I was number two out of seventeen. My oldest sister was born in August 1925, a girl.
Number two was me, a boy. Born and raised. on a farm gave me a lot to know about animals. My memory goes back to 1930. A new horse my Dad bought the day before was loose, and my Mom and Dad were trying to catch it. I don’t know whether I had to be there or not, but I was and the horse knew it too, and it lifted it’s back end and knocked me out with his horseshoe.
My parents thought I was dead, and I think that it was very close. Waking up on the operating table, they found out I was still alive. I woke up and saw blood all over the table. The doctor was stitching up the hole in my head, which had just missed my brain. In two months I was mobile again.
In 1934 my school years started, and at that time I knew how to milk a cow, but I did not like it. Still I had no choice. For the love of my mother I kept it up. When I was seven, work with horses started. The horse must have known that I was not a grownup yet, in the middle of a long field it stopped and laid down in the field. My neighbor saw that and come to help me out. Hearing his voice the horse got up and did not play that trick again. In school I was not the best had a lot of headaches and was not good at math.
We went to school six days a week, four full days and Wednesdays and Saturdays half a day. We never hot homework from school, but lots of homework at home. In the fall when the potatoes had to be harvested we got two weeks off from school to pick up potatoes. We dug them up with a fork, and then pick them up in a basket and pile them up in the field where they stayed for four to six weeks then they had to be put in a pit and covered with straw, and before it got too cold we had to cover them with a foot and a half of sand to keep them from freezing. These potatoes were used for our own consumption and boiled for pig feed. In 1935 our barn burned down. Material for a new barn was cheap so it was not too long before we had a new barn. At fourteen years of age I finished school, and my Dad put me on a milk-route, picking up the milk from thirtythree farmers. Each farmer had number that was on the milk can. It took me a while to remember all these numbers.
I left at 6:15 in the morning and was back home at 12:20. Got my lunch and then the farm work started.
In 1939 the war started. Germany invaded Poland. On May 10th , 1940 they started coming into Holland, the small army we had was nothing to hold a big monster like that back. First they bombed the city of Amsterdam and Rotterdam, and then they rolled their big tanks across the border.
Today it is May 10th , 1999.
59 years ago it started.
Everything you bought was rationed. Being on a farm, we never were hungry. Everything we produced was controlled. Pigs were counted every month, and if one died you had to report it and prove it. When a sow had little pigs they came to count them. When a cow had a calf you let them know and they came to make a sketch of the calf. You had to let them know if you sold it and prove who you sold it to. You were not allowed to kill your own pigs, but we did anyway. We had a secret pen for two pigs. We had to make sure they always had enough feed and water so they would not make any noise. You were not allowed to take grain to the mill to be ground without a permit, so I took it in milk cans between the cans with milk.
The windmill that did the milling was on my way to the dairy. I’d dump the grain at the mill and picked it up on the way from the dairy and got it back to the farmer without a permit.
The war went on. Hitler wanted everything. People got hungry in the cities, and offered you a dollar for an egg. The Germans had a search light on the corner of our farm, and night when the British and American bombers came over, that was the time we got up in the middle of the night and see the fireworks. German fighter planes would come to shoot down the bombers. Sometimes the bombers would drop their bombs to get higher and faster to get away from the fighter planes. It was not very good to be outside at that time, but there was no use staying in bed and think what is going to happen next.
The Germans kept bombing England and visa versa. In September 1944 the Canadian and American army together with England fought hard against the Germans.
At the sane time the Germans were fighting Russia too, and it got too much to handle. On September 28th , the American and Canadian tanks pushed back the Germans and we were free. We lived about one mile from the canal, and that was as far as the Germans were pushed back.
One day I was plowing with two horses and the Germans started shooting grenades about 300 feet behind me. The houses took off and spooked. I caught up with them again and started plowing. Ten minutes later they shot another round right behind me. This time they took off so fast that there was no chance for me to catch them again. I ran for shelter at the neighbors, they had a shelter in the cellar. Half an hour later the shooting was over. A half mile away a farmer had caught the horses and put them in a stall.
