The Marsh and the Pyramids

By Teddy Vandevis

This poignant memoir follows Teddy's story as he goes from playing pranks to working diligently, before he was a teenager, in both a grocery store and on an epic eight-mile paper route and doing the latter while enduring the harsh Canadian winters. He eventually saved enough money by age 9, to finance a trip for his father to visit Teddy’s dying grandmother back in Holland, when his father was low on money, thus setting the stage for the kind of man he would become.

His willingness to work hard, coupled with his desire for something greater led him on a journey that changed his life exponentially. The young man from good stock, whom Teddy has been able to trace back to the Pharaohs, and humble beginnings, grew to be a successful business leader and Chief Executive Officer.

Follow the journey of growing up in the Canadian village of Holland Marsh.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: May 18, 2015
• ISBN: 9781329142190

Book preview

The Marsh and

the Pyramids

img1.png

Figure 1. A map of Holland Marsh circa 1965, not drawn to scale.

The Marsh and

the Pyramids

By: Teddy Vandevis

S2 Press

© 2015 Teddy Vandevis

ISBN: 978-1-329-14219-0

This book is dedicated to my parents

Marinus Vandevis & Gerritje Verhoog,

for giving me the best childhood they knew how.

Acknowledgements

I thank Janet my wife of over forty years for continuously encouraging me to tell this story, and for her sage counsel after reading different drafts.

I thank my children and children-in-law, Brad and Marlana Vandevis, and Karen and Adam Arnold for their encouragement, feedback and suggestions for improvement.

I thank my previous classmates at Holland Marsh Christian School for being great friends as we grew up together. In particular I thank Bas Hoving, Janice Van Dyke, Nancy Kamphuis, Faye Willeboordse, Harry Warnaar, and Win Knight for motivating me to write the book presently, by recalling events we shared as kids in Marsh Memories.

I thank Paul Pruitt for assisting me in getting published and for his editorial guidance. I highly recommend him.

Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

TABLE OF FIGURES

PREFACE

1 LIVING ON AGAR AVENUE 1956-1961

2 THE STORE 1961-1967

3 THE COST/BENEFITOF ENTREPRENEURSHIP

4 HMCS 1962-1968

5 THE TORONTO DAILY STAR PAPER ROUTE 1963-1967

6 THE PYRAMIDS

7 PLAY

8 FRENCH FRIES

9 CHURCH/SCHOOL PARKING LOT

10 TEDDY THE BUSINESS MAN

11 FIRES

12 THE CHURCH

13 THE CANAL

14 CALVINIST CADET CORPS

15 SUMMER OF ‘67

16 THE PRINS HOUSE 1967-1968

AFTERWORD

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Table of Figures

Figure 1. A map of Holland Marsh circa 1965, not drawn to scale.

Figure 2. The floor plan of our house on Agar Avenue in Bradford, Ontario, Canada. Built by Dad in 1954.

Figure 3. Two years old is still young enough to have your bath in the kitchen sink on Agar Avenue. The window looks out onto the rear yard.

Figure 4. House on Agar Avenue in Bradford that Dad built in 1954 - Photo taken 1957.

Figure 5. Holland River Gardens where Dad first shipped and received vegetables and later manufactured French fries. Marsh carrot and onion farms are in the background.

Figure 6. A 1957 Christmas card from the proud parents with their two children in front of the new house in Bradford, Ontario.

Figure 7. A packet of Freshie drink mix. - http://bit.ly/1ErN35A - attitash or SillyLoocie

Figure 8. My mom, us three kids and the Volkswagen. On the far right of the photo a corner of Rupke’s house can be seen. A snowplow is parked in the municipal lot beside it. Snow fences can be seen piled in the background between my mother and our house.

Figure 9. In the hills near our house on Agar Avenue and behind the Lutheran church swallows used to build nests in the exposed sand banks.

Figure 10. Mom and Dad midway on their immigration voyage to Canada from the Netherlands aboard the S.S. Volendam in June 1952. They had been just married a month before.

Figure 11. Oma and Opa Verhoog who visited us from Holland in 1959.

