The author is the son of the 'title person', number 5 in a family with 10 children. As a lad, he just lived his life that changed when he became a schoolboy, going his own way and rather avoiding his father. Every day he could be found on the vast grounds near their house that stemmed from the defence works surrounding Maastricht, where the police was not to be seen and the boys were making fires or could be found in the extensive system of underground casemates. It was the time when spanking a boy's bottom was still common. The other family members had great fun when one day he disclosed having stuffed his bottom with three pieces of underwear to dampen the pain. Even his dad granted him a smile from the wrong side of his mouth. Once in secondary school, all of that stopped and he even got lessons from his own dad in Biology. At age 18, he started his study at the University of Wageningen. Near the completion of his study, he married his all-time wife, Mieke, who joined him abroad and gave birth to two daughters and a son.
Who writes about their father? Yes, I do, because he was an independent thinker living in an era and area of Holland drenched with Catholicism that had a firm grip on the entire regional society.
His remembrance brings up opposing thought: first that of a stern father, the other of an intelligent man with an enormous drive to perform. The combination of these characteristics created a life-long distance between him and the world surrounding him.
His life story gives a historic document on a particular time frame in a province of the Netherlands. Please read on to discover how a respected Dutch citizen was driven to perform for the society of his time.
It begins with the calm before the ensuing storm of World War II. At the start of the war, this is followed by the war itself, my father's imprisonment by the Germans and return from up north after liberation day. Following are his ensuing efforts to shape the political landscape and society as a whole.
Finally, this bundle is looking back on the life of this personality, inter alia, with personal thoughts of his children and grandchild Pam.
The significance of this record stems from its sketch of middle-class life in the Dutch province of Limburg during the 20th century in an era yet drenched with Catholicism, respect for authority and one another. The clergy had a say at all levels of society. People were still receptive for views and ideas, hungry for knowledge, and attending meetings in absence of TV. In that respect, an era very different from today's.
Read on to find out how that serene scenery dramatically changed on 20 January 1972.
We live in a house in the centre of a small village. With its stately façades and turret, the villagers sweetly call it châtelet. Before us, French noblesse stayed in it, gentry with impressive estates in France. During numerous holiday trips, we located and documented all of it. But that didn't give an answer to the question: How to present it in a digestible...no, into a captivating manner?
How to abridge the centuries and how to connect the turbulent history of Europe with everyday life in the village?
For that purpose, I introduced a family of estate stewards employed by the Masters of Bouchove. After all, ‘masters come and go, but stewards stay’. Besides clerks, marketers and a villain.
Thus, I got a storyline and could start processing the numerous bits and pieces of information into three volumes that give the rich history of Bouchove.
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