And this time my Francais perdu was really put to the test! She kindly bore with me as I mangled my way through why I was there, and once she had the jist of it, shared some of her story. She said that she fell in love with the house the moment she saw it , and made the decision to buy it in 15 minutes! She bought the house in 1969, which I think would be two years after we left. So there may have been one or maybe no other occupants between her family and ours! They replaced the thatched roof with tile around 20 years ago because it was too much trouble to keep up with. She noted somewhat wistfully that the house had lost some of its charm with the change, but what could one do? I asked her if she knew the Siron's next door, but she didn't remember them. Her children are grown and gone, but even so, she and her husband, who is passionate about the yard, plan to stay. And then I asked if I could take some pictures....
The front foyer. Same floor tiles!
Stairs to second floor. Same hanging lamp, I think.
The living room
Two shots of the dining room. The color scheme is different - the walls are peachy, and the trim is a greenish-blue. The door leads to the pantry between the dining room and the kitchen, right?
Dad's downstairs study
A few shots of the kitchen, which is much modernized. This one is from the front hall, with the back door to the far left. Remember how Mom would feed the beggars who used to come to the back door?
This one is towards the front hall. Those squares are actually holes in the wall; were they there when we lived in the house?
There's a hall through here with the door that leads down to the basement, where the laundry room was. I remember being appalled when Samson caught a mouse down there and tortured it all day long - and Mom telling me that it was a cat's nature, no matter how well-fed, to prey - even if it was just for fun!
Speaking of Samson, didn't we leave him with the Siron's? I wonder if the lady of the house ever saw him.
Understandably, but sadly, she wouldn't let me go upstairs, so I asked her if she remembered what colors the bedrooms had been when she bought the house. We both thought that it went like this: to the left, pink in the front, blue at the back, and to the right, yellow to the front and green to the back. Were we right? I also asked her if the pond was still a breeding ground for the mosquitoes that used to bedevil us nightly with their menacing whine and sting strategy; she said, "We have no mosquitoes here!" Spoken like a true Belgian.
It was absolutely amazing to be in the house; it would have been way better if my sibs had been there! I asked her if I could take her picture, but she said "I've been ill and don't look my best."
So once again, all call for memories! When exactly did we live there? How did Mom and Dad find this place? When did the Dolans come? Didn't Nana and Papoo visit? Comments, please!
20 comments:
For pete's sake,, I just wrote the longest comment and posted it.. but it didn't post.. ??? Will try to recreate it later.. dang..
Okay, here we go again.. Like you, Lanaux, as soon as I saw the interior shots I got all choked up.. it is so the same! That shot of the staircase really got to me.. and the glorious dining room. You're right, that door leads to the butlers pantry between the kitchen and the dining room. We didn't leave Samson with the Sirons. we left him with the young woman who had found him and cared for him that time he got lost for several months. Cho Cho went to the people in the house to the left as you face the house (you had a picture of it!) We had to leave the cats because we were moving to Von Bommellaan and the farm was right there. We moved out of Casa Erica in Jan 1968, so this family was probably the next owner... WOW! I'm not sure of the upstairs bedroom colors.. well, you got the colors right I think, but the placement I'm not sure of.. I remember my room as green, but hell.. 40 years is a long time ago.. anyone else remember? It's a shame about the roof, but I can see why they did it.. likewise the modern kitchen.. but gee, so much seems just the same. I remember driving up the drive one morning and Dad had Madame Butterfly on the stereo, and it was pouring out the door and down the beautiful grounds.. that's one of my favorite memories.. and yeah, the basement was way creepy.. laundry was NO fun! The pond seems more heart shaped than I remember.. Gina, do you remember the summer of 66, just after we moved in and we had NOTHING to read, so we both re read the entire Nancy Drew collection?? And they were so lame and we would crack up at the plots.. but hey.. when you're hard up for a book, apparently you will read anything! Lanaux, were you in on the great Nancy Drew-athon? Okay, going back to re look at all the pictures.. sure I'll have more later....
Are you sure it was Jan. 1968 when you left? I could have sworn we went there when I was 11, which would have been summer 1968. I remember the house, particularly the staircase - because I think Lanaux, Eug, Mike, and I sat there and spied on Lu and Don as they were courting! I remember that Eug wanted us to bring her 1 thing from the US - Atomic Fire Balls. And you introduced us to Galac (sp?) Crunch, which was the most delectable treat.
Yes, it was Jan 68 when we moved back to Holland. Ker, you guys visited the summer of 67.. the summer that I was back in the States after high school. We all moved home the summer of 68.. that's the summer I got married. Also, if you guys were spying on me and Don it must have been at Nana and Papoo's :-) I met Don after we moved back to Holland.. or maybe you guys were spying on Kat with someone? I remember when you guys left to go visit.. I was at Nana's, and took a picture of the three of you all ready for the airport, but Michael didn't have his pants on.. hmm, wonder where that picture is!
