An Interview With Dad (for Jack)

Here are all of Dad's answers to Jack's list of questions.

Name: Antoon Houben
Born: March 26, 1928

In 1928, in the Netherlands where I was born, the ruler was Queen Wilhelmina. In Canada, there was King George V, Governor General Viscount Willingdon, and Prime Minister William Lyon MacKenzie King.

Pets? No, not really. My dad had some hunting dogs, but I didn’t have any. Unless you count the rabbits. During the war years (WWII) I raised rabbits for food.

The only nickname I had was Toon or Toontje, which are just a shortened versions of Antoon.

Oh, there were lots of inventions over the years! TV’s were just starting (the first TV program was aired in 1925) and my family’s bike shop was one of the first places in town to get one. The bicycle dynamo, arc-welding, refrigeration (both fridges and freezers), and while we had electricity – there were no electronic gadgets or computers.

The only real advise I would give is “learn a trade”. Having a trade is such an important thing.

The building my family lived in was partly our home and partly the family business. It was built in a square with an open courtyard in the middle and had three floors, not counting the cellar.
On the front wing, facing the main street, the bottom floor on the right was the electrical shop, on the left was the bicycle shop, with a narrow hallway between them leading to the courtyard. On the left hand wing , the bottom two floors were for the family. The top floor was rented out.
On the right hand wing, the bottom floor was for family, and the top two floors were rented out.
On the back wing, the bottom floor was a repair shop and space for customers to park their bikes. The train station was across the street (from the front of our place) and many people would park their bikes with us. The second floor was a warehouse. The top floor was storage.
The family area included about 8 rooms including the kitchen and an office.
While we had electricity, there were no indoor toilets, just 2 outhouses in the courtyard. Once a week I carried a 3 gallon pail of warm water up to my room for a sponge bath.

I’m the second youngest of 12 children! From oldest to youngest this is the list of all of us kids:
Johannes Josephus Gerardus (Jan) b. 1910
Gerardus Johannes Josephus (Sjra) b. 1912
Josephus Gerardus Johannes (Sef) b. 1913
Maria Hubertina (Mia) b. 1915
Arnoldina Petronella (Dientje) b. 1917
Leonard (Leo) b. 1919
Piet b. 1921
Hendrik (Harry) b. 1923
Elisabeth Petronella (Liske) b. 1924
Petronella (Nelly) b. 1926
Me – Antoon (Toon) b. 1928
Josephine (Jo) 1931
My parents were Hubert Mathijs Houben (1885-1959) and Theodora Vestjens (1888-1945).
My dad started a bicycle shop under the name "Houvest". The Houvest brand was registered April 5, 1946 and the Mijnwerker (mineworker) brand was registered April 17, 1946. Both brands of bike were registered for Stationstraat 27, Heerlen, and under the business name Houvest, H. M. Houben-Vestjens.
Stationstraat means Station Street – named this because of the train station.

I was born at home, #27 Stationstraat, Heerlen, Limberg, the Netherlands. The midwife came about 8am to check on mom, then left again telling them it would be half a day at least before I showed up. Well, not long after she left, dad had to go looking for her because I was coming out!
The only things I collected were stamps and coins. Unfortunately, I had to leave the collections behind when we emigrated to Canada as we were not allowed to take more than a certain dollar value of things with us.

Some of my best memories are of when I joined the Scouts in 1939 at age 11. It was great to have other kids to do things with – as my family were always busy with the company business.

My best friend was Adrianne van de Kar. We met in high school and did lots of biking together all around the country. He was also best man at my wedding. My other friends were my Scout Patrol. During the war years we met “underground” and out of uniform as the invading Germans forbade such groups to meet.

My farvourite foods? Smoked eel! Mmmmmm! Mom was such a good cook, and made so many things, it’s hard to pick anything else specific, except maybe wartlestomp (mashed carrots, potatoes & onions with chunks of ham or beef).

In the Netherlands, I didn’t own my own car, but used our “company” cars. One was either a Ford or Chevy, one was a Wolsley (which is a British car), and one was a Ford with a rebuilt engine that had the gear shift put in backwards!
After coming to Canada, I finally bought my own car, a 2nd hand Chrystler.

