Gerrit Vos was the son of a seed grower in Groningen and a farmers daughter. His father's gardens were on Groningen's south side, west of the "Hereweg", south of the Rabenhauptstraat. They extended from the "Menneslaan" (a dead end alley now replaced by the broad Vechtstraat) to beyond the "Zuider Begraafplaats" (southern cemetary). How these gardens were organised and what the lay-out was can be found in "De Tuinen", the memories of Jakob Vos, son of Gerrit's brother Jan-Roelf who later would continue the gardens.

After high school he continued to work with his father. An "official portrait" was made at age of about 19.
Initially, Gerrit was mostly in the gardens. But he also manned the market stall. For that he needed an official licence; this "Erkenningskaart" (it is undated) is likely from about 1935. The document shows the address his parents had retired to. Around that time father Jakob had passed the seed-growing enterprise on to his second son Jan-Roelf. Gerrit's work was also to bring products to the "Bodenterrein" (the transporters hub), where lorries would wait to bring packages to destinations in Groningen province.
Gerrit enjoyed life, he was sociable, had lots of friends and regularly spent his pasttime going out. It was said he knew everybody in town.
Gerrit's looks had a special feature: his left ear stood further out than the other one (see photo on the identity card). This trait ran in the Vos family, foremost with the males.

Klazina (Sien) Posthumus was the daughter of Klaas Posthumus, farmer and merchant, and Liena Hofstede, a farmers daugther. Sien was born in a small farm house, at the edge of the heath, west of Marum, where Klaas made his living in part by cultivating parcels of heath. Not long thereafter her father had been able to buy the village pub and guesthouse, in Marum-West. The family would ultimately count 10 children, 7 girls and 3 boys.

Sien, as all children, went to elementary school in Marum. In winter one would wear darker clothes, in summer the girls would often go in white dresses. The school was close by, in the same street towards the church. To the side of the church, Sien's parents owned a meadow, with a mound having a tree on top.

Sien then went, the only one of the children, to high school, the "MULO"; the other girls went to "huishoudschool", the school of domestic economy. Sien had done well in elementary school, had been good in all subjects, also in arithmetic. She had learned german there and could read and write the old german print.
RHV:  my mother recounted...  In the last weeks of the last class of the MULO I had to help harvest potatoes on my fathers land. In those days it was normal for children to stay out of school for that. I had been quite dilligent in school and after harvest time I was afraid to go back to school out for fear of now getting low grades and not being able to pass the final exam. The headmaster then came to my parents to convince them that I would be all right. But they let it be, so I did not finish high school.

Sien then wanted to become a nurse. One had to provide for a uniform oneself but Sien did not have the money. She could have asked her oldest brother Freerk, who ran a successful shop in household wares in Marum Westy, for a loan but Sien shied away from that.

In 1923/24 the family moved to Groningen, to Prinsesseweg 59. Father Klaas had sold the business in Marum and started in an existing pub in Groningen, in the Gelkingestraat. The daughters had to work shifts there. But the pub was small (in comparison to the Marum one) and the daughters disliked serving the often rowdy drinkers. Working this pub did not work out, and the parents then decided to rent a huge house at the Guldenstraat to let rooms to boarders. The house had plenty of room for the family.

Sien had found a job as sales person with "Meijers koek" (Meijers pastry) at the Grote Markt. Soon she also did some of the administration. Thus she never came to be a nurse. She stayed at Meijers Koek until she married. The photo shown was taken in about 1929.
In the early 1930's her parents gave up the boarding house, they both had health problems. The family now moved to the W.A. Scholtensstraat.

When young people went out at night, one option was to go to "Huize Maas" at the Vismarkt, where one could dance. On some night Sien and Gerrit met there. On 05-04-1931 (date in their rings) they officially engaged and then started to save (in the 1930s, years of the economic crisis), Sien for the trousseau, Gerrit for investment.

As of 1937, the economy seemed to veer back. Early in 1937, a specialty grocery shop was offered for rent at the Damsterdiep (the previous operator had been declared bankrupt, a fate many more had suffered). Gerrit and Sien now took their courage to start their own grocery.

Gerrit and Sien married in 1937.

With a shop at the Damsterdiep including living quarters, there was no reason to postpone marriage. The announcement gives the address Damsterdiep 16 (see the photos and clippings). Soon they asked in an advertisement for help in the shop.
They also sold vegetables from the gardens at the Menneslaan, but slowly made the business into a grocery shop in the upper end, with specialties and, as one called it, "commestibles" (as the previous shop owner had done). Gerrit could borrow money from his father and other relatives and on 23-02-1939 he could buy the entire house with shop.

The shop had two shopwindos with the door in between. The shop had a larger depth than width. In the rear of the shop was a sliding door giving to the living room, having two windows, high in a wall over the alley of the neighbours on the city side. At right was a corridor with, just past the living room, a staircase to the attic, on which was a room for (later) daughter Lineke. Then came the bedroom with walk-in closet under the stairs. The corridor turned at its end into the kitchen.
Above the shop was a separate living unit with its own front door and stairs, at left in the shop front. One could also get to its stair directly from the shop. That dwelling had a room at the street, a very small room above the stairs, and in the rear a room and a kitchen. The top floor had a room with low windows and above it was the attic.

