the M.A.D. pages
OMA REMEMBERS . . . |
||
 |
||
| In Diemen he built a sunroom at the back of the house, using glass windows from the Haarlemmerplein shop. Apart from having the wooden poles driven in by a professional he did the rest all by himself. Sometimes my school friend Ali Spils would come and we would play shops together. I also had friends among the boys in the neighbourhood - after all it was a mixed school we all went to. I played with the Goedhart boys and we fished in the ditches and caught sticklebacks and tadpoles (donderkopjes) while lying on our tummies on the bridges over the "sloten". Once Anton Goedhart fell in and when we pulled him out he still had his cap and clogs on! I usually walked home with Jan Keyzer after school. His father had a little farm further on towards Oud-Diemen. On our way to and from school we had to pass by a Protestant school and sometimes there were fights between the "Roomsen en Protestanten". They used to taunt us and call us names because we were Catholics. Then off came the elastic belts with metal buckles. Then there was the haymaking when the horse-drawn carts, loaded high with hay, rumbled |
|
past our house. The farmer's kids were sitting on top to the envy of us all. The road was narrow and the hay was caught on the tree branches all along the road. There were hardly any motorcars as yet. This was 1926/27. Later on, we moved to Amsterdam where we often heard the street singers. Anyone unemployed or disabled and w anting to sing or make music in the streets and collect money, had to have a licence from the City Council. Sometimes these singers accompanied themselves on the squeeze box and they sold the text of their ballads for a few cents. One I remember well played the ocarina. Then there were of course the barrel organs; hearing those always gave me a happy feeling and I especially loved to see the little puppets on the organ, moving to the rhythm of the music. Then there were the 'bruggetrekkers' (bridge-pullers). In Amsterdam some of the bridges over the canals are very steep, because barges have to pass underneath. Since bakers, milkmen, greengrocers, fish vendors etc. did their trade with wheelbarrows, it was often a problem for them to push their heavily-laden |
|
||
   |
||
| Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26
|
||