Chapter 12

MEMORIES

The Ramblings of Ineke Pennings-Brouwer

 What is a Brouwer?

This is the Brouwer book.  Have you ever wondered what the first Brouwer was like?  Brouwer comes from the brewer industry, someone who brews beer.  Did he pick his name from his business or because he loved brewed beer.  I think he was a business man who was well established in the community, with a well respected occupation in those days.  He was a father of maybe many sons who would or wouldn’t carry on the business.  There have been sons since the name didn’t die out!  I suppose he was not very imaginative, not like the man who called himself “Naakt geboren” (born naked), he didn’t have a barn full of potatoes like the man who called himself “van deel Piepers” (barn full of potatoes), he also didn’t look out of his window and see “bruinekool” (brown cabbage).  He wasn’t the youngest or he would have called himself “De Jonge” (the youngest).  Was he strong?  He didn’t use the name “de Sterke” (the strong one) or “de Leeuw” (the lion).  He didn’t want to be like most of his neighbours who put a “van” in front of the Dyk, “van” meaning “from.”  They didn’t come from Friesland for there are no “Jelle’s, Jitze’s, Drupke’s, Auke’s or Piebe’s” in the family that I know of.

So I guess he was a father of a son with a respected brewery business.  How long it was in the family I don’t know, but they became farmers at some point.  We know they were strong.  Opa could carry a 100 lb. bag of feed in his teeth, and one on each shoulder.  They were independent (not stubborn).  I don’t remember my Dad as a young man since he was 60 when I was born, but they told me he would recite poetry on stage at weddings.  Did he get that from one of his ancestors?  Singing too maybe?  There seems to be a great love for children in the Brouwers.  My Dad always played with me.  You are never too old to enjoy the children in the family.  And eat, yes!  I’m sure Brouwers of times past loved their meat.  Did they have to hunt for it, or fish maybe?  Is that why there are fishermen in the Brouwer family?  No hunter that I know of, but then meat is easy to obtain, just go to the farmers in the family.  We even have those who loved to butcher and make sausage.

Where do all the teachers come from in the Brouwer family?  Well we had a mother too.  She was the one with the imagination, the one who loved to tell stories.  She would have loved to have had an education, but this was not possible for poor labourer’s children.  Her outlet became the flower garden and knitting, crocheting, hooked rugs and needle point.  We can all remember the many hours she worked in the flower beds.  When Gerald built the hog barn, after the big barn burned down, a garden had to be put in front of it with evergreen shrubs.

Not only was her garden full of flowers, but so was her home.  Eighty to one-hundred pots of all kinds of plants on the sills, on shelves along the windows, on the tables in the living and dining rooms, the kitchen and her bedroom.  She would talk to them and would not give up on a dying plant till there was absolutely no sign of green left.

Her motto was “en vrouwe hand en een paarde tand mogen niet still staan” (a woman’s hand and a horse’s tooth may never be still).  She always had quite a few projects on the go.  One for the morning when she wasn’t too tired and an easy one such as needle point when there was company so she could work and talk at the same time.  She made some needle point pictures for the bazaar and some to give away.  She made a picture of the home where we were born in needle point as well as the church where we were all baptized.  Dick sometimes would help her with drawing the picture, from a snapshot, on the canvass.  One Christmas we all received a needle point with a well-known Dutch saying on it.  Mine said “een dak dat lekt, en kwade wyven, die kunnen goede mans verdryven” (a leaking roof and an angry wife can send a good man away).  “De morgen stond heeft goud in the mond” hung in the hall at the farm for years and years.  It was to help us get out of bed.  It’s meaning is similar to “early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.”

Making the dollar stretch was how we were raised.  Is that also a Brouwer trait, or was that dictated by the times?  No luxury such as toilet paper, but soon the toilet was plugged by all the newspaper, so newspaper was used in the outhouse and toilet paper only very sparingly in the house.  The men made a lot of use of that little brown shed.  The Sears catalogue was there too.  We were pretty well self-sufficient.  Only salt, sugar and flour were purchased by the 100 lb. bag.  When we were snowed in, which happened a lot in the first winters, we ate pancakes when we ran out of bread.  We had lots of easy meals such as “bruine boonen” (brown beans) with syrup, “boerekool” and “hete bliksem” (potatoes and apples with a piece of pork).  I now have a recipe of pork and apple pie and it tastes a little better.  Having our own cows and chickens meant there was plenty of milk and eggs.  Desserts were cooked pudding, or when there were too many bread crusts or stale bread, Oma made bread pudding, which simmered on the back of the wood stove all afternoon.  When a cow had a baby calf, the next few milkings were used to make a special dessert called “biestepap.”  Everybody loved that.  In later years our neighbour brought his fresh milk to Gerald after being told about our strange dessert.

