J.M. Stinis - van Straten 1928

Jenneke Maria Stinis-van Straten

The years 1928 – 1936

Jacob and Bertha van Straten

Jacob van Straten and Bertha van Straten

Q: What was he doing then?

A: He had another job. In Monnikendam he controlled the books of "Uitwaterende Sluizen".

Q: Can you tell me something more about your family?

A: My grandfather (from mother’s side) was vicar in Utrecht. He died in 1929. My father had been ill twice as well. The last time they found out that his heart jumped from the left side of his body to the right side.

Grandpa

The printshop lost the person who drove to Amsterdam every day for the orders and had been replaced to someone else, but in the 30’s the years of crisis started and my father wasn’t able to run the printshop anymore. He got t.b.c. and died February 2, 1932. Then we found out that the printshop was bankrupt and to pay all the bills we had to sell everything we had.

Q: I can’t believe that. Did he never tell you or your mother about that?

A: Not that I know. But luckily there were a lot of friends who bought our belongings back during the auction that followed. But not everybody was so nice. There was a goldsmith in Edam bidding on my father’s gold watch and all the people hated him for that. My father was a very nice man and everybody loved him so you can imagine that that goldsmith had a very hard time. At the end we got the watch back and we switched it by another goldsmith for a watch for me. Funny, now I think about this. That also happened with a watch of my husband. He bought that watch just a few months before he died and at the end of 1982 we went to a goldsmith here in Den Haag with it and changed it for a watch for my daughter Jenneke JR.

Q: And what happened then?

A: Well, we had no money anymore. At least we thought we had no rights on anything, but then we found out that we got some pension from the job my father had in Monnikendam, but it wasn’t that much. So one of my mother’s brother’s, (uncle Jan) who had no family of his own, helped us out. He suggested that we could live together with their youngest sister Betsy. And so we moved to Scheveningen in May 1932 and lived together in the Zwolsestraat.

Q: Can you describe that house?

A: It was a nice house. We had a few on the Hofpleintrain and the people of Scheveningen. Sometimes we saw Queen Wilhelmina who drove to her house in the dunes. We were able to see that house as well.

Q: Did you have some education’s then?

A: Yes, Uncle Jan introduced me by a friend of him, Mr. Van Ruyven, who gave me some conversation lessons in French and German. I wasn’t permitted to go to school anymore, because during the time that my father was sick and died, I had to stay in bed for three months because I was ill myself. These conversation lessons were highlights of the week for me and I spoke French and German very well then. I also started with some lessons at the domestic science school. That school was situated at the Laan van Meerdervoort and I got some lessons to made my own clothes as well from assistants of Ida de Leeuw-van Rees. You could hear her on the radio every week in the 30’s and I’m glad a followed these lessons.

Q: I heard you are correcting the German version of the newsletter of The Dutch Don Johnson Fan Club now?

A: That’s correct. Sometimes I even translate contributions for the newsletter. Putting out a newsletter every four months is a hell of a job and sometimes my daughter doesn’t have the time to do all the translations herself. It’s funny that, after all these years, I can still use these German lessons. I must say: my French isn’t so good anymore. You have to practice it and when you don’t do that…..

Q: Maybe a suggestion for your daughter to put a French version together as well?

A: Don’t tell her that! She had French lessons herself for almost 10 years, but it’s the same for her as for me. Reading is one thing, but writing in French……

Top

Back to Contents J.M. Stinis – van Straten

Or use the Back button of your browser to return to the last page