We were not taking any more chances for a few days.
Then my brother was working land and the horse was shot through the breast with a machine gun.
By this time I had nine brothers and six sisters.
At about 4:30 AM on October 28th , we were surrounded by German soldiers. They all wanted shovels to dig foxholes. When daylight came all hell broke loose. About thirteen American tanks started firing our way. We all went to the cellar, and a little later six German soldiers came in there too. They said why don’t we go back, we cannot win this war anyway. The Americans fired grenades all over the house. My dad and I went out to see if nothing was burning yet. We went in front of the pigpens and then machine guns started firing through the windows so we went on our knees back to the cellar. Then a little later the smoke started coming in the cellar. We knew it was time to get out, but where to we did not know. The first ten of my brothers and sisters were out and then we were pushed back in again. How long we stayed yet I do not know. Then the smoke got so bad we tried to run outside too. We thought about a mangle pit and raced for it. Laying flat in there gave us some protection, until a tree disappeared with a grenade. We heard the cows in the barn where they were all tied up on chains. We saw the whole house and barn burn, and still one grenade after the other exploded on the fire. Thin I felt a warm spot on m left leg and it started bleeding bad. Then an American spitfire fighter plane came down right at us. It rained bullets beside me and one went in and out of my foot. Then it was time for me to leave. I headed right for the American tanks. There I got fired on all around me. I walked in front of seven American tanks. The soldiers kept calling to get down, but I kept walking like if you want me shoot me. I was not scared anymore.
When I got to a big ditch, the smoke from all the grenades got so thick that I dropped into the ditch. Branches from the trees above me started falling down on me. It was time to get out of there again.
Then I climbed another fence and I heard somebody calling me, looking to my left was an American Red Cross Rest. Getting there I got a lot of questions: did you see a lot of Germans, how is it back there? I said I have seen a lot of them, some with a leg off arms off and a few dead ones too. Then I started asking them if they had seen any civilians, no, they had not seen any.
Then I started wondering if I was the only one alive yet. They put some bandages on my wounds, and came in with three wounded Americans, one with an arm off, one with a leg off and one with a shot through the neck.
We were put in a jeep and brought to a bigger Red Cross port. The road was even full of grenade holes. Then we were put into a big army ambulance. Since I did not speak a word of English I had no idea where we were going. After a couple of hours in a big ambulance the Americans were taking out and of they went again for another hour and they stopped at a public hospital and carried me in there. For five days I did not know whether I was the only one left of the family.
Then my Dad came in, not knowing what had happened to the rest of them. The four of them, Father, Mother, the youngest baby and my younger brother Bert. They were in that pit with me, and they had walked to my Mother’s sister in another town about eight miles walking. He did not know anything about the rest of the family. One of my sisters and two brothers came back a week later. They had to go with the Germans, but one night after five days they sneaked out and came back to where my Mom and Dad were. These three were in the ten that ran out of the burning house first. They had seen my one brother killed in the field. My oldest sister saw two of my sisters killed, and she with five more were all wounded. They laid in the field for two days and two nights. There was a turnip field not too far away. The able ones got some turnips to eat for two days and nights. The Germans came the next night and they promised to get some help. Their wounds were bandaged by themselves with the clothes they really needed but stopping the blood was more important. After two days the Germans came and put the six wounded on a farm wagon and took them to the canal. The bridge was bombed, so they carried them over an emergency bridge to a German army ambulance. From there they were taken to a hospital about thirty miles south. The hospital was bombed too, so they were in the basement of the hospital. There were 500 people in there with the doctors and all.
Bombs fell all around the hospital for many nights. Those that were able went out at night to steal cows and cabbages; anything they could find to eat. Cabbage soup was the order of the day for five months in there. Five months we did not know whether the six of them were dead or alive. We had no idea where they were. Those were five long months for us, and for them too.