The Dutch man didn’t waste a thing.  Socks were mended many times over, all girls had to learn to sew.  Store bought clothes were hardly heard of in our family.  The first store bought dress I had was when I was 15 and helped out at Dick & Tina’s for a few days when Harry was born.  All you needed was three of everything–socks, underwear and undershirts.  One to wear, one in the wash, and one in the closet!  And if I complained, I was sure to get an earful!

Hospitality must be a Brouwer trait, or was it Mom’s?  There seemed to be a lot of people around the farm, working or visiting.  Even for a few years there were three families living in the farm house and they all shared one bathroom!  When there was field work that needed to be done, Jenny and Trudy would come.  Mom would babysit and do the sorting and packing of fruit close to the house.  The year started with strawberries, cherries, peaches, plums, tomatoes and then pears.  We didn’t have all those every year, but even so, summers were busy. 

On Sundays we often had company for coffee after the morning service, or for tea in the afternoon.  It was during the long winters that we often didn’t have company for weeks on end.  We inherited a large red tabby cat with the farm.  He sired all the neighbour-hood kittens.  No male kitten was left alive either.  He was boss!  In the winter time he stayed home to rest, nurse his wounds from all his fights and get fat.  When he would sit there and wash himself with his paw, Mom would sing “als de kat zich wast, dan komt er een gast” (when the cat washes himself, a guest is coming).  How we wished then that there would be somebody, even if only a salesman.

For many years the bread man came on Fridays.  He supplied us with all the necessary Dutch treats–hagelslag, apple stroop, dropjes, peppermunt, en pakje spekulaas, beschuit, maggi, en buisman (a coffee additive).  Dad smoked, so for him there was a box of cigars, for special occasions, Sundays and birthdays.  Rittmeester was the best.  I always got the band off his cigar and pretended it was a ring.

Brouwers liked to celebrate birthdays, at least the party part they liked.  In Holland it was a time to get together as brothers and sisters.  Distances were far and travel was often difficult.  So at birthday time a special effort was made to get together and catch up with each family.  Here in Canada the tradition continued.  The birthdays on the farm started with mine on January 9.  It was often mentioned on the Sunday before that there would be no cake, just leftover olie bollen.  One gift I remember was roller skates from Bill.  What a practical gift out in the country with six feet of sidewalk!  I also remember a paint-by-number set, and when I was a teenager Gerald gave me a portable hair dryer.  That was luxury!     

Betty and I always had to help serve for Dad’s birthday on February 7, and for Mom’s birthday on October 18.  We would sit in the living room–the only time it was used. They would swap fishing stories and discuss controversial things like Christian school.  All the men got a cigar from Dad.  Everyone smoked, except Bill Brouwer.  The grand children were tucked in bed, trying to sleep.  Two cups of coffee were served with cake, or a gebakje, if it was a special birthday.  A box of chocolates would be passed around and then we would have a dessert glass of mixed canned fruit.  Mom would can 3-400 bottles of fruit each summer.  At about 9:15-9:30, Bill would slide onto the organ bench and we would sing the Dutch psalms from memory.  Each would choose his or her favourite verse.  When we were almost at the end I would get awfully nervous.  I didn’t know many songs.  Betty and I shared Mom’s psalm book.  Gerald had one too.  They always saved Psalm 84:1 for me, about the swallow building her nest.  Closing song was at 10:00 and time to go home.  Betty and I hurried to bed.  10:00 was really late for us and we needed our beauty sleep.

Spring cleaning was not invented by the Brouwers, but it was religiously kept.  Mom would get itchy fingers when the calender turned over to March.  We always had to start at the top of the house and work down.  There wasn’t much in the attic except cobwebs and dust, which were soon dispersed.  The bedrooms were done during school break.  The windows were opened, blankets, pillows and mats were thrown on the lawn, draped over chairs, shrubs and the clothes lines.  With 5 bedrooms there was a lot of stuff carried outside.  How I hated carrying all that water up and down the stairs to scrub the windows, walls and floors with!  When we cleaned the living room the big rugs were taken outside too and hung over a 2 x 4 propped up between two trees.  We would then beat all the dust out of it with a “matten-klopper,” made out of wicker that somewhat resembles an oversized fly swatter.

