BIOGRAPHY: PLEUNTJE KRAAL SANDMAN
(by Pearl Vander Waal Hunt as told to me by my mother, Anna Sandman Vander Waal, my sister Adriana V. Fuller, my Tante Nel and Oom Arie).
Pleuntje Kraal was born on Nov. 10, 1877, in Papendrecht, a small town in So. Holland to Barend Kraal and Marigje Van Rossum. When she was a young child, she and her brother would sell candy on the river while ice-skating in order to help the family. The candies were square pieces which she and her mother had made. She didn't attend many years of school and didn't read that much according to Tante Nel. Grandmother would go from door to door selling oil to help her mother and father along since they were both sick.
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| Pleuntje Kraal Sandman |
There are so many stories about the home on the Reeweg. Reeweg is the name of the street which means railway since the train tracks were near by. There are good memories and sad ones too, especially the difficult war years. This humble home was always a gathering place for the family. It meant safety and love. People didn't buy homes in Holland very often because they were usually poor, so our grandparents rented this house from my great-uncle Koos (Jacobus) Sandman. He and my great grandfather, Arie Sandman lived in #207 and my grandparents lived in #203. It was like a duplex with two homes together and then there was #205 in back of this house.
Opa (Grandpa) also rented some land from Uncle koos and raised calves, pigs, rabbits, and pigeons. He also loved to work in his garden of beans, beets, endive, onions, strawberries and apple trees. My mother would always tell us how big and good his strawberries were. No one had strawberries like her Vader. You could slice one strawberry on a slice of bread, sprinkle it with sugar and it was a delicious treat. Oma (Grandma) and her son, Barend , went around with a small handcart selling the produce. They always sold everything. She loved to do this; she was a good business woman. She would order potatoes from the farmers, have them delivered to the ladies who wanted them and collect the money for the potatoes.
Before joining the Church, she belonged to the Dutch Reformed Church. Elder LeGrand Richards was a missionary in Holland and taught the gospel to Oma's sister in law, Pieternella Sandman DeRyke. She and her husband immigrated to America but later came back to Holland for a visit and took Oma and the family to the Dutch Branch. On Oct. 15, 1921, Oma was baptized and the two elders to whom we are grateful are Elder Koming and Elder Freken for they came to the Reeweg and taught the family the gospel there. Once a week, Oma would feed the missionaries and they would say "Oh, Sister Sandman, what delicious beans you have."
She stored beans in a big stone pot with salt and water for the winter. She and my mother also washed the clothes for the missionaries and in those days this was no easy task. On good days you could wash clothes outside with the tub, scrub board and brush, but in the winter this had to be done in the house. A potato bag was tied around the tub so that water would not get on the floor. The home had a coal stove for cooking and heat and Oom Koos kept busy chopping wood all the time.
Close to the home was a place called the Sport Park; this was a place for entertainment. There might be a carnival with rides like the merry go round, circus, horse racing or motor cycle racing, etc. going on there from time to time. To make extra money, Oma would have a place you might call Park and Play where she stored bikes while people went to the Sport Park. The rich farmers would say to her, "Do you have a goed plaats (good place )for my bike? Take good care of it." And for 10 cents she would park their bikes in the back room of the house. My mother and the other children would also help with this. At the end of the week, Oma would put all the coins in her apron, hold the apron up like a bowl and shake it and say, "Look at all the money we made this week." Then this money was used to purchased needed underwear and nightgowns for the children.
Oma loved to go to town every Saturday night on the bus with Widow Rose and her daughter. She would take Tante Mar but the youngest two girls, Neeltje and Nellie had to stay home, and they would cry, "How come you always take Mar but never us." You young mother can relate to this. How easy or fun is it to shop with the toddlers? My mother, Anna, also loved to go shopping on Saturday after her home was spotless. We would take the bus and shop at the 5 and 10 for nick nacks for the house or whatever and sometimes we would walk home or Dad might pick us up.
For recreation, once a year the family would get a cheap train ticket and ride to the Hook Van Holland (Corner of Holland) by the ocean and enjoy the beach and each other's company. Their neighbors, the Van De Merwes, went along too. They also would ride bikes to Breda (This was in the woods). How did they manage to ride their bikes in dresses? They never worn slacks.