They did the shop together: Gerrit mostly delivered the orders, Sien did the shop and bookkeeping.

RHV:  When my father and mother started the business, the seperate living unit above the shop was used by the still unmarried children of Opa and Oma Posthumus, aunt Dien and uncle Klaas. Aunt Wieb ran the household of Gerrit and Sien.  Occasionally, other members of the larger family, who temporarily had no place to stay, would live at Damsterdiep 16; I remember aunt Hens, who used an attic room of the dwelling behind the shop.

In 1940, Sien became pregnant. The boy, Jakob Klaas Vos, was born with congenital deformations and did not live long.
In 1942, Rolina Hendrika (Lineke) was born.

War time 1940-1945

In the course of the war food supplies got low. Essential commodities were rationed and distributed based on coupons, "op de bon" (see box).

The longer the war went on, the more the occupying forces claimed of the agricultural products to supply Germany as well as the german army. Scarcity entered The Netherlands.   To allow a more or less fair distribution of food, a rationing system was introduced based on coupons (food was "op de bon"). Every family received coupons for well defined quantities per time frame. All those coupons were different in colour and print, depending on the commodity. Shops could sell only when the required number of coupons was provided.   And those coupons had to be accounted for. This involved quite some paper work on the side of the grocers. Some of them tried to be fraudulent to the advantage of citizens, others went for their own advantage. Also, the "resistance" occasionally raided the administrative offices to lay their hands on coupons to help those in hiding (those who were "ondergedoken").   Some food stuff stayed on coupon until after 1948....

Gerrit and Sien had to sort and count the coupons obtained in the shop every weekend to deliver those at the coupon office in the Agricolastraat.

Egbert Nicolaas and family had moved from Zwolle to Veendam. That family now lived again closer to Groningen. Aunt Jo lived in Assen, in the service of Mr Was. He had a large garden. In 1943 the family visited aunt Jo (see photo), aunt Wieb, Sien and Gerrit with little Lineke, and Renske and Egbert Nicolaas with son Joop (for the latter three see the complete photo).

Sometime in 1944, the occupying forces suspected a hiding young man, an "onderduiker", in the house next door, at nr 14. They broke into that house, the young man fled over the roof bringing young Klaas in danger, who was also of the age to be drafted. So Klaas fled too, he found refuge with a farmer in the country side, near Oude Schildt.

Some time near the end of the war, Gerrit was arrested. He was interrogated at the notorious "Scholtenshuis". He must have been suspected of fraud with food coupons. RHV: I do not know what happened exactly. But he was in jail for a while, at the Hereweg. And then one was a hero! In March 1945 he got a document stating he was "untauglich" (unfit) for further service at the defense works. It is unclear how he got this document. It surely has meant that, in the last weeks of the war, he would not be forced into labour for the occupiers.

When the Canadian troops of the allied forces approached, everybody was downstairs, in the room behind the shop. Aunt Hens was nosy and, in spite of warnings, went to look out of the shop window. There was shooting on the Damsterdiep and she saw how, on the other side, a young man was shot.

The good years - 1946-1951

Right after the war, money circulation was inflated. The goverment decided to have a monetary reform, also to confiscate riches aquired in unfair ways during the war. In autumn 1945, all bank notes became, in some complicated number of stages, invalid. New bank notes (with Queen Wilhelmina) were introduced. These had been ordered by the government (then still in exile, in London; note the calendar year) in preparation for the time after the war with an american printer (see text at the bottom of the shown bank note).

Once, not long after the war, Sien went with Lineke by streetcar to Helpman, past the jail. Lineke then said loud and clear: "Look mammy, daddy was here!" This was now of course quite embarrassing for Sien, because during the war people in jail were "good" while those being there after the war were "bad".

The shop went well. Gerrit had joined the "Centra", a buying combination. And he registered the shop with the Chamber of Commerce in 1948.

The shop at Damsterdiep 16 (ca 1947). At left the door to the unit above. Gerrit Vos, Sien Posthumus, another family. The girl with the dark curl is Lineke Vos.

In that year, the canal in front of the house was filled with sand. Right in front of the house a bus station was created for the bus lines of the "D.A.M." and the "Roland". The company DAM served the Oldamt, the Roland the northern part of the province. So the shop was well placed, plenty of people around.

Gerrit and Sien also had shop attendants. One of these was Hanny, who worked there many years. Contact with her continued long after she had left to start her own family. She even came, twenty years later, to the reception of the wedding of Lineke with her Klaas.

Sundays, Gerrit always visited his relatives. One Sunday he went with daughter Lineke to his mother, Hendrikje Boddeveld, to have a coffee. On the other Sunday, often Gerrit's sister Annie and husband had the honour; Gerrit and Annie had always been close.

Gerrit and Sien had become member of a bowling club and they regularly played. Otherwise they made few outings in town. If there were congenial visitors, such as his brother-in-law Jan Mantjes, Gerrit would take him to a pub to play billiards.

