Brothers....

Mom & Dad had 6 kids in all - 3 boys, 3 girls. As the eldest is a boy, I will start with the boys.




Antoon Mathjis Houben is the eldest; while we called him Tony when we were little, he now likes to be called Antoon. He is the only one of us kids not born in Canada.
He was born in Heerlen, Limberg, the Netherlands, on March 26th 1952, weighing 7lbs 8oz, (3.4kg), 51cm.

Here is a photo of mom & dad & Antoon just after they had emmigrated to Canada.










Taking after his dad, he was active in scouting, and attended several Jamborees and has many a tale to tell if one thinks to ask.

Knowing how to cook and his enjoyment in cooking probably stems back to his days as a scout... when on camping trips the boys (from about scout age and up) were expected to cook for themselves.







Here is a pic of Antoon and the next eldest, Wim, playing with their chemistry set. In the photo you can just see the red ceiling - it is red for a reason!
(Too many explosions!)

He is very bright - he skipped 2 years in high school and attended the University of BC from 1968 to 1971... he was 16 when he started at the University!

And just imagine, when he was in university, computers filled rooms and used punch cards!!!!








We were all very proud of him!

It wasn't easy for him either when he was in university, because in Nov of 1971 we moved from Burnaby to Mission. This meant he had to stay behind - move out on his own.

Mom felt bad having to do this, but they were being evicted by the owner of the house they were renting, and the only places they could afford to buy were out in the valley.








Things worked out well in the long run - he is a very successful computer programmer; he has travelled around the world (Russia, Australia, Germany... to name a few places); and he is a great brother!

Here he is in a recent photo with my sister Sylvia and her grandson Jack.

Spring is busting out all over... in this blog at least.

It may not be Spring outside...
but I'm determined to make it Spring in my blog!






Here are some of the best flowery pictures I took in 2008.

Enjoy!

... can't you feel the lovely warmth?

Spring has Sprung

... the grass is still buried under snow,

but the robins have come out in force!

There were around 20 in and around our crab apple tree on Tuesday morning eating the tiny frozen fruits.

more stories

Mom & Dad immigrated to Canada in July of 1952, when Antoon was just a few months old. They came over by ship and then by train across Canada to Vancouver. When they were going to board the train they had Antoon in a basket with a top (that closed over him) . A young black man was the porter and was stowing their luggage on the baggage car and wanted to take the basket too!
Poor mom & dad could barely speak English! Mom had to open the basket to show what was in it before he understood why they didn't want the basket in the baggage car. And the poor porter was so apologetic (and embarrassed, I'm sure).
Wouldn't that have been a hoot to have seen his face when he saw the baby in the basket, though!

*******

When they moved into their first house in Vancouver, they had to wait a week or two for all their furniture and things to arrive from the Netherlands. So for the first little while mom had to hang up bedsheets for curtains.
None of the nearby neighbours would have anything to do with them, thinking they were hippies.
Then finally the big crates with all their belongs arrive & mom put up the lovely lace curtains she had... then she started getting visits from the neighbours.
How sad that the neighbours were so stuck up! And I hope, if new neighbours ever move in around me, that I will go to say hi right away without passing judgement before I've even met the people!

stories

Mom & dad had (and still have) many stories about their lives in Europe.

Mom had one about why her pinkie fingernail on her left hand wasn't a regular fingernail but a gimpy one. When she was just a baby, there had been an explosion near their house (the one pictured in the previous post). As she was just a baby, she's not sure if it was from WW1 or if something else was going on, but anyways, it blew out the window in the room where she lay in the crib. She was very lucky... the only bit of glass that touched her was a tiny sliver that cut the base of the fingernail on the 1 finger!

Both had many stories about WW2.

Mom fled from Germany and briefly even went as far as Belgium to escape the Nazi's (as per previous note - she had Jewish blood in her background). She remembered when she was in the basement of a building with some other people, while bombs were falling. They were all getting hungry, but they were too afraid to go upstairs. Finally mom went up and found a few potatoes and baked them in the oven - one of the few things that still worked in what was left of the kitchen. At least one of the falling bombs had hit the house!

Dad, meanwhile, was busy dodging the Nazi's, too. He would make his rounds on his bike with a big basket. Many of our relatives in the Netherlands had farms, so he would go from farm to farm, picking up flour that he would take to the bakers in return for coupons for bread, picking up eggs and milk and cheese and whatever veggies where available, until the large basket on his bike was loaded, and then heading home with the goods.
One time on his route, he came across a Nazi checkpoint. There was no way around it. He could see an older fellow on a bike ahead of him that they had stopped. They beat the man and chased him away after confiscating his bike and anything else he had.
Dad was just a teenager and was frightened, but what could he do? There was no way to go around them without making them suspicious. So he peddled up to them as nonchalantly as possible. They stopped him and asked what was in his basket. He decided to tell them the truth - hoping to at the very least avoid a beating. "Several dozen eggs, loaves of bread...." they didn't believe him and told him to beat it!
"And the truth shall set you free" - indeed!!!!

And further back yet...

On my dad's side, the Houben's have lived in Sevenum, Limberg since the 1400's, and of course in the surrounding area's as well.

Above are some of the houses Houben's have lived in over the years.

On my mom's side, Konrad's family is German, while Auguste Tepper's family is half German, half Danish. I believe her father Wilhelm Tepper owned a factory in Denmark... but I'm rather vague on the details. If I can get dad to remember any of the bits I will add them in a later posting.

Of the Great Grandparents I only have 1 photo to share at this time and that is of Auguste Teelen, mom's grandma on her mom's side.

Aagghh!

Oops! Oh well, I guess I have some catching up to do. Now that dad is home from the hospital, I don't have to go into town on my days off & can play a bit more. So on Sunday I will post a few more bits.... this post doesn't count towards the 52 I'm trying for.