Grand Parents
A picture taken in 1913 when my father was about three years. The quality of this pictures leaves to be desired!
Another picture taken four years later in 1917. In those days it was rather stylish to colour pictures by hand! My grandmother has some unnatural blushes painted on her cheeks....
My grandparents with friend standing in front of the rather famous Municipality House in the town of Middelburg, Zeeland. It was Easter in 1938. My grandfather liked to eat and it is showing in this picture.
My grandfather had a one man business. He had 'golden' hands and was good at most trades. He could lay bricks, be a carpenter, machine wood and iron, hammer copper and tin, built radio's and did electricity work. In his shop he had a workshop with machines driven by an electromotor through leather belts, wheels and pulleys. I was always fascinated by that elaborate system of whirring belts and wheels. But I was often too close to his liking and ushered outside: Go play! He did electricity work in shops and houses, sold light bulbs, switches, batteries, repaired vacuum cleaners, built and repaired radio's, which was quite a mystical trade in those days. The shop was on the address shown on the card: Hendrick Sorchstraat 6 and my grandparents lived there from the year 1928. Before that time they used to live on the other side of the street on nr 9, starting on the first floor and moving later to the second floor.
This picture with radio was taken in the summer of 1925. My grandparents were still living then on nr. 9 in the Hendrick Sorchstraat. The radio valves and tunings coils were situated on the front panel. The girl in the lower middle is a visiting neighbour. All five use headphones. No speakers yet in those days! No problem, as 'radio reception' was quite new and the trendy thing to do.
This is the rear view of the same radio. The copper wires connecting the parts looked like a plumber's job in those days!