My Oma turned gray or white early; my Tante Nel never remembers her with any color except her white hair which she wore as a bun on the back or top of her head. Opa had red hair. So we have Oma to thank for this wonderful gene.
She had a talent for knitting and would like to knit stockings. When she wanted to complete a project, she would often stand to knit and knit and knit. She and my mother would knit long stripes and then sew these together for mattress pads. What a lot of work!
Her bed was in the wall and had doors which you would open to get into bed. Oma and Opa slept here and the six children slept upstairs in the attic with two to a bed. Oom Arie told how they used a candle for light in the attic and downstairs had an oil lamp with a mantle. There was a hole in the ceiling next to some pipe that went downstairs and he would drop the match they had used to light the candle down that hole. It would fall right on the mantle, break it, and out went his parent's light. Opa would come upstairs, mad, and said "Who did that?" Oom Arie would get in bed and act innocent and Barend would get the blame. Oom Barend liked to tease too and would squirt water out the window and yell to his mother, "Moeder, it's raining."
Dec. 5 is Sinter Klaas Day in Holland. Oranges were a special treat and perhaps there may have been a few simple gifts. On Dec. 25", the family always went to Church where they had a program in the morning with the young children performing and Christmas songs would be sung like the carols which we do . The Branch President might have a box for each child with an orange and candy. The family would go home for lunch and then come back in the afternoon for a program put on by the adults. The family had no car, so this was about a half hour walk each way in the cold. Real candles were on the tree and Oma was afraid the candles might start the curtains on fire. The meat for the Christmas dinner was a rabbit, fried in its own grease.
Birthdays were also celebrated simply, for one night at supper, Oma said to my Tante Neeltje. "On my goodness , it's your birthday." They had nearly forgotten.
During World War I, Oma took in a Belgium couple and their baby for six weeks who were refugees. During World War II, Oma and some of the family remained in a cellar for three days. One time the kitchen windows of her home were shattered to pieces cause of a bombing nearby. No one in the family was hurt during the wars, but there were many hard times. Food was scare and it was rationed with coupons with the elderly and children getting priority. My mother and Tante Nel went to work at the Victoria (a big Company). Here they scrubbed the steel stairs. The women were given nutrition crackers and some of the women stole them and hid them under their blouses as they left work. These were broken crackers and they also received wafflegruis which they made into a mush - not very tasty- but helps if you're starving. My mother had a suitcase which she would check each night. It was like a 72 hour emergency kit. She had items for us two girls, her and Oma in case we had to evacuate quickly. Each night she would open it and check it and say, "This is for Adri, this for Plonie, this is for Moeder, etc." A few houses away from Oma there lived a family of Jews. Oma watched in sorrow as the S.S. (Nazis) took them away. My Oom Barend yelled to them "Have faith and hope." Oma never saw them again. My sister, Audrey said' "We were always told to stand next to the door and the wall in case of flying glass when we heard the planes overhead. After the war was over, the Allies were dropping packages of food from the sky. Mama told me to come outside and see, but I was still afraid of planes and stayed by the wall in the house."
Audrey remembers that every Sunday Night everyone went to Oma's for dinner and visiting . It was the gathering place for Oma's children and grandchildren. "There is no place like home except for grandma's" could certainly have been her motto. It was ZESELLIG!
After the war, my parents were planning to go to America, but the first time Oma cried so much that my mother couldn't bear to leave her. The second time (when we really did leave) Mama said to Oma "I'm going to work hard and I'll come and see you."
Oma's health was not good at this time and she was in a T.B. hospital for a year. She was also having heart failure. She wanted to go home to her beloved Reeweg and begged Tante Nel to take her there. Tante Nel took her home on a Thursday and she passed away on the following Sunday, Aug. 28, 1948.
She loved her grandchildren and would tend them often. I am honored to be named after her. One of her favorite sayings was "Elk huisje heb sen kruisje." This means each house or family has their trials. She had many trials during her life but showed by her love and actions that family came first. She and my mother had a great love for each other. I can only imagine how hard it was for my mother to leave her and come to America.
My Tante Nel tells me that I was quite a stinker when I was young and I would call Grandma, "Op." It was "Op" this and "Op" that. I am looking forward to meeting my dear "Op" someday.