In these years, numerous family visited. These were Sien's sisters Hens and Dien, her youngest brother Klaas and also sister Renske with her husband Egbert Nicolaas and son Joop from Veendam. Around 1946/47 Joop started in engineering school in Groningen and came to live, during school days, at the Damsterdiep, using the small room above the stairs of the above unit. He took plenty of time to play with little Lineke and read books with her. Later, he also talked about the sciences which Lineke eagerly listened to.
In that period Dien married Otto Plet and Klaas married Thea Spoor. Dien found with Otto their own dwelling, the daughter of Klaas and Thea was born at the Damsterdiep. Once the upstairs unit became free the rooms were let to students.

RHV:  My father was a darling man, soft natured. He smoked cigarettes (almost everybody smoked then), also alone, on the WC, undisturbed. Once in a while I went on Sunday with him to a soccer match of the local club, GVAV, in the stadium in the Oosterpark. And sometimes we went to the cinema together, perhaps when bad weather prevented soccer games. Those were nice outings!
Gerrit was all his life "supporter" of GVAV. The membership card he carried always with him, in his wallet.

Sien's sister Wieb had not married and she had the room on the attic as hers. The rooms in the unit above were let to students. Wieb never helped in the shop, her task was rather to do the household of Gerrit and Sien. And she took care of little Lineke.

Daughter Lineke went during school vacantions often to aunts. She was "in Soest" with aunt Lien and uncle Jan Mantjes, also with aunt Jo and uncle Cor Staal in Almelo or with aunt Ren and uncle Niek in Apeldoorn.
RHV: I once went to aunt Jo. I was perhaps 5, not yet old enough to go alone by train, and my moeder travelled with me to Almelo. She also stayed a night. The next day, aunt Jo and I brought my mother to the train. When the train left I said: "Zo, die is weg!" (well then, she is gone!)

In 1951 Sien had a cerebral hemorrhage. She was in hospital a long time. Back at home, she had to be in bed regularly. She suffered from migraines.

In 1952 Gerrit had to go to hospital because of a brain tumor. He had surgery and came back home. Tiny, the daughter of Anne Posthumus, came to help in the shop. With Gerrit all seemed well at first but some time later there was a problem. He was again admitted and had again surgery. After that he died. Was that from an emboly?
Gerrit was burried on the old cemetry near the church of Haren.

After 1952

After the death of Gerrit, Sien continued the shop. She again advertised for a shopmaid. But in 1955 she quit, it was too much, being responsible for everything all by herself. Moreover, larger grocers, such as de Gruyter and Albert Heijn, took an ever larger share of the market. The store machinery was sold, among it the Berkel cutting machine on which Lineke had hurt herself when young, when she tried to cut slices from a solid rubber ball. (RHV: I still have the scar on my left little finger).
Sien and daughter Lineke moved to the unit above the shop and the shop was let, to an optician. The room with the low windows on the top floor was let to a student.
Wieb had gone to her brother-in-law, Egbert Nicolaas (uncle Niek) in Apeldoorn, whose wife Ren had died; Wieb now did the household there. (She married later with Niek because of a good pension.)

Daughter Lineke started in 1961 to be trained as nurse in the large university hospital in Groningen. After the first year, obligatory being in the hospital dorm, she came back to the Damsterdiep and rented the room on the top floor.

Sien just lived her life, once in a while visiting relatives in Marum and elsewhere. She often went to Apeldoorn, to her sister Wieb. There the contacts with Renske and Niek's son Joop were strengthened again.

Some time after the death (in 1968) of Egbert/Niek, Sien and Wieb considered living together again. The house with shop at the Damsterdiep was to be sold. And Wieb would quit renting the house in Apeldoorn. Mid 1970s this plan was realised. They rented a house with garden in Eelde, at the Paulus Potterweg. They had some wonderful years there in the house with fair garden.

In the rear of the garden: Hens (with her dog), Sien and Wieb.

Brother Anne, who with his wife had earlier reloctaed to Eelde and who was Sien's favourite brother, often stopped by on bike. And the other relatives, daughter Lineke with Klaas and children, Joop and wife Jacqueline with children, Tiny (daughter of Anne) with her husband Ed Wietzes the wooden shoe maker in Eelde; also sister Lien with Jan Mantjes, brother Klaas and Thea Posthumus, sister Dien and husband Otto Plet, sister Hens, and many more came to visit. Of course, the family of Gerrit and Sien had been, as of 1932, the centre of the "Posthumussen", and now, with many of them retired, was so again. These were happy years for Sien (and Wieb).

Early 1980's Sien and Wieb moved to a "lean-on" unit at the Mozartweg of the elderly home, the "Else van der Laan huis" in Eelde. Yet later both had to move to individual rooms in the main building because of the onset of dementia. Sien slowly became silent.
Sien died in 1988 from a cerebral hemorrhage. She was cremated. Lineke placed the urn with the ashes in the grave of Gerrit.
Sister Wieb died not too long thereafter.

RHV  This description of the lives of Gerrit and Sien is based on stories related by Sien, and on the memories of Lineke (RH Vos).

To photos and clips at fotos + snipsels
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