stay at a farm for several weeks of the year. In one year they had a total of 95 guests, including children. Most really enjoyed their stay on a village farm. Oma advertised in a Christian newspaper and many people came since their rates were quite low. In Gelderland many people earned some extra money this way. Some of the guests were disappointed to find out that the farm was not in a nice wooded area, or that there was no indoor plumbing, and some expected the same kind of service that they would get in an expensive hotel. However, with the majority of the guests it went very well and everyone enjoyed it. Sometimes close friendships with these guests were made and it was often hard to say goodbye when the guests left.
One such guest was a boy named Cor Brouwer who came from Amsterdam. He was not related in any way. He stayed with the Brouwers for eight years, right until they emigrated. Cor’s mother was quite ill and unable to look after him, so he stayed with the Brouwers. He was one year younger than Gerard and they were good friends. His father who was a landscaper visited him almost every weekend and stayed with the Brouwers from Saturday to Monday.
The children often had to give up their beds for the guests and they had to sleep in the hayloft. Some guests, though, thought sleeping in a hayloft was a wonderful experience and eagerly slept there too. One couple that came had written in their letter that they were elderly. Oma and Opa expected a couple around 60, but they were almost 80 and quite feeble already. Another couple, from Amsterdam, came every summer, but they didn’t pay. Instead they helped out on the farm; the woman helped Oma in the house and her husband looked after the vegetable garden. The children called them Opa and Oma from Amsterdam.
Two years after the war the last child of the family was born. On January 7, 1947, Ineke was born. Her full name was Wilhelmina Geertruide Louisa, named after Oma and Oma’s two sisters. Opa was then almost 60 years old and Oma was 47. Having such a large age spread between the oldest and youngest child, created some humourous situations. Although Ineke was born more than 1½ years after the end of the war, many food items were still scarce and coupons were still being issued for many items. Expectant mothers were given more coupons than others. These coupons had to be picked up on certain days. One day Oma sent Jantje instead of going herself. So Jantje, who was then already 21 years old, found herself standing in a large group of pregnant women, feeling rather embarrassed. After Ineke’s birth, Opa sent Hendrik, who was then 19, to the Town Hall to officially register the birth. This was supposed to be done by the father. The Town Hall clerks all warmly congratulated him on the birth of his daughter, and Hendrik had to explain that it was his baby sister, not his daughter, that he was registering. He was so mad, he said he would never do such a thing again for Opa. Well he didn’t have to, because no more children were born after Ineke.
Ineke was born early in the morning. It was freezing rain and everything was terribly slippery, too slippery for using bikes. Wim had to go call the midwife. She was a very large woman, and Wim had to help her down the dike, while she hung on to him and nearly toppled him with her weight. The doctor also had a very hard time getting down the dike to the house.
After school or work, the children had to do quite a few chores, but there was also time for play with the neighbourhood kids. Football was a favourite game, but was a boys game. However Geertje was very good at it too, and was allowed to play with all the boys. (Football in Holland is the game called soccer in North America). Geertje and Wim also had lessons in organ and violin playing. Because everything was so expensive after the war they had to be very frugal with even simple things like turning on the lights. When dusk set in and the children asked if they could turn the lights on, Oma would usually reply, “wij kunnen de centen nog wel tellen” (we can still count our pennies). Only when it was completely dark could they finally turn the lights on. One evening a week they went to the church for Catechism classes and another evening they went to the Boys and Girls Young Peoples Society meetings. The boys and girls always had separate groups in Holland. They went to the church in Doesburg for all these meetings which was more than a ½ hour trip by bike one way.
The village of Lathum was mainly Reformed with a small group of Catholics. The next village, Giesbeek, was almost all Catholic and had a Catholic school. Lathum had a Christian school, which in reality, was almost neutral. The few Protestant children in Giesbeek walked to Lathum to go to school and the Catholics in Lathum walked to Giesbeek to attend that school. Most of the neighbours of the Brouwers were Catholics so they didn’t go to school with their neighbours, with the exception of tante Marie’s children who lived right next door, and those of Little Albert.
Another big event was “Koninginne Dag”, the Queen’s birthday. This was the main festival in the village which took place in August to celebrate Queen Wilhelmina’s birthday. The first day of the festival was mainly for children with games, candies, etc., and the Brouwer children were allowed to participate on this day. The next several days the festival became more raucous with loud music, dancing and drinking. But since it was a major festival, excesses that might have been frowned upon at other times, were tolerated during these days. The Brouwers were not allowed to go to the festival after the first day, and often the children were sent to some relatives for a few days of vacation. Oma was strongly opposed to this festival. One of the first sermons she could remember was about worldliness and the minister had strongly warned them about this festival. After that Oma felt that this festival was one of the worst forms of worldliness.
