We were sitting at the table with more than 400 guests and it was noticeable, that the service in this large restaurant was so bad; namely that it took more than 45 mins before all guests were served wine. When this was done they painted the town and tongues were wagging. Many members came out quite eloquently, but the after mobilisation so tastelessly discharged Commander in Chief of Army and Navy General Snijder bore the palm. He, who in 1877 served under me as lieutenant, held such a brilliant clear as glass speech, that everyone became speechless; this again warmed my militairy heart.The year 1923 commenced when the whole family was joined in the Laan van Meerdervoort and we all with a glass of champaign in the hand went to the 2nd story at midnight to wish luck to young Carey, who was still in bed after quite a severe operation on her throat in the clinic of specialist Dr. Hartog. She recovered quite quickly luckily because she had to register for her forthcoming marriage with Henri Dinger, who at the same date would receive his degree for Engineer.For the occasion of the day we had a homely dinner here, at which also Papa Dinger participated, however his wife Jet didn’t as she, after visiting us on the 4th January, had a stroke from which she had not recoverd since.The 3rd of February was the reception of the wedding of Carey and Henri at our place and the interest was very great, the wedding presents and flower arrangements magnificent, in one word everything smashing.The day was concluded with a delicious dinner at Kemper given by papa Dinger, to which a number of plays added lustre, of which the nicest were those of Lien Dinger, who gave a performance with slides about Henri’s life and the speeches held by Herman, Marietje, Miel and Kees Zijlmans.Furthermore a wedding newspaper appeared with lots of pictures of the young couple, in which I had made them take in a comical recipe for a happy marriage from my friend Pennington de Jongh.Joopie was not present at this brilliant party, it was just before his smalls exam, which despite his great fear of exams was done on the 5th with good results.On the 6th the marriage was solemnised by the alderman Mr.v. Rossum, after which the whole relevant family went with the electric train to Rotterdam to attend the given lunch at the Wester Singel. Only we were waiting for the newly married couple, who after the ceremony in the townhall had gone to the photographer and were held up so much, that they came nearly an hour later than the other guests and were sung to by Marietje with a suitable song.At the table where I had the honour to sit next to Jet Dinger, a large amount of telegrams were read by Herman who was the master of ceremonies; after that I also read out a telegram that I told them was received for the occasion by the radio which was just operating and sounded:”Congratulations from Uncles Johan and Gerard and aunt Jop”. till the very last moment the youngsters believed that the telegram was real.Further more a document was given to the youngsters by Henri’s uncle, in which was declared that on the hour of the signing of his marriage an American oak was planted as a memorial on Henri’s playground by the gardener Koutrik.This tree is now standing in Dennehorst in full bloom as I recently saw on a film.After his honeymoon Henri and his little wife remained in Holland for some time and they left on the 13th March for Semarang where through my son’s mediating he was appointed manager of the Moeria Traswerken, which then were a branch of the fertilizer factory.So uponn their arrival in Semarang the youngsters found quite a number of family members, which somehow counter acted against the expected passing away of Henri’s mother.Although it had been expected for some time, it still took till the 7th May before death called Jet Dinger to him, together with Marietje I was still at her deathbed and it was remarkable what a beautiful and calm body she was; she was cremated on the 10th of May in Westerveld.Around this time Johan’s leave had commenced and he was already on his way to Hollland with S.S. Tjerimai. He had arranged with Muis to meet him in Paris; however a railway strike in Belgium had erupted and so travelling for a lady was difficult, sothat it was decided that Piet would accompany Muis until the French border, since he had no pasport for France and thus had to return alone. Johan and his wife arrived on the 23rd May here in the Hague.Johan has done a lot for his whole family during his leave; afther the death of aunt Joh he had the 10 guilders a month, which he sent her regularly, turned over to aunt Cato and he suggested to me to give her henceforth F. 25 instead of F. 10; it was good to see the happy face of the old aunt when I took her the first red banknote and it certainly has made life more pleasant for the good soul, if not lengthened it.At the end of June my old friend Dirk Pey came here in the Hague and I arranged with him that we would pass an old fashioned day together; when Johan heard about this, he invited us both and the end of the day to a dinner in Scheveningen, for which we would meet each other at the Pier.I picked up Pey from the tram from Rijswijk, where he was staying, and of course took him first to de Witte, where we had our unch and and spent quite some time visiting this remarkable social club; after that we went by car to Kasteel Oud Wassenaar, had some tea there and drode by tram from Leiden number 9 to Scheveningen, where we did arrive a bit late, but luckily still met Johan, who was already on his way home, he took us then along to the restaurant Riche, where we sat for a while in the hallway with a nice appetizer, then were treated to the finest dinner with the most expensive fruit and wines, which I have ever enjoyed; although we were the first guests our meal was still adorned by some nice life music, which played our favourite songs, which they performed for us every time when we asked for them.We had arranged that the three of us woud come for a cup of tea at the Laan van Meerdervoort, though because of the lengthy dinner we only arrived there at 10 o’clock in the most happy mood.It was Johan’s idea to make an arrangement for a trip to Alkmaar the next morning and I was in such a good mood, that, although I was tired I still decided to join in that trip too.In view of this Joopie acted as my replacer to see my friend Pey off at the tram to Rijswijk.For the trip to Alkmaar Johan had hired a motorboat with which he wanted to make a trip through the Netherlands with his sons and cousons, something he had promised them last year already. The next day we went via Haarlem to Alkmaar to visit it locally; besides Johan, Piet, Herman and I also Joopie came as representative of his friend Jaap Hennequin, whose yacht “Harlequin” would possibly be towed by the motorboat. In Alkmaar we first visited the cheese market and after that had a fine lunch with delicious Moselle in a small hotel and then went to the wharf of the motorboat, which was chartered for 14 days.From Alkmaar we returned to Haarlem by car and made a detour over several small places in Noord Holland which otherwise would have been completely unknown to me, the other side of the medail was, that because of this and a long delay at the ferry in Velsen we nearly arrived too late for the express train to our hometown, only because Johan and Joopie dragged me up the huge stairs at the station I still ended up into the carriage. It was a pleasant though very hot day and when we arrived in the Hague we hurried to the Witte to drink a huge pot of beer, sothat I came home with a fire red face.