Figure 12. Billy, Geraldine and I, swimming in our pink swimming pool, (still photo from Dad's Super 8 movie.) 15

Figure 13. Google map image showing where Holland Marsh is vis-à-vis Toronto - http://bit.ly/1AX0m9I

Figure 14. Mr. Lollinga slicing deli meat in the butcher shop. His maple butcher block can be seen in the foreground and the window to the rest of the Store in the background. Look how crisp and white his uniform is. 3

Figure 15. The year we bought the Store and Vauxhall wagon for deliveries. You can see the Store is attached to the house.

Figure 16. March 1965 we are all dressed up in our Sunday bowtie best. Billy, Marietta and I are enjoying play with Oma Verhoog and Dad. The Tonka tow truck Billy is holding I had received the previous Christmas and my grandchildren still play with it today.

Figure 17. A 1962 Silvertone black and white television similar to the one we owned. - http://bit.ly/1B7Dfcy - recordpickers

Figure 18. Bill, Geraldine and Teddy with the ill-fated kitten.

Figure 19. Klompen (Dutch wooden shoes). - http://bit.ly/1CCsPqQ - Berkh

Figure 20. Aug 1961 five months after we bought the Store. You can see the Swanson TV dinners in the Coldstream freezer on the right. Just beyond the freezer and before the next milk cooler was the entrance from the Store to our attached house.

Figure 21. The three siblings, Billy, Teddy, and Geraldine in 1960.

Figure 22. Mom and Dad on their 15th anniversary sitting at the kitchen table in our house attached to the store. I took it with my Polaroid camera on May 1, 1967.

Figure 23. Nick Gasko our neighbor from across the road is clearing an April 1962 spring snow storm from the Store parking lot. In the back- ground you can see our black 1956 Volkswagen III parked on Dufferin Street and the Catholic Church that was moved to Sharon later that year.

Figure 24. April 1962 you can see the Op Clop bed stored in our living room behind the curtained wooden frame displaying my parents' wedding photo.

Figure 25. An anniversary 400 day clock similar in style to the one mother acquired with her coupons. - http://bit.ly/1LkIQHC, Graham Evans - Battersea Clocks

Figure 26. July 1967 - behind the Store, shows Marsh farms and neighbor Wiebe Miedema's garage.

Figure 27. 1965 Sunday drive to Collingwood, ON in our 1963 Rambler Wagon.

Figure 28. How the Holland Marsh Christian School looks today. – Ontario Christian School Administrators Association

Figure 29. A walking stick - http://bit.ly/1Gzy1Lg

Figure 30. Grade Two - Top Row L-R - Bas Hoving, Karen Van Dyke, Winnifred Kiers, Janice Van Dyke, Teddy Vandevis. Front Row - Judy Rupke, Nancy Radder, Tim Miedema, David Miedema, Wally Eygenraam.

Figure 31. Grades Five/Six - Top Row L-R Len Bosma, Terry Van Dyke, Sid Hovius, Henry Kooistra, Bas Hoving, Teddy Vandevis, Harry Warnaar, Charlie Miedema, David Miedema. Middle Row - L-R Mrs. Mary Anne Terpstra, Bill DeWinter, Mark Van Dyke, George Hoving, Richard Wierenga, Marvin Van Dyken, Harvey DeJong, Winnifred Kiers. Front Row - L-R Doreen Van Mazyk, Dorothy Miedema, Irene Flack, Lucille Warnaar, Janice Van Dyke, Karen Van Dyke, Fayetta Miedema, Nancy Radder, Judy Rupke.

Figure 32. A copy of the Toronto Daily Star from the day Kennedy was shot. I delivered copies of this paper. - http://bit.ly/1O7u0D9 - Bill Gladstone

Figure 33. Geraldine, Billy, Teddy - I am seven years old, the year I started my nine mile paper route. I still have my baby teeth.

Figure 34. Playing hockey on the canal. I'm the one with the white helmet. Billy is wearing a beehive toque and is skating toward the camera.

Figure 35. My dad's mother and father, Oma and Opa, van de Vis, whom I never met (they spelled their name differently....we anglicized it to Vandevis).

Figure 36. The pyramids of Egypt. - http://bit.ly/1IISKQT

Figure 37. Second only to my train set - my favorite toy - air/battery controlled airplane Aug 1961. The sink is where Geraldine and I did the dishes every night after dinner.

Figure 38. Dad with his signature paper Hardee hat and pocket protector with papers and thermometer in the Hardee French fry factory in Bradford 1966.