After the war this festival was celebrated again, but much more moderately, and then the Brouwers were allowed to participate. The main event was a parade with decorated horses, buggies or wagons. One year, very shortly after the end of the war, they won first prize for their neighbourhood wagon. They had sown six orange dresses for Jantje, Geertje, Jo and Corrie Brouwer, daughters of Little Albert, and Jantje and Johanna van Dijk. The six girls rode on the wagon, while Hendrik and Jan, son of Little Albert, and two neighbour boys, walked along beside the wagon. They were dressed in soldier uniforms and carried guns. The wagon had been covered with heather and garlands and had a large orange crown on top. Since fabric was virtually impossible to get a hold of, Jantje had gone to a paper factory and bought a huge roll of orange paper which they had used to sew the dresses and decorate the wagon.
The Brouwers also liked to fish. They lived on the river Yssel, just below the dike. Normally the river didn’t come all the way to the dike, but there was an overflow field in between the edge of the river and the dike. This field only flooded when the water level in the river was very high. These overflow fields were made for protection against too drastic rising of the river water level. When the water level resided, fish were often trapped behind in some big holes in the overflow field, and could easily be scooped out. This was not allowed and the police frequently patrolled this area to make sure no one was fishing there. But the Brouwers found a way around this problem. The village had only one policeman and he was married to a second-cousin. They would bike past his house to see if he was home. If they saw his bike, they waited for another time, but if they saw that the bike was not parked by the house, they went in to visit with their cousin. They didn’t ask any direct questions, but somehow found out where the policeman was and when he was expected back. Their cousin knew what they were up to but she enjoyed the game too. If the policeman was far enough away they would go fishing in the field, and bring a meal of fish back to their cousin’s house. She never asked where they caught the fish, and they never told. Even the policeman knew he was eating fish caught illegally but he couldn’t prove it. However, he would threaten them that they would really get it if he ever caught them at it!
Living on the dike was also nice for tobogganing. The dike slopes were nice and long. Sometimes they would pour water down the slopes which froze to ice and make it even more exciting. Many winter evenings they would stay out tobogganing till late in the evening. They also skated along the river a great deal.
Derk’s Emigration
The biggest change to the family came in 1949. At that time Derk, who lived and worked at Oom Teunis’s farm to help there since there was not enough work for him at home, decided to go to Canada. There were two reasons why Derk wanted to leave Holland. The first one was the army. In Holland all healthy young men have to join the army when they are nineteen for two years of service. Derk was not at all keen on joining the army. The second reason was that the prospect of starting his own farm in Holland was very low.
It was very expensive to buy a farm, and there simply was not enough land for everyone who wanted to farm. This had already been a problem in Holland for the past 50-80 years. In the past many farmers had handed their farm down to two sons to share, which didn’t always work very harmoniously. Other farmers split their small farm up into two smaller farms, giving a piece to each son. With the help of fertilizer and more intensive farming methods it was possible for such small farms to support a family. To alleviate the land shortage, the Dutch had reclaimed a number of small lakes and part of the Zuiderzee, by pumping water out of the lakes and building extensive dikes everywhere. However, there was only so much land to go around, and too many people to farm it. With the onset of tractors and modern farming equipment these small farms became unprofitable, and larger tracts of land were needed to sustain a family. This is why there was such an exodus of people, especially farmers, from Holland emigrating to Canada in the years following the war.
Canada was the most popular country for the emigrants. It was much easier to be admitted to Canada than to the United States, and there was plenty of room there and more freedom. After the war, life in Holland became very regulated. Permits were needed for almost everything and the farmers, especially, did not like adjusting to all these new rules. The taxes in Holland were also much higher than in Canada. Some people went to New Zealand and Australia, but many people thought that was too far away. Others went to South Africa since most of the white people there were of Dutch background and the Afrikaans language was very close to Dutch. However, most Dutch people didn’t agree with the apartheid politics, and were afraid they would never be fully accepted there. A few others went to France and Denmark. Another reason Canada was chosen was the high regard the Dutch had for the Canadian army which had liberated them in the war.
Opa and Oma were not in favour of Derk’s plans, but he was very determined and left Holland in 1949 at the age of 18. They likely gave their consent because if he stayed in Holland he would be sent to Indonesia. Quite a few soldiers had been killed there including Henk Boerboom who lived with them at the end of the war. Derk left for Canada without the slightest idea of where he was going. Even when he arrived in Quebec and checked in with the immigration officials he still did not know where he would be sent.
