1957, Gapinge
See '1957, Gapinge' On Black!
My brother R behind me, my sister N seemingly holding the horse (but in reality we can discern the farmer's wife standing behind the colossal front legs of the horse...)
It's 1957, the setting is Farmer Vos's estate in Gapinge, Zeeland. We're there on holiday as we were almost every year. This time we rented half the house Vos's son Wim lived in at Vrouwenpolder. That's how we got to go to the farm.
I loved it there and went back many summers. As a teenager I stayed at the farm and helped out, even made some (little) money but, more importantly, got to frolick in the hay (literally) with the miller's daughter from next door.
Landlife was simple. In the morning we went to milk the cows before breakfast (huge pieces of white bread with porc fat, called 'reuzel'), worked on the land afterwards. If it was far off, the wife or one of the daughters would come and bring us lunch.
Living was done in the kitchen. The livingroom ('opkamer') was used only on Sundays after church, and then only if visitors came. I slept in a genuine old 'bedstee', a bed built into a cupboard in the wall, with double doors to close it off in the daytime. I'll be uploading more pictures from Vos's farm over time.
I've written about those magnificent and impressive workhorses from Zeeland before. This here is a prime example! In those days they were still in abundance all over the place and famous for their strength and character!
Ah, those were the days...
1957, Gapinge
See '1957, Gapinge' On Black!
My brother R behind me, my sister N seemingly holding the horse (but in reality we can discern the farmer's wife standing behind the colossal front legs of the horse...)
It's 1957, the setting is Farmer Vos's estate in Gapinge, Zeeland. We're there on holiday as we were almost every year. This time we rented half the house Vos's son Wim lived in at Vrouwenpolder. That's how we got to go to the farm.
I loved it there and went back many summers. As a teenager I stayed at the farm and helped out, even made some (little) money but, more importantly, got to frolick in the hay (literally) with the miller's daughter from next door.
Landlife was simple. In the morning we went to milk the cows before breakfast (huge pieces of white bread with porc fat, called 'reuzel'), worked on the land afterwards. If it was far off, the wife or one of the daughters would come and bring us lunch.
Living was done in the kitchen. The livingroom ('opkamer') was used only on Sundays after church, and then only if visitors came. I slept in a genuine old 'bedstee', a bed built into a cupboard in the wall, with double doors to close it off in the daytime. I'll be uploading more pictures from Vos's farm over time.
I've written about those magnificent and impressive workhorses from Zeeland before. This here is a prime example! In those days they were still in abundance all over the place and famous for their strength and character!
Ah, those were the days...