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The Memoirs of J.G. Kerlen – Part 34
Before the motorboat trip began my friend Pey came to say goodbye to us and I got aquainted to his family who has a pharmacy in the v. Boetselaarlaan, we still had an old fashioned yarn together and finally I took him to the tram to Rijswijk, where he in an English fashion said singing goodbye. Since then I have never seen him again and I only kept a short correspondence with him.
On the 21st July the long awaited boattour commenced from Amsterdam; there were 10 participants in all who each in turn had to write a report of what had happened that day; the reports with the neccessary pictures were put together in a report to which I can safely refer here. I only want to mention that when the travellers were already on the return trip we could telegraph to Deventer that Piet had a granddaughter on the 25st July ( so no. 2 ).
In Gouda Muis and Milly were taken on as passengers for the last day, Carey and I were also invited to be present at about 12 o’clock on the Kagermeer at hotel “de Leede” in Warmond. We made the trip there in Frits Collard’s car via Noordwijk aan Zee, where we paid a visit to friends of Piet namely the van ’t-Sants and we took their son Erik with us to Warmond.
In hotel de Leede Johan treated us to a delicious lunch in his wellknown royal way, after which the trip on the Kagermeer started.In case of unforseen circumstances a few boats were hired, whilst the Harlequin was left behind in Warmond. The little boats proved to be really neccessary as help to tow off a sailing yacht which had gotten stuck in the mud. We all returned quite cold in Warmond, steamed from there to Leiden and returned home by train very satisfied.After the boattour Johan and Muis made a trip to Brussels and the Ardennes and took Milly with them as guest, who amused herself of course very well and at her return could congratulate her father with his appointment to Ridder van de Orde van de Nederlandsche Leeuw.This distinction was certainly well earned and a plaster on his wound when in 1921 two of his officers were decoratied and had forgotten him, which gave reason to request his pension.On the 7th September Johan and Muis celebrated their copper wedding anniversary and not to make too many large costs no better present than a plate from the Porseleine Flesch in Delft baked especially for them with appropriate inscription, which could serve as wall decoration for the rest of their lives.In the evening the bride and groom gave a sounding party, at which I still have danced with Muis, which was the last time in my life.At this I noticed that I started to feel old, which was even more visible on my eyes, which started to fail me at playing pool. Dr. Hazewinkel, whose advice I asked, diagnosed light cataracts in my left eye, prescribed a new pair of glasses and maintained that I didn’t have to worry; so I went about my normal routine.Love doesn’t always last! This I might also say about my relation to my landlord Mr. v.d. Ham. Were we the best of mates before, since the war had erupted a change had come to that; true, I then already paid more rent but he wanted to raise the rent every time in order to get rid of me; at a certain moment he sent me a registered letter to give notice of the contract which would still last 3 years with option, because he had rented only to me and not to the widow Mrs. Campioni.Following the advice of my lawyer Mr. Kramer I didn’t reply and kept quietly sitting out my contract; however when this was terminated I asked him on which conditions he wanted to sign a new contract. He then asked me f. 1000 a year and I offered him f. 900; he didn’t want to know any further of a particular contract and demanded that our contract would be validated by the renting commission; so this happened and with the for him disadvantaged result that he had to pay street tax and so had a small loss of f. 100.A year later he demanded a rent raise to f. 1200, which was refused by the rent commission, even a claim to the justice of peace didn’t have any effect.Since then I had to ask the rent commission every year for a rent extension and so was received with the landlord at the dirty office in the Bilderdijkstraat to answer questions.Usually nobody came from the side of the landlord and the contract was then extended for f. 90 for 6 months.Suddenly the landlord appeared with his son in law and demanded that I would leave the house as soon as possible, because he had let it to his daughter; according to a medical certificate they showed the daughter wasn’t allowed to stay any longer in the Bezuidenhout quarter but had to move to Duinoord. I asked delay till the 1st of May to be able to build a house in the Vogelbuurt in time; they didn’t allow me to do that any longer than to the 1st of March.Since the new buildings didn’t arise fast enough, Piet and I had to go and find a decent rental home; this wasn’t that easy, since all children were under the impression to also have a say in this and besides mother Carey was in Meran where she had gone to with Johan to look for a complete recovery from her operation.Finally we found a suitable home in the Perponcher street, belonging to my poolfriend Schalkwijk and asked the preference for it in view of the coming return of mother Carey; Mr. S, however couldn’t give preference, since the house had to be rented out as soon as possible and when