The remaining years in Holland
In 1950 Opa and Oma had their 25th anniversary on October 24. They had eight children then, and with the exception of Derk, they were all at home. Jantje was 24 years old and Ineke, the youngest, was 3½. Aside from some short friendships they were all still single. Only Jantje was engaged at that time. Wim Bruinekool, her boyfriend, came from Amersfoort, which is in the province of Utrecht. In the eyes of the Dutch this was quite a distance. Jantje and Wim had met during the war. Wim had been picked up by the Germans, along with a lot of other people, to help build fortifications around Lathum to stop the allied forces. In the evenings several of those young men came to the Brouwers. Wim and Jantje maintained their friendship, also during the 2½ years that Wim was in Indonesia. After he came back to Holland, they wanted to get married. Indonesia, then named the Dutch East Indies, was a Dutch colony for about 350 years, and the Dutch were quite proud of it. In 1941, about a year after the Germans invaded Holland, Japan invaded Indonesia, after the bombing of Pearl Harbour. All the Dutch people who lived in Indonesia were put into camps. The men and boys in male camps and women and smaller children into separate female camps, with no communication possible. The men were usually transported to Burma to build railroads through the large swamps. Life was very harsh and many didn’t survive. After Germany was defeated the Japanese still fought for a while until the Atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Japan was defeated too. However, several Japanese companies stationed in Indonesia didn’t hear about the defeat and stayed in control on some of the islands there for several years. Under Dutch rule there had always been some resistance by the Indonesians to foreign rule. In the five years after the Dutch had gone, these forces had grown and had a chance to organize and make plans. The Japanese had fuelled hatred for the Dutch by telling the Indonesians that they were liberating them and thereby gaining their cooperation. Holland had been freed from the Germans and now the Dutch felt that they should also free the Indonesians from their oppressors, the Japanese.
At first signing up for the army to serve in Indonesia was voluntary, but soon whole companies were being assigned to go. Most Dutch boys born between the years 1925 and 1929 went to Indonesia, unless they were excused for reasons such as poor health. None of the Brouwers went to Indonesia. Hendrik was in that age range, but he wasn’t forced to go. From the Brouwer family only Wim Bruinekool and Cor De Jong served in Indonesia.
Wim served with the military police which he really liked. He was good at languages and very soon spoke Malaysian, the main language there. After returning home 2½ years later he planned to stay in the military police and was stationed in Limburg. One time a Catholic church official was going to Rome. Wim had to check his papers and found that they were not in order and prevented the priest from going. His superior, who was Catholic, was very angry about this and they couldn’t get along anymore. For this reason Wim resigned from the force. Very soon after sending in his resignation, his superior was transferred. Wim then regretted his haste, but it was too late. Then Wim started working in a factory in Arnhem, the “A.C.C.U.” where they made nylon material. Nylon had only recently been developed and didn’t exist before the war.
Usually Wim boarded in the neighbourhood of the Brouwers, but sometimes at their home too. He was not allowed in the girls’ room, but before leaving for work he sneaked into the room to give Jantje a goodbye kiss. She slept on the right side of the bed. One time they planned to trick him so they changed places and Geertje got the goodbye kiss that was meant for her sister.
Jantje and Wim wanted to get married soon. However, this wasn’t very easy at that time, due to the real shortage of living accommodations. During the depression very few houses had been built and during the war none at all. Added to that problem was the fact that during the war a tremendous number of buildings had been destroyed. At this time, more than five years after the war, the rebuilding was just beginning and there was a shortage of all kinds of building materials. If someone wanted to buy or rent a house they had to sign up on a list. Some couples had to wait 10 years or more before a house became available.
Wim and Jantje, however, were quite resourceful and found a unique way out. They managed to buy a construction shed, placed this behind the barn in the orchard, and fixed it up quite nicely. They told everyone that they were making a chicken coop, but when it was finished the love-birds, and not the chickens, moved in! They never got into trouble for building this house fortunately, since in many other villages in Holland, it would have been torn down.
1951
On the 24th of October, 1951, Jantje and Wim were married. There were now two Wim’s in the family. To avoid confusion Wim Bruinekool was called “Wim” and Wim Brouwer was called “onze Wim” or “our Wim.” They lived close to home sharing the same driveway. Wim was born on June 17, 1927. He became the 11th member of the Brouwer family, but from now on they did not all bear the Brouwer name anymore. Shortly before their wedding Wim’s mother died of cancer. The wedding had originally been scheduled for early September, but Wim’s mother, who had been sick for a long time, felt that she was improving and asked them to postpone it so she could attend. However, it didn’t work out that way. Wim’s mother soon became seriously ill and died very close to the date first chosen in early September.
