Newport, RI

Oh this is a goodie which my kids won't like me posting-- this was taken in Newport, RI on the first trip we made to Cape Cod. Cute kids, huh?

Dad- Rijkspolitie te Water

This is my father as a police officer in the early 1950's. He looks like a goof-off here-- and the way he's wearing his cap you can just tell that he's trouble! Dad joined the force shortly after he and mom married in 1946-- opportunities in policing abounded then as the Netherlands was busy rebuilding its police force after WWII. During the war the country had been occupied by the Germans, and the police force and any justice systems had been obliterated by Nazi rule. And-- since dad had a child on the way-- a steady income was really required in order for him to be able to take care of his family. My grandfather, Opa Barendrecht, agreed that taking a job with the police would be a good move-- since this meant a steady job with a steady income. He was first stationed in Vlaardingen, and then Terneuzen, where he was in the force when the big Watersnoot of 1953 happened. I remember Dad being gone for weeks at a time as he worked rescue and recovery operations. I also remember one day when news came that there had been another breach of the dikes, and so my mother hurried to carry as much furniture as she could to the second floor of our row house. I remember carrying up lots of things that were small enough for a child to carry upstairs, and later in the day, I also remember our neighbors, Ploontje en Jan Fokke, coming over and helping to carry up the dining room table upstairs. Although not all the furniture was able to be taken upstairs, (the pieces were just too heavy and there was no one around to help Mom), luckily the water didn't reach our street. The problem with this massive flooding was that it didn't end when the big storm was over-- because the dikes had been breached the flooding continued for months on end. The province of Zeeland was especially vulnerable because of its geography. The dining room table survived many moves and was special because my dad made it from lumber scraps after the war, and it has made it all the way to America and is now in my house.

Life Jackets

Coming to America was quite the adventure! We came on the Italia, a German passenger ship that sailed out of Brugge, Belgium. We were delayed at sea by a day because of a storm, and I remember well how seasick my mother and sister were. The ship's indoor swimming pool was closed off because the water was splashing against the walls and ropes were strung throughout the passenger lounges so that we could hold on as the ship tossed and tumbled in high waves.

Crossing the Atlantic in the Spring is always a bit of an adventure, I'm told. You can see by the way the bow of the Italia hits the waves how rough the seas really were!

This picture was taken, probably by my mother, during one of the mandatory ship's life boat drills. We were all ordered to go stand near a lifeboat by the ship's railing-- no doubt a regulation the result of Titanic.

Ancient Family History

A bit of ancient family history-- Opa en Oma Barendrecht in Grandville, MI.

Dad & The Family Tree

Words escape me here- I love this picture-- Dad and his children around the family tree in Cape Cod.

2007 Family Reunion- Rotterdam

This pictures was taken in Rotterdam 2007-- during a family reunion. Both my mother's and my father's sides of the family are present here-- and sadly we have lost Tante Rieka who taught me arithmetic and multiplication on board the Brahms when I was 6-7 years old. This pictures shows 4 generations.

Family in Amsterdam

One of my favorite family pictures-- Amsterdam 2007.

The Family Tree

Who can honestly say they have a "family tree"? Well, thanks to my sister in Cape Cod, we do! The tree in her front yard has become the family tree and it's about time for an update. I think this picture was taken in 2008.