This is just so fabulous. I have dreamed of Casa Erica so many times over the years; I go back there in my memory daydreams. How I wish I was with you on this trip, Lanaux. Poor Joanne, she’s going to have to come along with me on a similar trip in the next couple of years. But will I be as brave and thorough a correspondent as you? Doubtless no, alas. Where to start… I loved the walk from the train station to Casa Erica. Sometimes we’d see Belgian schoolboys greeting one another, 2nd and 3rd graders, with cordial handshakes, and we marveled at the formality. Was the patisserie/boulangerie that Lu mentioned still there? It was not far from the train station. I also recall La Hulpe as tiny… it was in our time, I think. Who remembers me falling through the ice in the fish pond. Brrrrrr! Lu, those Nancy Drew books occupied our summer, didn’t we read two or three a day sometimes, often munching whole baguettes while we read? As for the room colors, I think you have the left side right; on the right, at front was the dramatic bright yellow! Lanaux and I shared that room, which is where, I think, Cho Cho had a litter of kittens in her box between our beds. Hey, remember listening to “Surrealistic Pillow” and Mom getting all severe about the line “feed your head…” And Sgt Pepper came out when we lived there and we played it over and over. We caught Dad humming to “When I’m 64”, and he was horrified that it was the Beatles, and said dismissively something like “well, they don’t write the songs they sing.”
I have to gather more thoughts. And Kerry, yes, the sublime Galak (I think it’s a “k”) Crunch, basically Nestles Crunch bar made with white chocolate, and European chocolate at that. I do think you guys brought me several months’ worth of Atomic Fireballs. I remember after dinner tag and hide and seek games all over that yard when you and Michael visited… we’d be out until 10:00 and later while the adults sat with after dinner drinks.
And… I don’t know if those squares were there in the kitchen. Mom would. Was the inset corner cupboard where we kept the baguettes still there?
As for cats, didn't that young woman who took Samson also take Dacquiri? I think I have pictures of her with them. (Wasn't that the only time in our lives that we left animals behind?) We did okay by them, though, they all went to familiar places. (Didn't the woman who took Samson name him Mitsuoku during the time she cared for him when he was lost?) I think her name was Jean.
I was trying to remember which lady took Daquiri.. the girl who took Samson, or the woman who took Cho Cho. I'll defer to your memory, Gin. Yes, it was the only time we ever had to leave animals, and as I recall, there was much sorrow.. many tears, but yes, they all went to families who they were happy with.
Ah yes, Surrealistic Pillow! What a cool album that was, and yes, Mom was a bit horrified by the lyrics, and Sgt. Pepper came out the spring of 67 and it blew us all away.. and Dad did love "When I'm Sixty Four"!
Remember the apple turnovers from the patisserie? Oh my!!!
I do remember you falling through the ice.. and until you mentioned it I had forgotten that it did freeze over and we did some lame skating on that little surface!
Okay, we've been remembering the cats, but haven't yet talked about the doggie.. Wolfgang! I remember all the excitement around the idea of a dog.. Fred, you were the main one pushing for this, right? When I think of Wolfgang, I think of you, Fred... you were so cute with him.. and what a cute puppy he was! I think he was not a good student of housebreaking.. but at least he was a dog and not a cat, so we could take him to Van Bommellaan!! Where he tinkled on those floor too!
WOW! You guys are amazing, and are bringing back sooo many memories - like Gina falling through the ice, which now comes back clear as day - and the cats, Samson lost and Mom's agony over that - her humanity really showed with the animals always, they were such an important part of our families, and that's a gift, really, because we are all that way as adults - and the total cousin madness joy when Michael and Kerry came, the wild crazy fun of having them there for those long long long days - we went to Waterloo and remember the panorama/film thing - we kids thought it was so cool when a soldier in it yelled "MERDE" (hee hee!) and then was shot straight through the head - and in winter riding the bus home after school through the pitch black to Casa Erica all alight and knowing that Mom was waiting with hot tea and apple flaps (that's what they are called in Holland, did they call them that in Belgium?). Fred and I had what seemed like an eternal bus ride, and plus had our nerves rattled by that weirdo bus driver, so getting home to all that warmth and safety is just a strong emotional memory. And the spell that Sergeant Pepper and Surrealistic Pillow cast over us! The stereo was in the front foyer room, right, next to Dad's office - we must have driven him NUTS - we danced and sang and carried on to those albums! Played 'em to death! And the mini-schnauzer - Wolfgang Van Terhulpen Cooke, Daddy named him. Cute little guy! But dumb....Anybody remember the Christmas Kathy came home from college in Germany when, since she didn't have any money, she gave us each these written IOU's of various things she would either do for or with us - I think mine had to do with staying up late and partying with the adults, but I'm not sure - but I remember loving her for making me feel grown up and accepted by the big girls. When would that have been? Lu, you are the source here!
Oh, and Cho Cho - the cat who wouldn't act fixed! The escape artist! Super-fecund, or just way oversexed....