The worst job was the kitchen.  Then the wood stove had to be put out and all the black pipes taken outside and cleaned.  The stove was cleaned and polished too.  The stove pipes were then stored in the top of the wood shed.  No matter how cold April and May were, after spring cleaning that was the end of kitchen heat.  If you were chilly, you simply put on another sweater.

June brought garden clean up.  Since there were lots of stones on the farm, Mom laid a row of stones all around the flower beds.  When we bought the farm there were a row of tall evergreens there.  Mom wanted them all out so the sun could shine in through the small windows.  These stones had to be white washed.  First the basement walls were done and then the stones.  That was my job after school.  This always seemed to happen just at black fly time so it was a miserable job!  But how nice those stones looked when they were all done.  I’m sure there are more who had to do this.  Mom often had the grandchildren come over in later years to help her with spring cleaning.

As you can see we inherited a lot from our parents and grandparents.  The colour of our hair, or the lack of hair, the colour of our eyes, and our poor feet.  Dad was discharged from the army because of flat feet.  How about our sore knees, short sightedness, stubby fingers, pointed noses and poor posture.  But we also inherited our ready laughter, enjoyment of a good book, good humour, thinking of others, giving to others, making someone else happy and working hard for our families.  We do these things because we enjoy them, but also because we saw the examples of our forefathers.

There is one thing, however, that we cannot inherit and it is the most important of all.  We can observe it, desire it, hear about it and yet not possess it, and it is salvation. We may be thankful that we were raised in Christian homes–not sinless homes, but homes where daily forgiveness of sin was asked, and where we were shown Christian principles and morals.  But each of us needs Christ to be our personal Saviour.  Then we may live with peace of mind, striving daily to love God more and our neighbour as our self.  This salvation we cannot pass on to our children’s children either.  May we therefore daily pray for one another that God will graciously hear us.

           This completes the ramblings of Ineke

Farm Memories

White doves, budgies, canary named Trixie, St. Bernard dog, horse named Luke, rabbits, loose pigs, “cows are on Highway 8,” new tractor, pulling out trees–peach, cherry, apples and pears, burning all that wood, planting new grapes.

Spring Farm memories

Crocuses, daffodils, tulips, fruit trees in bloom, mud, burning grape branches, tying grapes, spring cleaning, open windows, cold, drafty, late snow storms, spinach, asparagus, groote boonen

Summer Farm Memories

Hot, flies, thunderstorms in the night, out of bed, candles, bell ringing–coffee, lunch or supper time, fruit picking, sorting, canning, weeds, gardening, flowers, climbing roses, smelly out-houses, canning water, swimming at the bottom of the falls, long Sunday walks

Fall Farm Memories

Grapes, apples, pears, bees, harvest, coffee time, toast with sugar, paying pickers, long days, hard work, Beamsville fair, washing, endive, cold hands, butchering, sausage making, starting the wood stove

Winter Farm Memories

Snowed in, pushing out cars, cars won’t start, cold and colder, frozen water pipes, bringing in wood, coal, hot water bottles, warming up by the stove, pancakes, pea soup, brown beans, oliebollen, evenings of knitting, embroidery, reading, “close the door,” New Year’s Eve, Christmas dinner with all those kids

Aunt Betty’s Memories of Living in Canada

When you arrive in a new country and are only twelve years old, there is a lot of change.  One big change was being put back to grade 4 in school because of the language.  I did not like school very much so when I was in grade 8 I stayed home for a total of 60 days to help at home and on the farm, picking grapes in the fall, and tying in the spring.  Then I went to grade 9 at Great Lakes Christian College, which is run by the Church of Christ.  I did not mind school so much that year because finally I got good marks, with an average of 92%, and third out of a class of 31.  But by now I was already seventeen.  When Mom and Dad asked me what I wanted to be, I didn’t really know, so I said “hairdresser.”  That was a worldly occupation though.  I knew I didn’t want to be a teacher, nurse or secretary.  So they said I might as well get a job since they could use the money.  I paid for my own highschool at $600.00 a year.  I cleaned house for two years at Richardson’s on my free day, Saturday, earning $5.00.  That was my spending money, but I had to save some of it too.

