Dutch and German Immigrants The Prins Family - Pier 21

Jenny went to school with a teacher named Mr. Klap. He was alwaysdressed in black, and when he was outside, wore a slouch hat. Longafter he left his school, it was still named the Klap School. Later, sheattended the evening school at the Willemsplein where she was, taughtby a teacher named Attema (the man with the beard).During this time, the meeting ritual of Ijmuiden’s youth started tointerest her. This consisted of walking a specific route from the HotelAugusta, through the Oranjestraat to Hotel No.1, and then to thebookstore of Snooy in the Kanaalstraat, and from there back again. Theboys went one direction while the girls went the opposite direction soeverybody met everybody and many a match were made that way. "Youdon’t dare to go", Opa Sohl said to Jennie, but she went anyway, togetherwith her younger sister Truus. Quite often if the partners were of adifferent religion, and I am thinking of Anglican and Reformed it wasmore or less the custom that the sons followed the fathers religion andthe daughters their mothers; Roman Catholic usually stuck with theirown.It was always exciting in town, a harbour town with about one tavern forevery ten houses. After an evening of drinking, there was usually a fightsomewhere. The Oranjestraat developed into one of the main shoppingstreets and here in the vicinity was the clothing store of Bottger whereJennie was working. It was here where she was 'discovered' by my dad(her words).Memories of Aunt Bliek-SohlAunt Annie (sister of my mother) told me that Opa Sohl’s first wife wasGreitje Dekker; and they had a son, but mother and child died duringchildbirth. This was never discussed within the family.Later, Opa married Truus Boon (my grandmother). They had fivedaughters and the story goes that my grandfather must have said whenthe fifth child was due to be born at home in the upstairs bedroom - If itis a girl again, they both can stay upstairs”. Of course he wasn’t serious.Opa kepy hoping through that he would get a son.Opa had a bakery and a special secret recipe for baking 'speculaas'cookies. No one, however, knows where this recipe ended up, so it willbe a secret forever.There was no Universal Healthcare Insurance during the 1920’s andwhen Oma needed stomach surgery they had to pay for all the coststhemselves. This was a heavy burden and one of the reasons why Opa