I remember very well that in Drachten we did not yet have running water, but we had a pump. A copper pump inside and a big wooden pump outside. You had to swing the handle back and forth and then the water appeared. That was real water, right out of …
In Friesland many kids and also the adults wore clogs, especially in the winter. I liked walking in clogs, no wet feet, in the snow we made long sliding paths, which was much easier with clogs than with shoes. Sometimes a thick layer of snow would stick under the clogs, …
My sister had given our mother a notebook, with the suggestion she writes down some of her memories. While she was originally reluctant to do so, she did in the end fill almost the entire book. I will occasionally reproduce some of her memories here. The Kerosene Lamp We had …
Trees in the backyard In the back of the yard of one of our houses in Zwolle were three horse chestnuts. They were rather young trees, and probably came up by themselves, as they were too close together really. But they made a wonderful perch. To us it seemed like …
One of the houses I grew up in, was a four story townhouse in the Ter Pelkwijkstraat in the center of town. It was a narrow house, with an (in my eyes) immense tall staircase. In front was a small yard, where we could play. There was one room on each …
My maternal grandmother was a large woman, tall (of course I was little) and by present standards definitely overweight. Her thin white …
Sometimes in the fall we would go mushroom picking. My father and I would go on the bike, he knew the places …
My great-grandfather Barend ten Bruggencate (dutch link) looks like a very proper and dignified person. However, he seems to have been quite a …