Then when school was finished I got a job at Beckman’s Bakery on James Street in St. Catharines, earning $30.00 a week.  I gave this to mom for her grocery money.  Then Mr. Kelder opened a bakery on Queenston Street.  He asked me to work for him so I worked there, selling baked goods in the store, until I got married.

Arend came on the scene when he moved with his mother and father and sister Marie, to Wellandport.  He bought a farm there and went to church in Vineland.  Marie and Ineke were friends so they started match making to get us together.  I was 20 and Arend 27 when we started going out together.

On the Brouwers farm, Dad and Gerald had some pigs which were outside in the orchard.  As you can guess, the fence was always broken and we had to chase the pigs back into the field.  This was always frustrating, so I always said I would never marry a pig farmer.  When Arend came along I knew he had a farm, but he said he wanted to have a beef farm.  Not knowing much about those animals, I was sure they were better than pigs.  So that problem was solved.  However, after a year beef was not a money making business so he bought some pigs and the rest is history.

We became engaged on November 29, 1963 and married on April 18, 1964.  The day was cloudy and  windy with some rain.  The wedding was at 2:30 in the Vineland Church with the reception in the Women’s Institute Hall on Rittenhouse Road.  Rev. Noordegraaf of Toronto married us.  Our wedding text was Joshua 24:15.  Unknown to us Mom had made a cross stitch wall hanging for us with this text, so she informed the minister that this was supposed to be his wedding text for us.  I don’t remember much of the sermon.  It was supposed to be taped, but something went wrong and it didn’t get done.  One thing I remember is that in those days there was always a collection during the wedding ceremony.  My Mom and Dad always said that the collection at weddings was never very high.  Mom complained that couples had money for everything except the offering.  Well, we never thought about the collection either.  When Arend opened his wallet he had a $20 bill and a $2 bill.  Our first decision as a married couple was what to give. Well, the $2 bill went into the bag.  My Mom said later that she had made up for it.

There was no honeymoon so at night we went back to the farm where some young people had been that night.  There was rice all over, so at midnight I was shaking out the sheet of our bed on the verandah in my wedding dress.  We did not make it to church the next morning.  On Monday Arend had to do his barn chores already and I had to work, cleaning house in the neighbourhood.  Our married life started off being very busy and somehow it continued that way for just about 35 years!

Married life was very different than I was used to.  Instead of going to the store, now it was going to the barn and working together with your husband, trying to get ahead, building and renovating old barns to make room for more pigs.  One day per week I cleaned house for older people in Wellandport, earning $6 which was my household money.  Since Arend smoked, his cigarette money had to come out of that too.  So you see we didn’t have much to spare, but looking back, we didn’t lack anything either.  We didn’t own a car, but Arend had a good pickup truck that was used for the farm and church.  We had our furniture made by brother Bill and bought a new stove and old fridge which was still in use when we left the farm 34 years later.  We bought a used dining room set for $45 which Alfred and Christine still use.  The year before we got married I could save my money, $30 per week.  I had $1,200 saved up for buying furniture.  Arend borrowed $600 from me to buy more pigs, but we had everything we needed. 

Work days on the farm were long, but rewarding.  When we went to bed at night we could give thanks to God for all His blessings.  After one year I became pregnant.  Going to the barn each morning and being sick was not much fun.  Marcel Albert was born on January 7, 1966, 3-4 weeks late.  I didn’t know much about babies and I was not a happy mother.  I cried more in those first weeks than all other years combined.  Arend said I was supposed to be happy and suggested I phone Trudy to find out what was the matter with me.  She said that what I had was normal, just the baby blues which happened to lots of other moms.  Thankfully it didn’t last long and I never had it again with the others.

Life sure changes when you have a little fellow to look after.  I had to work around his schedule and in those days there were no baby monitors.  Luckily the barn wasn’t far from the house so while Marcel slept I went to do my barn chores.  Before we knew it I was pregnant again.  Alfred William was born on January 11, 1967, the centennial year.  Arend was very busy building the new pig barn with Henk Brouwer.  The foundation of the new barn was poured that day.  Marcel, who was a year, was in the hospital with croup.  In those days nurses didn’t encourage parents to visit their children often since it upset them when the parents left.  So I was on the second floor with a new baby, and Marcel was on the fourth floor.  I never saw him because measles had broken out on the children’s floor and I wasn’t allowed to go see him.  A neighbour, Alice Jansen took him to her house when he could leave the hospital and he stayed with her for a week.  So our family had grown to four.  It was a joy to see the kids grow up together.  Marcel and Alfred were like twins.  Where one of them was, there was the other too.