I met Ruth in 1945 in the Patronade (church hall), square dancing. After the dance I lost track of her and finally found her again at another square dance at the Hexeberg (witch mountain).
This time I convinced her to let me ride her home on the back of my bicycle!
I was 17 at the time. We got married on May 17, 1950, when I was 22 and Ruth was two weeks short of 29.

During my school years, I received 50 cent allowance every week, which eventually grew to 2 guilders (about 2 dollars).
As a teenager, I also worked for the family business, parking customers bikes – and made money on tips.

I’ve never been interested in politics.

Ruth and I had six children, not counting our very first that was stillborn or two miscarriages.
They are:
Antoon Mathais b. 1952
Wim b. 1953
Dora b. 1955 (she legally changed her name to Merina Theodora)
Sibyl b. 1956 (she legally changed her name to Sylvia) - your grandmother
Robert b. 1959
and Margaret b. 1962
I remember the many Foresters events we went to, like the picnics at Locarno beach in Kitsilano, and all the exploring car rides all around the province (sometimes on logging roads!).

I went to grade school, of course, but only had one and a half years of high school. I dropped out of high school because of Hitler and the war. The Germans, when they had invaded, went to the schools regularly to take out any strong looking boys and girls to ship them off to work camps in Germany. Many of us older boys and girls dropped out to prevent the Germans from catching us.
When I did go to school, I walked.
My grades were okay, but I didn’t have any particular favourite subject. I did enjoy the sports, though.. Twice a week we would play soccer, rugby, or slingball.
I remember slingballs being very solid (the size of a soccer ball) and it could knock the wind out of you, if you caught it wrong! (Imagine a medicine ball with a strap attached.)

With my Scout Patrol, we went on bike trips to Lourdes France, Germany (with British Rover Scouts), and all through the Netherlands. Some were day trips, others were week long trips.
After emigrating to Canada, I went back to the Netherlands with Ruth for our 40th Wedding Anniversary. During the ‘70’s we went on several road trips - once to Michigan and back, and once to California and back. For a while we owned a small plot at Lake Tyee, a camping resort in Washington.
But the most exciting was my trip to Australia the year after my heart operation.

For holidays like Easter and Christmas – all of the family would come home – all 12 kids and their families. It was quite something to have everyone at home!

Most Sundays we’d go to Pancratiuskerk (Pancratius church) in Heerlen, but on special occasions we would go to the Abbey in Valse.

In the Netherlands, I worked at my families bike shop, repair shop, and electrical shop, as well as parking bikes for customers taking the train.
In Canada my jobs were as follows:
1) building bikes for Fred Deeley in Vancouver
2) factory labourer feeding machines
3) labourer for Alcan in Kitimat and eventually as a millwright for them
4) machine operator for Imperial Cannery in Steveston
5) machine operator for a Food Cannery in Haney
6) then joined Industrial Mills as a millwright where we were sent to various mills as needed (almost all of the next jobs were gotten through this company)
7) millwright at the Annasis Island Plywood Plant until it burnt down (for Johnny Douglas)
8) worked in Golden helping to rebuild the sawmill there
9) then worked at Fraser Mills for 12 years
10) and finally at Tyee Timber until I retired

I was never in the Armed Forces, neither in the Netherland, nor in Canada. In the Netherlands, I was exempt from joining because 3 of my older brothers had already joined.

I don’t remember wanting to be anything particular when I was growing up… except perhaps “OLD”!
I was always happy to be working for the family business.

My favourite board games were aggravation and checkers. Otherwise, I was really into sports and loved playing soccer , bike riding and square dancing.

In bike riding, I entered the Queen’s Birthday Race two years running. The route went through a good part of the town of Heerlen and everyone had to go around the route five times. It had one particularly large hill in it, and at the top of the hill was a check point – for each circuit, the first one there got a prize, and then of course there was a prize for finishing the entire race first.
That first year, I won all six prizes!
The other competitors were so annoyed with me, that the next year they ganged up and formed a blockade to keep me from passing.