mother Carey returned the house was not available any more.Now Piet and his wife had to again look for a home but couldn’t find a house below f. 1500 a year, till at the homes office de Haas & Co.they told them by chance that it was such a shame, that they had to leave their home after 18 years. When Mr. Haas heard this he told them that he probably knew of a landlord who would rent out his house for less, if he had the certainty that he would get good residents and that he would warn the owner Mr. Bevelander.Consequentlyl Piet and Carey dashed immediately to the house of the named man and they came to a tentative agreement. He first wanted to get personal information from our current landlord, Mr. v.d. Ham; to all our surprise the information was very good and Mr. Bevelander came the next day to settle the matter en we rented his roomy house in the Sweelinckstraat nr. 21 for f. 1200 a year, really in luck in these expensive times. When it came to who would sign the rent agreement I declared that as head olf the family I would abdicate and my son in law had to act as such.The rent of the new house commenced on the 1st of February 1924 and from the previous resident, the agent of the Commercial company Hennes, we received the keys already some days beforehand, sothat we could start the cleaning straight away; in honour of our new landlord I have to mention here that he had refurbished the whole house thoroughly; of the ceiling whitetening we had to take care ourselves; I do not exaggerate when I claim that the landlord must have spent the rentmoney of the whole year.On the 24th of February we moved into our new home; Johan had already left a few days ago for the Indies with the SS. Jan Peterszoon Coen and couldn’t admire our fitting up; but it is certain that we had quite a roomier and cosier home than the case was in the Laan van Meerdervoort, which however had made some large expenses neccessary. Mother Carey however had a lot of pleasure of her work and was quite proud when Mr. Bevelander made her a compliment about the neat way in which she had furnished the house.I myself had instead of my former tiny room a spacious one facing South with a nice view to the Obrechtstraat, whilst all co occupiers and servants had decent accommodation.In the large livingroom we got a so called Turenne fireplace, which gave plenty of heat to heat the saloon and sunroom decently as well and had the good property to radiate heat along the floor sothat we had far less trouble with cold feet.Herman, who had passed his smalls exams in the beginning of the year had worked so hard, that already in June he achieved his degree for electro technical engineer and soon enough received offers for the start of a job from several people; however he had to fulfill his military duties first and didn’t take an immediate decision, but became gunner.On the 14th of July our whole family at home was to the Laan van Oldenbarneveldt for the occasion of the 7th birthday of little Milly; who would describe our surprise when in the middle of the children’s party Johan appeared? It was such a happy lot that Johan immediately decided to take a film of it.Before his last leave he therfore had bought a very expensive instrument as addition of a camera, which had been given to him as a present by a few commerical friends and had now brought with him numerous films of his stay in the Indies and of his trip there, which were soon shown with the film he just made; in view of the decline of my vision I had to sit very close to the projection screen for the show and I still had trouble to follow everything clearly.At playing billiards I steadily went backwards and already had to give up playing pool and only played carambole on one of the small billiard tables. However here too I went backwards and whilst before Johan was always the lesser player, now I lost quite a number of games from him.Johan and Muises plan was to return to the Indies in November, however they had the use of the house in the Laan van Oldenbarneveldt till the end of August and so again had to start to live in a hotel. Mama v.Z.Jut moved with most of the furniture to the Cederstraat no. 13, whilst the family Kerlen resided in hotel de la Promenade. When mama Jut was ready in her new home the girls moved there with sister Grauss and father and mother to hotel de Twee Steden; in the beginning of September both the boys were already boarding with family Pik in Utrecht, from which the van Heels had such good experiences.On the 15th of November we celebrated as farewell the 34th birthday of Muis, where Johan once again treated us in an old fashioned way and till late in the night kept us busy in a nice way. Some days later the family, except for the boys, left for the Indies by SS Slamat.Still this and the other about Lotje; on page 326 I mentioned that after her disappearence in Antwerp she had been admitted to the institution for a while; this stay however lasted several months and whilst she was nursed there I visited her with Johan on her birthday on the 1st of June 1922. We brought several presents for her under which records for her grammophone which she had received the year before from Johan plus a large amounts of sweets and knick-knacks; she hardly took any notice of it, as she still was quite abnormal; since this visit however improvement came and I was happy that we could get Mrs. v. Regemorte so far as to take her in her house again.