Proud Dutch Heritage

Dutch girl in wooden shoes, made in Austria

When you have grandparents (Dewey and Minnie Braaksma) who came from the Netherlands as teenagers, it instills a reverence in you for all things Dutch, like this wonderful little dolly in her wooden shoes and hair wound in copper curlers beneath a lacy Babushka.

She is from our doll collection and has no family heritage other than to bring a smile. The sentimental items that I treasure are memories, photos, and family mementos from Dewey and Minnie's 50th Anniversary celebration, passed to me at Minnie's death.

Several years earlier, Grandma Minnie and my Aunts Jane and Ann drove from Randolph, Wis., to Aurora, Ill., for a visit. When I gave them a tour of our house, Grandma Minnie spotted a coffee and tea service I had collected, stamped with a windmill and  "Made in Holland."  She loved it so that I sent it home with her, pleased that I had something she found so delightful.

Later my uncle informed me that when Minnie arrived home with the trophy coffee and tea set, he was put in charge of polishing it, and he polished and polished the pots, tray, creamer and sugar bowl, making every attempt to bring out a shine. Unfortunately, it was Dutch pewter, and no matter how long he polished, it never would twinkle and shine like silver. I could have saved him some elbow grease had I thought for a minute that Minnie was thinking my coffee set was sterling.

Something happened on that trip from Randolph that remains one of my favorite memories of Grandma Minnie. When I opened the door to welcome her into our home, Jane, Ann and Minnie were laughing amongst themselves, jabbering, and in the middle of this great story with Minnie standing barefoot in her stockings on my doorstep.

Turns out, for the road trip, Ann baked sandwich rolls and Jane brought Wisconsin cheese, and they stopped midway at a rest stop to eat a cheese sandwich. And, no doubt, there were home-canned pickles, too.

Well, Minnie didn't wear her shoes in the car as they traveled but instead carried them in a brown paper sack. She would pull them out and stuff them back in the sack, depending on whether she was in or out of the car. Unfortunately, the cheese and the rolls were in similar paper sacks. When they threw out their lunch sacks, Minnie also threw out her shoe sack, unknowingly.

So, when they arrived to Aurora and Minnie couldn't find her shoe sack, the light bulb went on and she realized she had tossed her shoes along with the leftovers. It was a mishap, and she took it with the same resilient good humor she did everything, and that is why I loved her so. I will always remember her standing at my back door, barefooted, and tickled because she threw out her shoes at a rest stop.

Whenever Minnie entered a room, you knew something good was about to happen ....

 

Aunt Ann Meekma, the Braaksma Martha Stewart of Wedding Cakes

Wedding cake is a Braaksma family tradition. Growing up, I loved when Mom and Dad attended a wedding because it meant waking up to wedding cake on my pillow. 

My parents always flew solo to weddings. My brothers and I stayed home and, fortunately, stayed out of mischief. I always thought the reason they didn't take us is that family wedding celebrations involved a keg of beer. Wild guess. Not sure.

At that time, we lived in Badger, Wis., and family weddings were in Randolph or other Wisconsin nearby hot spot.

On those celebrated occasions, Mom would bring home a slice of wedding cake for each of us children. My brothers and I would be in bed, asleep, by the time they returned home. When I woke up, voilá, wedding cake on my pillow, wrapped in a fancy napkin with silver edging and the names of the bride and groom in silver with little silver wedding bells!

The cake always seemed familiar - layers of white cake, frosted with sugary, white frosting, and decorated with little pearl and silver, filigree balls. Most likely, because of waking up to wedding cake, my favorite cake to this day is white cake with yummy vanilla flavoring.

It was my lucky day when I discovered the source of that mysterious wedding cake. It was revealed to me during a summer stay at the Meekma's, Sam and Ann, my uncle and aunt. I was an honored summer guest at their dairy farm in Randolph.

On the fateful day, Aunt Ann was rushing around, shooing me and my cousins out the door and into the car for something important. Time was at its essence as it always is on the farm because there is so much to do with the cows, chickens and pigs, but this time was different. I sensed it immediately. We were not on farm time but on clock time, hurrying to meet a deadline.

I was trailing Aunt Ann around the house like a puppy, caught up in the excitement of the adventure, when all of a sudden as we were nearing the door she stopped in her tracks, turned, and exclaimed, "My gosh. I almost forgot!"

She rushed to the basement over to a huge freezer against the wall. It was a chest freezer, hinged at the back, that opened like a giant flip-top, frozen treasure chest. Aunt Ann chucked open the lid, dove both arms down into the freezer, and popped back up holding a tiered wedding cake that looked like a pyramid of frosted heaven.

I was in awe! I had never seen anything like it. Instantly, Ann became my super-woman. She had magically baked and decorated a wedding cake for some lucky bride and tucked it away in the freezer like hidden gold, on the eve of the wedding day. It was as if she were the cake fairy. I never saw her bake it or decorate it. It simply magically appeared in her freezer.

When I looked at that tower of glistening white fluff with little pearls and silver balls, I knew I had found treasure and the source of those luscious slices of wedding cake that appeared on my pillow when my parents returned from a wedding in Randolph. Aunt Ann was the Braaksma Martha Stewart of wedding cakes.

Some day, I am going to bake and decorate a cake as close to the ones I remember, wrap a slice in a fancy paper napkin, and slowly eat it with a glass of milk. Sweet memories.