1952
There were no major changes this year. However, the need for another farm was felt more and more. The farm was not only too small acreage wise, but some fields were small and quite a distance from the house and barn. Opa owned the buildings and some of the land, but most of the land was leased. They slowly leased additional fields whenever they were available at a price they could afford. The most land they ever leased was about 10 hectares or 25 acres. In 1952 the lease of the largest field ended and could not be renewed. With this latest development the farm became uneconomical. When Opa heard the news that he was not able to rent the land again, his initial reaction was to say the family should emigrate. Oma and the boys readily agreed to emigrate and quickly signed up. When Opa later changed his mind, it was already too late. They went to look at some farms in other parts of Holland, even in the polders (reclaimed land) that were in the former Zuiderzee. Opa didn’t like these farms at all. The land was so flat and open and quite different from Lathum.
1953
This year started with the big storm, from January 31 till February 3, that caused severe flooding in Holland. In the east of the country where the Brouwers lived the damage was minimal, but the western parts of the country were badly hit. Many dikes broke and polders flooded. Houses and farm buildings were destroyed. Almost 1800 people drowned during this storm, and thousands more had to flee their homes. Several polders were more than 4 metres under water and most of them were flooded with sea water (salt water) which made the damage considerably worse. The people from the eastern part of Holland went to help as soon as possible, sending trucks and boats, taking in refugees and cattle that had been rescued, helping to fix the dikes, and helping with the gruesome task of searching for drowned bodies. All kinds of help was needed and freely offered. Geertje went with a whole busload of girls from their area for a whole week to help with the clean up after the water had subsided. Quite a few people who lost everything during the flood decided to emigrate. They had already been uprooted and wanted to get away from the bad memories. Many also felt far too vulnerable to return to living behind dikes again.
Many changes for the Brouwer family started to take place in 1953. They had found out that there were very few farms for rent or for sale. The cost was also so high that this solution was out of reach. Derk was doing well in Canada and advised them to emigrate as well. Hendrik and Gerard were very willing to go to Canada which convinced Oma that it was a good idea. She wanted very badly to keep the family together and was worried about losing all her sons to a distant country. Opa remained opposed to the idea, but Opa had always been very resistant to change. Every time some home improvements were needed for their growing family, he was always opposed, but when the job was finished, he was as proud as could be and acted as if it was all his idea in the first place.
The question of emigration was not an easy one, with Oma, Hendrik and Gerard in favour, and Opa, Geertje and Wim opposed. Beppie and Ineke were still going to school, so their opinion was not asked. Finally, they sent a letter to Derk and asked him to come over to discuss the subject of emigration further. The Bruinekools had no plans to emigrate originally since they had a house and Wim had a good job, working for a financial company. He also owned a car which was quite something at that time. At first there was no obvious reason for them to go. However, Wim soon realized they would have to move somewhere since they were living in a very small temporary house, which would soon be too small now that Jantje was pregnant, and was on land that no longer belonged to them. Evert had taken over this land when the Brouwers decided to go to Canada. They also realized that Jantje couldn’t live without her family and would be terribly homesick for them, so they decided to emigrate too.
The difference of opinion about whether to emigrate between Oma and Opa is very reflective of their personalities and backgrounds. Opa’s resistance is quite understandable. Opa was born in Lathum and had lived in the family home all his life. He was a good farmer and a hard worker, but very reluctant to make any changes. Now he was close to his 67th birthday and emigration was no small matter. This was a tremendous step to take. Opa also did not enjoy paperwork and decision making and had always been very willing to let Oma take care of everything. Oma had always been, in many respects, the leader of the family. Oma was also so much younger. At 54 years of age as compared to Opa’s 67, she had much more energy and enthusiasm for a big move. Although she was outgoing and helpful in cases of sickness or other neighbourhood problems, she never became a real insider in the community. She was different when she arrived and never felt happy about having neighbours so close by who could see and hear everything that happened in their family.
