Not what it is, but how it was. Corle 1965.

 Your Tante Lia would probably tell it all different,

but these are some of my memories when we arrived in Corle in 1965.

Fresno, 1090 North Armstrong, 1964 ?

I was 7 years old.

I learned Dutch in less then no time

(ask my Tante Bets Warmerdam)

The first Dutch song I remember learning was:

"Zeg ken jij de Mosselman,

de Mosselman, de Mosselman.

Zeg ken jij de Mosselman,

die woont in Scheveningen"

(ask you Tantes and Oom Paul for the melody)

First we lived a few month's in Noordwijkerhout, the homeplace of my dad

Adriaan Warmerdam.

His sister, Tante Bets still lives in their family house.

It is a farm in the middle of the centre of the village.

In the mean while Dad went looking for a place to live.

Nice, rural, quiet, with space and affordable.

The Achterhoek was the place to go.

About 4 kilometers outside the village Winterswijk: Corle

a neighbour called "De Pieper", our road looked like this

There only was a dirt road to get there.

Imagine how that was when it had rained or snowed.

On some days we could not get there by car, we had to walk.

Blurp, blurp, blurp.

When we arrived there in 1965, there was electricity.

But only since 1958.

In the kitchen was a waterpump you had to swing to pump the water up from somewhere below.

We first lived in a chicken barn next to the house. Oh well, it had been a chicken barn, but it was turned into a simple holiday-let by the previous owners.

The farmhouse itself had no central heating, only a coal fire in the living room.

Brrrrrr.

I remember my mom Lia, not swearing, but something near to that,

while trying to start the coals to burn in the early morning.

Do know she, we, were used to so much more comfort in Fresno where we came from.

What was she doing there in Corle besides following her man ?
She, and we all, survived and had a great time.

June 18, 2016 The van Leeuwen's are coming !

A start of a special Blog to read and write about

the visit of the Van Leeuwen's  to Winterswijk in Holland

on June 18, 2016

a typical "Achterhoek" barn

 Not wanting to begin with the start, a mill, although the visit will start in a mill, because the van Leeuwen's will probably see that kind of dutch architecture quite enough during their stay in Holland;

I will start with Corle.
No mill in sight.

Corle belongs to the dutch village Winterswijk.

Winterswijk lies in the "Achterhoek", the east part of the dutch province "Gelderland"

We call Corle a "Buurtschap".

No, it is not a neighbourhood.

It's more complicated.

On a later blog I will try to explain.

Any way, you got:

The Netherlands,

also called Holland, Nederland, Les Pays Bas, etc. 

the people there speak Dutch,

a part is called Gelderland,

a part of that is the Achterhoek,

and there is the village Winterswijk,

with the "buurtschap" Corle.

Corle has also different parts:

such as:

Geelinkhoek, Mentinkhof, Korenburgerveen and more.

Pauline's sister, Lia Hofman, with her husband Aad Warmerdam

went to live in Corle after they returned from the US in 1965.

With us, their 5 children, all born in the USA;

Ann, Paulette, Marx, Adrian and Liesbeth

We grew up in Corle.

Well, that's a complicated start !

More will follow.....

And please, do understand,

my English is not great, it's simple, plain and, yes, probably silly

south view from Lia's house