MY STORY 5.2

Apart from the "autoped"(kids scooter) there was another item in our house equipped with wheels. A baby carriage! An indispensable item when you are inclined to expand your family every one or two years. Obviously my parents had set their standards in this matter, and lived by what they believed. I did not agree even in those days, but I did respect , and I was actually proud of this demonstration of their faith.

It is not too often that you see a few young teenage boys walking down the street and pushing a baby carriage. But that is what we did. We were on our way to the "Gaarkeuken", a place where the Red Cross dispensed a ladle full of food for those with a coupon. I am sure that those gaarkeukens never won an award for their recipes, or the quality of their concoctions. But it was FOOD, and therefore priceless.

It was actually amazing how from time to time and totally unexpected people would bring us some food. We called such occasions an "uitkomst", (unexpected solution). Does it not say somewhere in psalms: "Yes, the Lord will give you uitkomst, He who daily bids His Grace......There was a melody to that, and we sang that together at night sitting around the pot belly stove. The flickering of the fire, and of a few home made oil lights,adding to the atmosphere. Hours rolled by slowly and then the doorbell would ring. Under the cover of darkness some one had made it over to our house with a can of beans, or with a loaf of bread.

Some people were able somehow to make it over to a farm and got a bag of grain. You would take that over to your favorite baker who processed that into bread, for you to pick up the following day. I am sure you did not get the whole weight back from him, he probably took his "commission". On another occasion an older gentleman brought us about one kilo of uncooked brown beans. No problem; we can cook that. Well they must have been old or something, because Mom cooked them for two days and they were just as hard. Well, I guess dinner the following day consisted of hard beans!

One day there was a armistice (cease fire), just lasting one day. That day the Swedish air force bombarded our region with white bread. So we went out to see what we could find. You can imagine the commotion, but we ate again for a few days.

Those experiences do put a stamp on your life. You either get very bitter, or you get very religious.