Another significant difference between Oma and Opa was that Oma never felt at home in the village church, a Hervormde (Reformed) church, which was quite liberal. Oma was quite outspoken and read more than most villagers and this was not always appreciated by neighbours and relatives. Shortly before the beginning of the war she left this church and started attending the Christelijke Gereformeerde Kerk (Free Reformed Church) in Doesburg, where she felt the preaching was more biblical and soon made public Confession of Faith there. Opa was easy going and in the beginning he went along with Oma but he didn’t like the long distance. It was a trip of 9 kilometres, which took half an hour by bike. In the war when air-filled tires were no longer available and they had to ride the rough dike path on solid wooden tires it was too much for Opa and he went back to the village church in Lathum where he was still a member. He could easily walk there and he also felt more at home with old friends and relatives. The children went with Oma, except for Geertje who wanted to stay with Opa and went along to his church. Later she went for a weekend to Rotterdam to visit friends, the Veldhovens,who were from the Gereformeerde Gemeente (Netherlands Reformed). She heard a sermon there that made a big change in her life. From then on she went to Doesburg also. This change of church had made Oma even more of an outsider in the community.
Not only did the emigration plans make 1953 an important year, but this was the year the first grandchild was born. On June 1, 1953 Jantje and Wim had a daughter, whom they named Wilhelmina Albertina after Oma and Opa Brouwer. They called her Ineke. Ineke was the twelfth member of the family, there were now nine Brouwers and three Bruinekools. The birth went well, but Jantje started working too early and too hard, since she expected visitors. Consequently she was laid up for about six weeks and the family had to help her.
The Emigration
Just before Christmas in 1953 Derk came back for a short visit. The family was really impressed. The young boy that had left had changed into a good-looking, well-to-do and confident young man. Derk had started work on a fruit farm where he had been sent by immigration officials, but the wages were very low and it would take a long time to get his own farm. To speed this up he decided to temporarily work in the construction business where the wages were quite a bit higher. In a very short time he managed the trade and when the contractor gave up the business, he had learned enough to start out on his own. Derk explained about all the possibilities in Canada and promised that he would have a house ready for them to move into and work for Hendrik, Wim and Gerard. Thus, finally convinced by Derk’s report, they made the decision to go, although Opa, Geertje and Wim did so quite reluctantly. Once the decision was made getting ready to leave went quite quickly. A cousin who lived next door, Evert, son of tante Marie, wanted to get married and was very eager to take over the farm with most of the contents.
They had to go to The Hague for a medical examination before getting their permits for emigration. They had to wait quite a while in a big, full waiting room. Finally they called the family A. Brouwer, but two big families got up. After checking the papers they called the Family A. Brouwer with six children and again both families came forward. Only after they called the family from Lathum, was it their turn. The Canadian doctor who examined them was Doctor Dobson who later was a doctor in Vineland. (When Oma met him many years later she recognized him immediately and it certainly helped that he understood some Dutch.) Opa almost failed the test since his lungs sounded like he might have asthma, but since the whole family depended on him, the medical officials finally let him go through. Gerard also needed some extra testing. Wim Brouwer had just been in the army a short time. He was with a transport company and was learning how to drive. Because his whole family was emigrating, he was allowed to leave the army and emigrate with his family. Jantje and Wim Bruinekool were still waiting for their medical examination.
It was a real event in this quiet village that a large, popular family moved so far away. Some furniture and other household items were sold or given away. The rest was packed up into two large containers, one which was 17 cubic metres and the other 13 cubic metres. Later, when they arrived in Canada, they realized that they had brought way too much over. Used furniture in Canada was cheap, and unfortunately, shipping costs for these two large containers was very expensive.
After some farewell parties, visits to relatives to say goodbye, and last minute arrangements, the parting day of May 4, 1954 arrived. Saying goodbye then was much more final than now. The possibility of ever returning was quite small. Very seldom did anyone who had emigrated ever return. Overseas telephone didn’t exist and passenger transport by plane was in its beginning stages and much too expensive for ordinary people. So they said goodbye, expecting never to see any of their friends and family again. They left Lathum on a bus which they had rented for the occasion. Many friends and relatives came along on the bus ride to Rotterdam to watch them sail off. When they left, very early in the morning, all their neighbours gathered at the dike for a final goodbye and sang them a heartfelt farewell song. The bus stopped first in Westervoort to pick up Henny Vleming, then travelled through Arnhem and Utrecht, made a short stop in Bodegraven to pick up Oom Piet and tante Geertje (Oma’s sister), and then continued on to the harbour in Rotterdam. During the stop in Bodegraven Hendrik and Henny bought their engagement rings, but there was no time to engrave their names and date on them. For this reason Jantje and Wim brought them along when they emigrated.
The ship they sailed on was called the S.S. Zuiderkruis. (Steam Ship Southcross) . At the harbour they had a long wait while all their emigration papers were checked over. In the afternoon they could finally board the ship and late in the afternoon, with lots of waving and farewells, the boat left the Rotterdam harbour. From the harbour they sailed through the “waterway” to Hoek van Holland, and then on through the North Sea. The “waterway” is a man-made canal that connects the Rotterdam harbour to the sea, since the river is too shallow and winding for large vessels. The Brouwers left Holland, their country of birth, with eight members on board; Opa, Oma and six children. Unfortunately the Bruinekools had to stay behind because Jantje had failed her medical examination and had to be re-examined.