Lenten Fish Fries and My Dilemma

Lenten fish fries are a typical Catholic tradition. Every Friday during Lent (the six weeks prior to Easter Sunday) members of the Catholic church are required to observe a day of eating no meat. I think many Catholics, if they are honest, will say they forget about this observance. In my family we've always tried to observe this ritual, however, I know that sometimes we've transgressed and forgotten about the no-meat rule. This observance became so much easier to obey several years ago, when our church starting Friday fish fry dinners. It is a nice opportunity to also meet some fellow parishioners and just say hello and introduce ourselves to the same people we see in church every week but who we don't know. So Ed and I started to go to the fish fry every Friday during Lent, and we've been doing this for several years. We've met lots of people and had lots of interesting conversations. The food was never really great, but was a fish fry after all (meaning the fried food and starchy side dishes don't make the healthiest of meals). I could deal with it because the practice of going and meeting people was great. We even went to a fish fry at another church (St. Joseph's in Middletown) two weeks ago just to see what it was like. But last Friday something in me changed-- I walked in the door and the smell of the fish fry just made me nauseous--- and now I just dread the thought of going to another fish fry. However, I will muster up the will because there aren't many weeks left, and Ed really enjoys going so much! Maybe I can count that as my lenten sacrifice.

Mad Men

Working on a doctoral dissertation will make you do strange things-- such as watching all the seasons of Sex and the City when you've never, ever seen any of the episodes in real time (my prudish self learned to become immune to explicit sex scenes while at the same time I was shocked to see what my daughters had been watching all along), 4 seasons of NCIS episodes (I fell in love with Gibbs), and now 4 seasons of Mad Men (and yes, I lived through the sixties and it brought back memories). The sixties were a time in which divorce was a dirty word, and someone who was divorced was a shocking entity-- such as learning that one of my sixth grade friend's mom was a remarried divorcee. None of us knew how to call her by name. I started teaching in the seventies and it was a time of walking into the Teacher's Lounge, the male bastion of bad behavior filled with a grey haze of cigarette smoke, and being welcomed for my shapely legs rather than given a professional greeting. The male faculty were crude and intentionally talked and behaved in a manner so as to chase the female faculty away.

Surviving in this kind of atmosphere was always a struggle as it was still a male dominated world. It was a time when male teachers cheated on their wives, and sometimes with students who were seniors. Whispers abounded but consequences did not. Mad Men just brings it all back to me-- and I am so glad we live in a different time. As for Mad Men, I most admire the character Joan Holloway, who has learned to "work the system" and position herself in the best possible way for survival. Joan is understandable and forgiveable.

Police Helicopters & Sunday Dinner

I can't remember the last time we sat down to Sunday dinner only to have the roar of a helicopter overhead! A quick look outside showed a police helicopter landed in the school's field just behind our yard. Guess this was the end of the road for a couple of suspects.

It wasn't obvious right away what was happening until more squad cars arrived (quite silently and without sirens). It all happened very quietly, and except for the helicopter noise you'd never know something had just taken place!

Phillip's Winter Garden

After an unusually mild winter, we're experiencing an unusually early Spring-- yesterday it was 81 degrees!!! It felt really wonderful and I'm afraid it's raising expectations that this will continue. With such warmth in the air, Phillip removed the cover to his winter garden-- and lo and behold, he's growing so many wonderful things! The bib lettuce is looking ripe for picking, and so is the kale and brocolli. Now- we just need to clean up the yard...

Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero

I can't write a better summary and review of Chris Matthews' book Jack Kennedy Elusive Hero than this one http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/06/books/review/jack-kennedy-elusive-hero-by-chris-matthews-book-review.html

Much has been written, examined, and analyzed about the Kennedy family and the Kennedy Presidency. While I am not a political analyst and have nothing to add in that regard, I can simply add my own comments about this book-- and anyone who has ever loved Jack Kennedy or been interested in the Kennedy family would find this book a new and different perspective about Kennedy politics. This book provided a more factual account of several myths I had always heard about Jack kennedy-- such as that he was pushed by his father to enter politics after his older brother Joseph Junior was killed in a plane accident. In fact, Jack, because he was quite often ill as a child, developed his love for history and politics through his intense reading during those times he was ill. He developed a love of history, and studied Churchill intensely. He had the added advantage of actually meeting Churchill because his father, his Joseph Kennedy senior, had been ambassador to Great Britain just before WWII. The story of Jack Kennedy's rise in politics includes his strong relationship with his siblings. They rallied around him like a team honed in the skills of power politics. Jack Kennedy understood power politics and that sometimes unsavory back room deals had to be made in order to achieve something he wanted. Kennedy had ideals about democracy-- but he also knew what it took to get things done.

