T de Boerstraat - My Favorite Street

Play and Entertainment
Blacksmith Sibbele de Blauw
provided plenty of it.
Horses being shod fascinated me.
They did "hot-shoeing".
I remember the sizzle and the smell.

Carriage/wagon builder adjacent to the Post Office.
Belt driven woodworking equipment.
The smell of fresh wood.

Doede de Jong's Bicycle Shop.
Doede rented out a small blue bicycle for
10 cts (dubbeltje) for half a day.
Most of the kids of my generation and older
learned to ride on this blue bicycle.
(I am looking for a picture.)
This was the farm of Johannes and Jantje de Jong
It was torn down in 1968. The farmer with the cart is
probably Johannes de Jong.
Sonsma the butcher is on the left at the intersection.

My buddy Wim de Vreeze lived in this house
Wim's house is first on the right.

Theo Sikkes lived farther down on the left
his father Paulus Sikkes had a bakery.
They left for British Columbia, Canada after the war.

At the intersecton with
St Odulphusstraat and the Wytlânspaed.
Martinus Sonsma had his slaughter house and butcher shop.

Farmers would sometimes guide a hog to Sonsma's slaughter house.
They had a rope tied to one of the hind legs.
Hogs try to do the opposite
of what you want them to do.
The farmer would tug the rope and the hog would go forward.
A long stick tapped to the side of the hog's head which
kept it going in the right direction.

Horses don't like the smell of blood and would frequently
become belligerent approaching Sonsma's shop.

I passed Sonsma four times a day going back and forth to school.
Every now and then there was an emergency slaughter and
Frans "Keal" would anounce it with a bullhorn throughout the village.
By the time he came to the Havenstraat
we would have a distance handicap.
My mother would urge me to run to try to get some meat.
Sometimes I got lucky many times not.

The horse traffic to and from the blacksmith shop
deposited plenty of horse figs on the street.
When dry they provide handy projectiles.

Many times I would meet the Oberfeldwebel
Hans Grendel on his bike. He was Kommandant of the Luftwaffe detachment in Mirns
near the cemetery.
He carried a gun on his back with a leather belt slung
across his chest and shoulder.
He understood the Friesian language and often greeted me.
I never responded because we hid evaders and
my mother had taught me to keep my mouth shut.
The young men we hid in our house were
Pieter and Symen Douma from Joure.

After school I went by way of Wytlânspaed.
to farmer Gerke Hoekstra on the Heech to buy milk.
Gerke Hoekstra had a mean German Shepherd.
I had to fend off the dog by swinging my milk can.
Sometimes "Dikke Willem" Kloosterman was there.
He would restrain the dog by its collar

Hoekstra farm near the end of Wytlânspaed.

The Hoekstra Farm from a different perspective.

Sjoerd Asma also built a hobby horse for Theo Sikkes, his grandson.