At that time Holland had several large passenger boats such as “The Zuiderkruis, the Grote Beer, the Waterman, the Maasdam, etc. These ships were used before the second world war as transport boats to Indonesia and Surinam, and had survived the war by putting into harbour in a neutral country when Germany had invaded Holland. After the war they were rebuilt to transport the Dutch army to and from Indonesia. Now that this war was over these boats were remodelled somewhat for transporting emigrants. While war planes were common, large passenger planes were relatively new in the early 1950s and were very expensive. Almost all the emigrants travelled by boat which is why Holland needed so many passenger boats.
Due to the serious shortage of houses and lack of farms emigration was encouraged. Most people respected emigrants and were impressed by their courage, but fear of the unknown and of the long boat trip held many back. Just after the Brouwers had booked and paid the fare, a new law came into effect and then the Dutch government paid for all or part of the travel costs for many emigrants. The Bruinekools benefited from this new law and that is why they could come by plane.
Cor De Jong had also bought a ticket to cross on the same boat as the Brouwers, although he did not know the family at that time. However, since the ship was to leave Holland on May 4, and his brother was getting married on May 7, he traded his ticket for the next emigration boat that was leaving on May 10. Cor left Holland two days before the Brouwers arrived in Canada.
The boat the Brouwers were on stopped in Calais, France, where many containers were loaded on board. They had a few rough days at sea and most of them became seasick. Beppie was especially sick and spent most of the trip in bed. Near the end of the trip they were afraid that she might not make it. Opa and Ineke didn’t get sick at all, and Opa especially enjoyed the trip. Travelling on a large boat was quite an experience. They had travelled so little in Holland and seen very little of the sea. Now they were on a boat with so many decks it was easy to get lost and the sea was all they saw for days. On their second day at sea they celebrated Hendrik’s 26th birthday and on the weekend they celebrated Mother’s Day. In the store on the boat they were able to buy her a nice present, a little clock.
The boat also had a huge cafeteria which served many strange foods. Peanut butter was one of their favourites. It was extremely expensive in Holland and they had only tasted it once or twice. Gerard and Opa had all the peanut butter they could eat every day on the boat! There was also a minister on board who held evening devotions each day and preached on Sunday. Wim played the organ on board. They met a woman, named Mrs. Van den Boogaard, who was very sick. When the Brouwers discovered that she lived in Vineland and attended the same church as Derk, they were able to have her moved to their rooms where they could take care of her. She was one of the few emigrants who had returned to Holland. She had lost her youngest child just before leaving Holland and that had been very hard on her.
Chapter 10
MEMORIES
Aunt Betty’s Memories about Holland
Since I was twelve when we left Holland, my early childhood was there, and looking back I can easily say it was a pleasant one. Being one of the last in the family, it was easier. The older ones had to do work, but Ineke and I could do as we liked, play and everything else, as long as we behaved and stayed out of the way of Mom and Dad.
One exciting thing I remember was Saint Nicholas Day, December 5. I guess we were rather naive because I still believed he was real until I was about 10 years old. He came to our school with Black Peter. I was always scared that he would put us in his bag and take us back to Spain. We never suspected that it was just other villagers from Lathum who dressed up as Saint Nicholas and Black Peter
At home we were told to put our wooden shoes outside with a carrot in them for Saint Nicholas’ horse. Then when it got dark and we were all sitting around the table, there would suddenly be a noise outside and the window blinds would rattle. That was the sign that Saint Nicholas had come. Sure enough, outside in the hall there would be a big wash tub full of presents. It was only when we were quite a bit older that we realized that it was one of our older brothers or sisters who had sneaked outside and pretended to be Saint Nicholas. One of the presents that I still remember was a doll house with a lot of furniture, all made from match boxes. I think Trudy made it
Another highlight was the Sunday School Christmas program. It seemed like it was so big, all the people from Lathum were there. The hall was decorated with the most beautiful Christmas trees that had real candles burning. The stories were so exciting and told with such enthusiasm. The hall was dark with only the lights of the candles. We were on the edge of our chairs, listening with such suspense. Then at the end of the evening we all got a book and bag of candies. This day was always a really special day for our small village.
I was three when the war ended and my memories are very vague. The time I was wounded is still quite clear. The shrapnel is still in my leg. I also remember one night when we had to go to the neighbours and spend the night in their hay loft because the Germans were shooting across the Yssel river.
