Dutch and German Immigrants The Prins Family - Pier 21

Aunt Nel stayed home to do all the sewing for the family. Her workspacewas the landing, with a skylight providing the light. Reading books orplaying the piano was done for relaxation but no games were played.Once she made a costume for one of her sisters. While that work wasnot done for a wage, the sister gave her a gift of a small cup and saucerwith the explanation that too much coffee wasn’t good for her healthanyway; that’s why the small cup. The cup and saucer disappeared onthe wastebasket. When she did sewing for her sisters or herself, Omathought that the clothing she made for herself was always fancier andhad nicer finishing touches. When my dad, after his divorce, came homefrom a two- month voyage, she looked after all the clothing what had tobe mended.To get away from it all, she and her girlfriend had arranged as a pair togo to England to see some more of the world. However, Oma refused togive her consent and Aunt Nel had to stay home. According to Aunt Nel,Oma was fairly strict and didn’t leave very much to decide for the girlswho were living at home. But Opa did his best and took her out toGerzon to buy clothes and finished with a meal at Krasnapolsky, therestaurant in Amsterdam.The arrangements of bedrooms was ususual and actually impractical asthe bedroom of Aunt Nel & Aunt Lena could be reached only through thebalcony bedroom, where my dad and I slept, or if my dad was at sea,Uncle Jack. One time when my dad was grumbling to Oma about thetraffic through the room, she said “ Well, you better get married again”,to which he answered, “I don’t want to sell myself for a small room”!When I came to stay, she thought I was a nice boy and not much trouble(still till this day)!After the yearly spring, house cleaning, the stove in the living room wasremoved till fall came. It didn’t matter how miserable the weatherbecame after the cleaning session. The house cleaning didn’t do muchfor the dog Limmie, as he crawled under the kitchen stove anyway! Themystery of his name was explained as follows: my dad, on one hisvoyages upon the freighter “Limburgia”, brought him home as a gift andhe got the shortened name of the Limburgia.She met Uncle Theo, serving in the army, at the house of her girlfriendJo Prins, where he visited once in a while. The first time I saw him wasright after the five war days in May 1940, when he came at the front doorto talk to Aunt Nel. He had small red eyes as he didn’t sleep for threedays and he didn’t come any father than the front hall. Most visitorsdidn’t either!