I'm going to scour the stores today for Galak bars...
I do think the patisserie is there - there was one right across and down a bit from the train station...was that it?
I think the apple things from the patisserie were called gauzette aux pommes? They were like apple turnovers.. all airy layers of puff pastry, warm apples and the little sugar crunch on top.. I'm sure that's the same patisserie you saw by the train station. Kat went to Germany in the fall of 66, so that Christmas was when she came home.. she can weigh in on the details.. man, this is just too much fun!
Gauzette aux pommes!!!!! Oh my heavens, remember how wonderful they were. Although I didn't come home with the bizarro bus driver as Lanaux (Laurie!) and Fred (Freddy Chan!) did, I also have strong memories of reaching the warm and lit up Casa Erica after school, in the dark, and feeling the safety and security of being home. I think our frequent moves and being in new places so often made the power of home so strong for us. I wrote a poem in college called 'My Mother's Kitchen' which was about the kitchen at Casa Erica, and coming home to it. Now I have to go find that poem!
Wow, I was surprised how much of the inside of the house I remember now that I look at the pictures. In particular I remember that stairway. Brings back the recollection of the drunk belgian bus driver who woudl stop at his house to exchange the bus for his car to bring L and me home. He wodul have us sit in the car while he went in to toss a few back.
The fish pond looks just the same
Had Mom over for dinner tonight, and we looked at all the pictures, and I read her all the comments.. what fun! We both studied the pics of the kitchen door to the hall and it's apparent that that whole wall is new. The kitchen was much longer on that side before.. the door to the basement went down from the end of the kitchen back then.. so that wall is new.. one of the only changes. She just loved seeing all the shots of inside and out.. talking about all the food.. we do seem to gravitate to the food...and we were remembering one of the saddest things either of us has ever seen.. the day she and I went to the city for the afternoon, Lanuax and Gin were home sick.. and Fred had arrived home before we got back. He was 6 I think.. and when he went into the house you girls were upstairs sleeping... he called and no one answered.. very afraid, he went back outside, and when Mom and I pulled in he was sitting on the wall out back, head in his hands, slowly moving his head back and forth in total despair. He was so little.. so afraid..OMG.. to this day it gets to me...
Gee.. on that happy note I'll close..
Gosh, Fred, do you remember that? I kinda do, now that I read about it. As Maxx might say...it's still sad!
So glad that Mom got to weigh in on the pictures. Yes, there is now an extra room in between the kitchen and the foyer.
Lu, ask Mom about this - Dad going hunting for pheasant? I remember cleaning them with him in the butler's pantry, and learning all about their various parts especially the craw (sp?, which was all full of grit, and then Mom cooking them, and Dad being sooo proud of his kill. I also have a memory of a strange cleaning woman who even at my young age seemed...sort of off to me...I peeked in on her while she was eating the lunch Mom had left for her, and saw her drop a potato from her plate on the floor. She then reached down with her fork, speared it, and popped it in her mouth - which for some reason I found very shocking, and sort of dirty and wrong, somehow, for a cleaning woman - and worrying whether I should tell Mom or not. Why I remember this...I don't know!
Yeah, her name was something like Mme. Dummer, I think, and she was so odd and so unable, at times, to follow Mom's instructions that we laughed about her being Mme. "Dumb"er. Very short hair, like Mamere's, I recall. I don't think she lasted long with us.
I do not remember the Fred incident. Poor kid. I do remember him coming home from school one day, running up the driveway shouting "I can read, I can read!"
Here's something weird. In all the stuff I ever read about the Sharon Tate murders, Casa Erica is the house I pictured. I think because of the long driveway.
Gee I feel so left out becausae I can't really remember the VB house at all except for the driveway and the field next to it!!Wish there were pix of the inside of Casa Erica!!
Wait a minutre..I am confused..I thought I was clicking on the Von Boemelaan pictures and now I'm thinking these are Casa Erica..I'm having trouble figuring out the order of the pictures and comments etc..
Kat, these are the Casa Erica shots.. pretty cool, huh? Still looks so much the same! The Van Bommellaan pics are under the "Holland the Second Time" heading.. and even we who lived there don't recognize the interior shots, as it's been changed over the years. The driveway is one of the unchanged outside shots too!
But Casa Erica.. so much the same! Remember walking down to the train station to go into the city and hang out at the Beer Kelder? The trip back late at night is much hazier... can you believe they let us do that, without even knowing where we were going?
Lanaux, I asked Mom about the pheasant hunting, and you are correct! Dad went hunting with some big General (Mom is trying to remember his name). This was when NATO moved from Paris to Bruxelles, and Dad was asked to go on this pheasant hunt. Mom remembers him cleaning them back in that room off the kitchen. I don't remember this at all.. too busy with teenage stuff no doubt.. also, she said the odd cleaning lady was a Mme. Domme, so you were pretty close Gin.
Madame Domme! That's it! Because we kids thought it was really funny that Madame Domme was really...domme! HA!
Post a Comment