It is also the story of being very pragmatic in a political arena. Jack Kennedy came from privilege, and he sought political office through votes of the working class. His siblings each had positions in his political organization-- many of them were driven by ideals of their own, and sought to make a difference. The Kennedy tribe of siblings stood together as one -- something that continued into the Kennedy Presidency. The man, Jack Kennedy, was driven by living life at the edge-- he had already experienced the loss of his older brother in the war, and then his beloved sister Kathleen died in a plane crash as well. When he was in the Navy, Kennedy experienced near death during the war in the Pacific, and his stamina to endure came from having to deal with constant pain as a result of those injuries, in his body. The years since his death have uncovered the less savory aspects of his life-- the womanizing, the back deal making, and deception of hiding his true physical state which in today's Presidency may not have allowed him to continue. Perhaps the most interesting chapter of the book was about Jacqueline Kennedy. Although just a brief description, this chapter does provide a glimpse into the woman who loved the man. She knew her role in this relationship, both schooled indirectly by her mother and the kind of marriage she had, and the social world and context in which she lived, Jacqueline Kennedy was somewhat aware of her husband's indiscretions, and also hurt by them. She loved him intensely and tried to provide a calm and serene family life with children at the center of the marriage. She provided the grace to his presidency. As a widow, she immediately fell to creating the legacy of the man... the man who is still fascinating even after his death nearly 50 years ago.

The Obamas

Perhaps nothing can give anyone as much insight into President Obama, and who he is, as reading this book in combination with reading the biography of his mother A Singular Woman. Together, these books paint a potrait of a man seeking his identity, finding a place in this world, and driven by ambition to stand out and hold power so as to make change. Barack Obama was only a second year Senator when he decided to run for the Presidency, and somewhat surprised himself when he succeeded. As the book points out, these years in the White House are the first years he has lived with his family. His earlier married life was spent mostly away from home, both as an Illinois Senator and then as a US senator living in a small apartment in DC. Michele Obama provides the stability in this family, but neither of them expected this experience to be so profoundly life altering to their lifetsyles and their psyches. Unlike the self-sacrificing woman who was his mother, Michele Obama is the direct opposite of Barack Obama's mother, Stanley Ann Dunham. Stanley Ann Dunham was a nomad, inquisitive about other people and other cultures, and an explorer-- a cultural anthropologist who fell in love with Barack Obama senior and conceived a child who was to become President of the United States. Dunham spent most of her life in Indonesia,, where she instituted micro-economics projects to the rural poor, especially women. She was a modest woman of limited means and cared little for material things or material lifestyles. Often portrayed by the media as a mother who sent her son away to live with his grandparents, she was devoted and doted on Barack, her first child. Painfully, she sent him away to live with his grandparents around age 11, not because he was in her way, but because they were living in Indonesia where society is often cruel and unaccepting of mixed race children. Barack was often teased and taunted by others, and therefore learned to put a brave face on these experiences. In contrast, Michele Obama grew up in an in-tact working class family who valued education, and after she made it to Princeton and Harvard Law, she became a successul attorney and law professor in her own right. She likes fashion, looking good and having dinner in fine restaurants. While there is nothing wrong with that, she stands in stark contrast to the mother who raised him. Michele Obama keeps the center of the family together and is concerned about having Barack be a father with presence in her daughters' lives. The reality of the Presidency descended on both of them in the first 2 years in the White House, as Michele found herself trapped in a virtual glass house, and Barack, the man who seeks to make change, learned it is not so easy. Lack of experience as Washington insiders put them both at a disadvantage because this inexperienced freshman Senator really had a distaste for politics and didn't like the wheeling and dealing that comes along with getting things done. The Obamas is a worthwhile read if you want to understand the President-- however, I do suggest that you read the biography about his mother first because it helps to set the context for who this man is.