It took five months for the allies to win this south part of Holland. In the meantime we lived in a hen-house for three months where the hens were just removed but the lice were not removed. They ended up in our beds, so you had something to do at night. There was nothing to kill them with. On the farm the mines were cleaned up and we could go back to look at a big pile of rubble with dead cattle and pigs. Underneath, it was a smelly mess. Eventually we got an emergency home and stalls for a few cows and a couple of horses. All there was alive there yet was one cat and one hen. The plow and other machinery was all destroyed in the field. It took about three weeks to fill the fox holes and shell holes on the land. Then the plowing started and there was not too many furrows where we did not plow up a shell which had not exploded, then I put them under my arm and laid them on the end of the field and picked them up with a wheelbarrow. At night, they would come and pick them up at a later date. The war was over for most of us, but a year later I had to go for tests and examination for the Dutch army and was accepted.
On November eighth, 1946, I was drafted in the Dutch army and trained to go and fight in Indonesia. On June seventh, 1947, we went on board with 2000 soldiers. It started with fog in the morning with the fog horns blowing at half speed between England and France. Going through the Suez Canal was very slow too. Then I remember going through a very stormy Red Sea. With five of us we were sleeping on deck, the temperature was 1050 . At 2 AM, the ship police came and woke us up. We were soaking wet from the waves going over the boat. We had to go down to our Hang ups. We could not stand up and walk, so we had to go down on our knees. Coming into the room where there were 500 Hang-ups all around the room with 500 men to sleep on. In the middle of the room was a big garbage can for those who were seasick, and a lot of them did not make it to the can. The floor was very slippery. The next morning when I went to the dining room there was only three of us there. The tables were cross ways in the room and you had to hold on your tray or it would slide from one side to the other and came back again. If you did not eat I was told you would get seasick. Not that my stomach felt good, but I kept it full. I even ate salt herring out of the barrel. It Was so hot that your hair stuck to your head. I made a bet with five other guys, if they gave me a dollar each they could shave my head. So they went ahead and shaved it all off. This felt good. So now when we took pictures I put my hat on otherwise they might think at home that I was a prisoner of war. So on we went three weeks and no land in sight. Then we spotted small islands and after that all water again.
Thirty one days in the boat and then solid ground in Jakarta, Indonesia. Indonesia was a very wild country where they grow bananas, oranges, rice and pineapple. The temperature runs from 900 to 105. There was a lot of jungle and mountains where we had to fight. You could not trust anybody. If we went out of the camp which was usually in the middle of the wilderness, we had to go with at least three and with a gun. We had to go on patrol with fifteen men or so carrying guns and ammunition including a Brengun and hand grenades and a mortar gun and a supply of mortars. We were always soaking wet from the heat.
In a storm the rain came down with buckets full, and the roads turned into rivers in a short time, even the rain was warm. They were a couple of scary years. Our pay was seventy-five cents a day, five bottles of beer a month and a pack of cigarettes a week. Life was rough. In April of 1949 back on the boat to Holland. What a change that was. On that time my family was getting ready to immigrate to Canada. Since I was not figuring on staying in Holland, I was all for it.
The sponsor we had here in Canada wanted us there by May 12, so in order to make that we had to fly over in a Dakota. On May 10, 1949 we were bussed to Amsterdam. My older sister stayed in Holland because her boyfriend was still in Indonesia and they got married two years later. We boarded a Dakota in Schiphol airport in Amsterdam. The flight took sixteen hours and we had to land for gas three times. The next morning we landed at Montreal Airport at 9 AM and had to wait for a train until 9 PM to Toronto. The next morning we took the train from Toronto to Uxbridge where our sponsor was waiting at the train station. They came with a car and a pickup truck, from there we went to his farm where he had an old house for us to move in. It must have been over a hundred years old, and nobody had lived in for 25 years. My Dad and my brother and I had to work on his farm. My brother Bert and I had room and board with the farmer.