Figure 39. July 1961 the summer after buying the Store you can see the butcher shop in the background. This aisle was one of two with the shelving island on the right dividing the two aisles.

Figure 40. An old Dustbane can. - http://ebay.to/1Ls1cXf - Kevin

Figure 41. The Store can be seen in the background of our family. The photo was taken in 1962 a year after we bought the store. We are in Niebuur's yard. Nick Gasko's driveway can be seen by my head and where it meets Dufferin Street was where Albert Biemold was struck and killed.

Figure 42. Edgar Niebuur and I used to love playing in the shed behind their house. One time we almost burned it down while lighting the adjoining grass on fire and stamping it out.

Figure 43. The February 1960 construction of Holland Marsh Christian Reformed Church.

Figure 44. Teddy and Geraldine in the rented rowboat on the canal with Tante Corrie.

Figure 45. I am in my favourite green and black striped sweater. The photo was taken Apr 10, 1967 on a Sunday visit to Kruyfs in Toronto.

Figure 46. Mom and Dad trying to get a little Sunday relaxation. You can see the Dutch mansard roof on the neighbor’s house behind and, with houses on either side it didn't allow for much privacy.

Figure 47. A Muskrat. - http://bit.ly/1DzHXH0 - D. Gordon E. Robertson

Figure 48. The author as a child and today, Dr. Theodore Vandevis.

Preface

It wasn’t until the mid-eighties when I was about thirty years old that I discovered and agreed with myself I had a unique childhood. At that time I started taking notes because I knew I wanted to share my story and also knew that when I had the time to do so, my memory would have faded enough that many of the details would have been lost. So I jotted down pages of memories and notes to assist me when the time came to create a written legacy for me and my family.

This is that time. I am now in my late fifties and have been retired for six years. I have done many of the normal retirement things like travel and building projects for my family, and so now became the time to write. I read through my notes and was overcome by emotion as I had not read through them in over twenty-five years. Much of it as anticipated I had already forgotten. Interestingly though as I read, I remembered other things not recorded earlier. As I wrote I remembered more.

I was born to Dutch immigrant parents who arrived penniless in Canada in 1952, a month after they were married. They were both the youngest of their siblings, my mother having four brothers and a sister and my dad, three brothers and five sisters. There was not much left for them in post-war Holland and so they followed the immigration crush of the late forties and early fifties and decided to live their lives in Canada.

I was born in Bradford, Ontario, Canada in 1956 in a new house built by my father a few years before. My parents were both very hard working and determined people. Much of their hard work ethic and determination they passed on to me. As I’ll describe, at seven years old I took on a daily six mile paper route, nine mileson Saturday. Twenty-five years ago I began to wonder.

What made me take over and succeed at a daunting paper route job many older kids and for that matter adults wouldn’t do or stick with for five years? What shapes a child to do things out of the ordinary and even though unaware at the time, become something out of nothing? How did I get up uncomplaining every morning, seven days a week for eight years from the age of twelve at 4:45 am to work two hours in the barn feeding two gallons of milk replacer to each of 135 veal calves, shower, gulp down four slices of toast, make my lunch, catch the bus to school, come home, have a cup of tea with my mother, head to the barn again for two hours, eat supper, do two minutes homework, five minutes of French horn practice and then head exhausted to bed? Unpaid. Over the eight years that is the equivalent of six fulltime working years without the additional schooltime. Naturally I found other part-time work and summer jobs to keep myself out of trouble and to earn enough money to pay for my own education and clothes. That is another story altogether.

How does someone work fulltime and do an MBA in just two years during that period and ten years later a PhD over a four year span also while continuing to work? How is a CEO produced? How does a little boy raised in the Holland Marsh become a successful business leader? What is it in a person that inspires him to establish a number of very profitable non-profit enterprises dedicated to the prevention of workplace injuries? What entices someone to lead many national and international boards of director such as the Geneva based Electricity Section of the International Social Security Association or Itasca, Illinois’ National Safety Council Utilities Division? How was I compelled to establish a vision of zero injuries to any of our Electrical & Utilities Safety Association’s 50,000 worker members? How did I get the buy-in of our Board and membership for my vision of zero injuries? What made me think that not only did it have to become our Association’s vision, but also