The Daily Alaska empire. [volume] (Juneau, Alaska) 1926-1964, 1940-07-08

l can remember very clearly the
day in my life when the word
Holland first assumed an I'M
pcrtance in my mind. was SIX
and a half years old, skinny, bristly
haired. and a serious student in
the first grade of suburban Phil
adelphia grammar school. On a
lazy May afternoon my father came
home from work early and went to-
the city. When he returned he
announced that he had made plans
for our summer vacation, that we
were leaving for Holland on June
1c.
Even at my early age L realized
that the news was reeking with
siQnificsnce; 1t meant getting out
CT school two weeks early; it meant
enjoying an eleven day trip across
the ocean; it meant visiting new
land but most important, it meant
going to grandmother's, an exper-
fence l had never before known.
/ had often experienced deep
pangs of juvenile Illustration when
in Kindergarten and first grade we
had sung at Thanksgiving time,
over the hills and through the
woods to grandmother house we
CO." My mothers mother had died
in Philadelphia when I was a baby
MY fathers mother had always lived
in little Dutch village with the big
name of Rijnzaterwoude. 1 had
never gone to grandmothers At
last my time had come.
School had prepared me poorly
for Holland. l had learned about
windmills and wooden shoes, tulips
and canals, ice and silver skates.
But none of these things was to
make memorable impression on
me. Holland proved to be filled
with thousand delights that no
schoolbook has ever mentioned.
l know my first ecstatic memoir
les are associated with strawberries
huge, luscious. sweet, red straw
berries served on thick slices OF
white bread, squashed with a fork,
and smothered with sugar. That
was the treat which we were served
ten finutes after we had arrived, at
grandmotherss stately house in the
country after we ourselves had been
squashed and smothered by more
than a dozen big, friendly, and rosy
checked Dutch relatives.
1t is highly significant that my
first impressions of Holland had to
do with Strawberries for one out
of two of all my other memories
concerns things to eat. stroOpwaf-
fels, gebakjes, krentenbroodjes j
which may sound unappetizing but
which translated mean Cd thin,
buttery waffles filled with molasses
and baked on hot griddle until
deliciously golden brown, 90 alter
nate layers of cake, whipped cream,
glace fruit, and grated nuts COM
piled as frothy tarts, CD big, round,
sweet ,chock- full -o'-raisin currant
and-citron rolls that are sold for
two cents each in Dutch bakery
stores. And Dutch bakery stores
are as numerous as skyscrapers IN
New York, drug stores in Seattle,
saloons in Wrangell.
One of the things I enjoyed doing
in Holland was watching the police
men learning to swim. Every week.
at the boat club on the lake ALI
non -swimmnig policemen Of nearby
communities had to report for a
lesson. Across q big stump on the
shore huge pole was laid. To the
pole was tied rope, TO the rope a
policeman.
| For fifteen minutes each police
man was privileged to hang from
the pole, and while he smote the
water violently with his arms a
crowd of gaping spectators con-
trolled the pole and saw to it that
though his head and feet might
be thirty inches below the surface
of the lake his mid-rifts always
remained three or four inches above.
Going to the city was another
pleasure-to Rotterdam. TO Haar-
lem, to Amsterdam. From grand
mothers we took a horse and buggy