The school years were alright. I wasn’t too smart, but Mom and Dad never made a big thing about report cards. As long as we had a 10 or close to it for reciting the psalm and an 8 for “gedrach & vlyt” (behaviour and effort) they were satisfied. We learned a lot in those years, especially in math. They were much further ahead in Holland than here in Canada. My teacher made a big fuss about neat writing too, and when I came to Canada it was not even mentioned.
Looking back I see that our house always had lots of excitement, especially in summer with the guests and young people from church in Doesburg. I guess we didn’t have much money, growing up in a large family, but it never seemed to be an issue. Perhaps, though, we were just too young to know about such problems.
When Ineke was born I was just about five. In those days we were not told about the birds and bees. Gerald and I slept in the bedstee (closet with a bed in it). One morning I woke up and heard a baby crying. Peeking around the bedstee curtain I saw people I didn’t know. They were washing and drying a baby. The nurse noticed me and she put Ineke in our bed for a second. I coughed just then because I had a cold. The doctor heard it and they quickly took the baby out again.
I also remember when Jenny and Bill got married. The party was held at our place, so it must have been a really busy place. That was not our concern though, we just had to behave. We had a boy living with us then, whose name was Cor. He was just a little younger than Gerald. Cor and I had to do a little skit we had practised. I didn’t want to do it because we had to kiss each other. So our big brothers and sisters said if we didn’t do the skit, we would have to go to bed at 7:00. We decided going to bed and missing the fun was preferable to kissing.
Every summer during the last three years I could go away for a holiday to Tante Geertje and Oom Piet’s house in Bodegraven. It was always exciting to go there, and wander around the city, looking at all the different stores and going to the market. My cousin Geertje was a half year older than I and we got along well, but when her brother Hans came, then it was “two’s company, three’s a crowd.” So the next year I went to stay with Tante Wies and Oom Bep. That was a different experience. Lots of kids, lots of mess, and lots of things to do. I was a fussy eater and didn’t like much. That was no problem for Tante Wies. She just made you eat it, whether you liked it or not. Since it was summer they must have had lots of lettuce. I
didn’t like lettuce, but after a week of lettuce I must have gotten used to it. When I came home, the first thing I said to Mom was “I like lettuce now.”
Another thing that I remember was that on Sunday nights after supper Mom always said, “Vader, take the kids for a walk.” I guess she wanted all of us out of the house for a while. So every Sunday evening we went with Dad. He would say an “entje kujere.” (let’s go for a little stroll) so we went down the road to another road that went to a brick factory. When it was bramen time we picked bramen (blackberries) and flowers for Mom. If the weather was fine and it was early enough we walked along the Yssel to the end of the village, and then back again along the dyke. It seemed like quite a walk when we were young, but when we walked it again when we were back in Holland for a trip, it didn’t seem that far. Dad was not a busy talker, but he liked the walks. He liked looking at all the crops in the fields better than talking.
Betty Otten (nee Brouwer)
Aunt Ineke’s Memories
January 1947 — Holland
I was born early in the day. It was sleeting. The roads and fields were covered with a layer of ice. I don’t remember, of course, but my mom and dad, brothers and sisters told me later. Being the youngest of eight children, I guess I must have been terribly spoiled.
My first memories were of being in a busy home and being made fun of often. Sunday afternoons were special because then I could go for a rest with Mom. I can remember watching the white clouds float by the window and we would think of what those clouds looked like and where they would go. Betty and I had the mumps together and we spent the day in Mom and Dad’s bed.
I was very protected. It was always “be careful, Ineke” or “make sure you don’t go too far, Ineke.” Mom must have worried about me. Being 47 when I was born, she might have been a little over protective. I was not allowed to swim for fear of drowning. I was not allowed to skate because the ice might not be thick enough. I remember that Betty was my protector. She was older and therefore in charge. We had to collect money for the mission. I sat on the back of the bike with Betty. We went to every house in the village and to some family or family friends that were about a ½ hour ride away. That was a long distance back then. We would get a dime there.
When we were told that we were going to Canada, I was happy because then I was going to see my big brother Derk. He had sent me a beautiful doll, the only toy that I can remember. All the other gifts he sent were also very costly in my eyes so we thought he must be rich. I can remember little about the packing and getting ready. Only the trip to get checked out. I sure hung on tight to my mother’s hand. I had never been to a doctor before and here they made me undress which I found very embarrassing.