Farming has its ups and downs.  We had some good years and we took some holidays in the summer.  One year we went with the Van de Kamps to Parry Sound where we rented a cottage.  We really enjoyed that.  Ralph and Ineke also had two boys of the same age, Johan and Ronald.   Our boys were friends until they were 12 years old and the Van de Kamps went to another church. 

In the fall, November 24, 1969 Edward was born.  The boys grew up fast and often helped in the barn with moving pigs and sweeping the floor.  They spent many hours there with their tricycles and a big sand pile to play in.  A year after Edward was born, Wayne came along.  He was born on Christmas morning, 1970.  He even had his picture in the newspaper–the first Christmas baby.  Some teenagers came to the hospital and gave him a teddy bear.  They had gone carolling and the people gave them some money so they bought some toys and gave it to us.  The other kids were at Uncle Gerald and Aunt Leida’s.  Edward became sick with croup and had to be admitted to the St. Catharines hospital so Leida was very busy with those three kids.  We were very blessed that we didn’t have much sickness with the children.  Alfred broke his leg when he was four.  Other than that we didn’t see the doctor very often.

That year the farm across the road was for sale so after awhile we bought it and now there was more work.  Henk Brouwer built a new barn for veal calves.  We needed someone to work on it and had quite a few people during the next 15 years.  We were now able to take a vacation once in a while for now there was someone who could look after the pigs as well when we were away.  The first time we flew was when we went with Dick and Tina to California.  Uncle Dick must have felt sorry for us since we could not afford to go on a trip.  He said it would only cost us some spending money so we went.  It sure was a nice trip.  We saw a lot, travelling all along the California coast.  Our motels were along the water so Dick could take out his fishing rod and enjoy some fishing.  A few years later when we could afford a trip, we went with Bill and Rinie to Hawaii.  That was a long way from home, but we enjoyed that trip as well.  Those two trips were in the first seven years of our marriage. 

Then in August 1974 Jason was born.  He grew up very fast because he wanted to be like his brothers.  He walked when he was only 8 months old.  He was into mischief pretty soon too.  Because of his mischievous eyes, Oma nicknamed him “boefie.”  We always went to the Brouwers farm for coffee after the morning service on Sundays since we had to wait for Sunday School.  We have kept up this tradition for 35 years.  The kids always had to give Oma and Opa a hand, but since our kids did not understand Dutch they could not talk with them.  It is too bad that we did not teach them.  We thought that since they were not too quick in talking, that when they went to school, they would have a harder time if they had Dutch and English mixed together.

In September 29, 1976 Amanda was born.  We weren’t counting on a girl so she didn’t have a proper name for a week.  We had chosen Bernice but Trudy said that was not a nice name for it reminded her of the Bible story.  We had a list of names and Amanda Marietta was chosen.  Now our family was complete.  We were very thankful for six children who were very healthy who could live and work on the farm.

During the summer months we had many nieces and nephews working on the farm and helping me with the house work.  This was not a priority for me so when summer came along the teenagers who came had to wash a lot of windows, paint fences and barns and help with the haying.  I am sure they have many stories to tell.  For those who didn’t grow up on a farm, it was a real experience.

In the years that followed we were blessed materially.  Farming was getting better and white veal was a good business for ten years, but changes happened there also.  Ten years ago we quit white veal and went completely into pigs.  We bought more farms so if the boys wanted to farm, they could each run a farm, instead of working all on one big farm.  Meanwhile the boys grew older and girls came on the scene.  Now they are all happily married and all interested in working in the church and in Christian schools, for which we are very thankful.  Amanda has a full time job in a day care centre.  We have 14 grandchildren with two more on the way.

Things have changed since March 14, 1998.  We moved off the farm and now live on Canboro Road.  No more gravel roads!   Edward and Anita bought the home farm.  Arend still goes to the farm every day, but has a nap at lunch time.  Maybe we will travel a little more in the future.  I do some baking and go swimming 2 or 3 times a week.  Our lives are still busy, but looking back we enjoyed our years on the farm.  We see it as a rewarding life in which to raise a family.  We are very thankful to God for all His blessings which we received so abundantly.

                             Betty Otten (nee Brouwer)