At four in the morning he would wake us up to go and get the cows on the next farm. We had to feed the cows and milk them. By eight AM we had our breakfast and then tore down an old barn on another farm and re-built it on the home farm. We had to dig out the footing by hand, dig the gravel out of his own pit, then mix the cement with a little mixer. We worked about fourteen hours a day. Our wages were $45 a month. My brother Bert left after the first month. I told the farmer that $45 a month was not enough. Then he said he would pay me $60 a month, when the second month was over I told him that was not enough. Then I went to his neighbor who paid me $75 a month and start at 7 AM. He told me in September that he would not have any work for me in the winter. Then I went to Toronto where my Brother Bert was already working in a hospital there. I got a job running a freight elevator. The pay was $125 a month with weekends off. We rented a room for $10 a week
We got three meals a day in the hospital. When spring came I had to get something outside, so I got a job with a construction company, putting in sewers and water mains. Room and board was then $15 a week, and my wages were $0.90 an hour. Then I started looking for a better paying job, and on the third trip to Oshawa in a tannery I worked on a splitting machine to split cow hides for shoe leather. This job was piecework; the more you did the more you made. It was a smelly place. I even tried to split a dollar bill but it was too thin.
In the meantime my Dad bought a farm in Kanilworth and farmed there for two years, and then bought a farm in Camlachie, where he could grow sugar beets and have more work for my younger brothers. In 1952 1 started working in Oakville where my girlfriend worked too and yes, I did find a girlfriend.
It never crossed my mind before that I would ever get married because of my ailment. Mom worked for a doctor in Oakville and told him about my problem. The doctor made arrangements with a hospital in Toronto where he worked. I had a complete examination and was later put on medication. Since 1954 1 have been on this medication and will be for the rest of my life.
On May seventh, 1955 we got married, and soon after that we moved from Oshawa back to Sarnia. My job then was in Oshawa in General Motors, on the assembly line. At the end of 1955 General
Motors workers went on strike. We were told that this would be a long strike (they wanted guaranteed annual wages) so I decided to quit there and moved back to Sarnia. I got a job in the brickyard, making cement bricks. Wages were not as good, but it was better than being on strike. We rented a little apartment on Exmouth street.
We were already looking for a farm when Mary was born on March 18th . On May 15th , we bought a farm on Egremont Road in Camlachie for $8000 with an old house and an old barn on it. We paid $1000 down and mortgaged the rest with Farm Credit Corporation for 29 years at 5% interest. We had a 1952 Pontiac car that I bought in Oakville when I worked for a car dealer. This was a nice story too. On a Saturday afternoon a man came in the car lot and wanted to sell his car to me for $700. It sounded too cheap to me, so I told the manager about it. He went for it and bought it for $700. Then I said to him how much would you want for it now. We made a deal and I bought it for $900. I drove it home for the weekend. Getting back to work on Monday morning the manager asked me how I liked the car. He said, “Do you want to keep it?” Yes, I said, I like that car.
In the meantime he found out that there was a lien on it from a finance company for $1200. Well I said that’s too bad, but I bought it for $900. We drove that car for six years.
So now we paid one thousand down on the farm. I kept my job, because the farm was not going to give us a living. The first year we had a very wet spring and could not plant anything until the middle of June.
We bought a cow for our own milk and two sows to get into pigs. The pigs and the cow were in the some pasture and soon we found out that the cow was giving us less milk all the time, and the little pigs we had were growing real good. One day we found out why the pigs were doing so good: they were milking the cow.
I bought a tractor where I worked in the brickyard. To pay for it they took $20 a week off my pay-cheque. We had to spend some money on the house because the first winter our kitchen taps froze twice and busted. The barn needed a lot of work too. We had to dig a trench from the house to the barn for water for the livestock. In 1959 we put in tile drainage in the wettest land.
Until January 1962 1 worked in town until after an operation. I had to take six weeks off. Going back to work, they did not need me anymore. While I was gone they hired another man to take my place.
On my way home I started thinking there must be a way to make it at home, so the two of us started building a hen house and in August we put in 4000 laying hens. From then on we made a living at home. In 1968 we planted two acres of strawberries and doubled that until we had twelve acres of berries. By now we had four children going to school; Mary, Tom, Teresa and Jim.
After living fifteen years in the old house we started thinking about ourselves, and built a new house. This was 1970. In 1978 we stopped feeding pigs and 1985 was the last year we had laying hens.
Now it is 1999 and we had the last year for strawberries. It was the worst we ever had because of drought and heat.