On December 25, 1953, I remember receiving a book from Sunday School. It would be my last Christmas in Holland. The teacher made a little speech and I started to cry. My playmates were neighbours and cousins. I remember very little except playing in the willow trees across the dike. These trees had very short trunks so we could climb into them easily and here we played house. We made cups and bowls from clay.
When the time came to pack, Betty and I were sent to an aunt’s house some distance away, and from there we went to the boat. I was never sick on the boat. Everyone else seemed to be. Since I was a child, I had to eat with all the other children, at a different time than the adults. Brother Bill was designated to look after me. He was warned over and over never to lose sight of me, in case I should fall over board. I learned how to embroider on the boat. We all got new aprons, but mine was way too big. Someday I would grow into it. I didn’t finish mine though until I was 12 or 13, and now it doesn’t fit anymore.
May 12, 1954 — Canada
I still clung to my mother’s hand. (I did until I was about 12). Since we would be living in my brother Derk’s house for only a few months, it was decided we would not go to school until September when we would be in our rented house. I was sure a frightened little girl when I went to school. Each morning Mom would brush my long hair and braid it into pigtail braids. I hated them. I was the only one at school with such long, thick hair. For Sunday my hair was curled into ringlets. Every Saturday evening I had to endure Mom putting me in strong curlers. They were shoe laces. Taking an inch strand of hair, she would wind it around the lace which she had tied to the top of the strand. Then it was all twisted around and the bottom and top of the lace were tied together. The strand of hair would now be in a tight little bun. She would do this 18 or 20 times, and then I had to sleep on all of that. What a lot of pain to look beautiful! How she did Betty’s hair, I don’t remember, but it was not in ringlets.
When we moved to the Jordan farm in December 1954, I stayed at my sister Jenny’s house, but Betty had to help. When we went looking for farms with the real estate agent, Mom and I often went along. One time we were around Wellandport and we were lost. I was so scared, I remember praying, “Please let us find the way home,” over and over. It was dark and it seemed we were driving in circles. We did find the way back, but they never bought that farm.
The farm house was cold, cold, cold. The first year especially, but also many years after. We had to go to a new school, a one-room schoolhouse with 8 grades in one school. (This is the old converted schoolhouse at the corner of Victoria Avenue and Seventh Avenue). We had a young male teacher, named Will, who spent most of his time in the back with the grade 8 girls. We didn’t learn much. The school was closed at Christmas and then we had to go to Jordan Station School while an addition was being built onto Jordan School.
One of the hardest things about school was the language. In Holland we were way ahead in math and we had been taught to use cursive writing, rather than printing. My birthday was in January, but I was put back a year in school. Being Dutch and poor, we must have stuck out like sore thumbs. I had very few friends. I can only remember two, a heavy girl of Mennonite background, named Elfrieda, and Wendy Corbett. She was also tall like me and she went to the Church of Christ. The three of us had church in common and we were more mature than the rest. I loved baseball, but they didn’t want me on the Grade 6-8 team because I couldn’t get rides to the practice and games which were after school. I was asked to play only when they were short players. Betty was a really good player. She played on the team when I was in grade 5. I can remember one game in Jordan Station park. They were short or else someone was hurt, so I was allowed to play the last few innings. At the last bat, I was told to bunt to bring in one more run to win. But I struck out and we lost. When I was in Grade 7, the team won the season with first place. We were treated to a dinner together with the boy’s winning team at Prudhommes. I was pretty nervous. All the girls had gone home early to have their hair done by the hairdresser. I had never heard of such a thing. My hair had been cut and thus I wore it in a pony tail. I put curlers in so it would be curly. The neighbours whose daughter also played on the team gave me a ride. I had never been in such a large fancy hotel before. We were given a room to put our coats in and refresh our make-up (what make-up?). Everyone laughed at my curly ponytail. That hair-do would fit in with the girls today, hair pulled straight back with no bangs. It was the best I could do, but I knew I didn’t fit in with the girls. Most of the girls were in grade 8, therefore the next year our team lost big time.
My grades were always good, usually A & B’s, except in spelling where it was often a C. History, Science and Geography were my best subjects. We spoke only Dutch at home so I became and still am bi-lingual. Mom taught me how to read and write in Dutch and I wrote a few letters to Holland the first years.
I was an avid reader. Any book I could lay my hands on was read, whether it was Dutch or English. In Grade 8 we kept track of all the books we read. I was at 140 at the end of the year. Memory work was no problem either. On one of our Friday assemblies I recited a long poem of 10 or 12 verses. Even though I could learn well, there was no opportunity to go to high school since I was needed on the farm to help with the work.
Ineke Pennings (nee Brouwer)
Leave a Reply