Most of the photos in this essay have been taken (with permission) from oudtzummarum.nl/pietersbierum.htm The originals can be reached through this website. In some cases, only part of a photo was used. And not all photos used here are actually from the late 19th century.... |
Thee road taken by Ynze and Klaas from the farm to school and back
Ynze and Klaas were the sons of Sjoerd Ynzes de Boer and Lieuwkje
Heerkes Hibma.
Of both parents the first partner had died.
They remarried 1871, both were aged 40.
Sjoerd then became farmer on the farm of his father in law,
Heerke Attes Hibma,
and two years later, after Heerkes death,
Sjoerd and Lieuwkje took over completely.
That farm was the first on the road from Pietersbierum to Wynaldum.
Sjoerd and Lieuwkje got the sons Ynze (*1872) and Klaas (*1873).
There come the boys! They are almost 10 and walk to school.
The road to Pietersbierum had been firmed up not too long ago and was called Pûndyk (rubble road) after the material used. This was nice for Ynze and Klaas, their shoes were no longer muddied on their way to school. The village could be seen clearly, the trees on the mound and the tall church tower. The tower was new. The church made do without after the large fire of 1843. Last year they had often been looking at the rebuilding, now all was finished. The road had two sharp bends.
They swayed a bit with their schoolbag.
In it, they had a few notebooks, a pencil,
and a box with a few sandwiches.
The road now bent to the right slightly, up the mound.
At the house at right the village started.
The second house at right was the pub, with sign.
They knew that father Sjoerd had come there often, when he still was
merchant in Midlum.
And that he got to know mother Lieuwkje in the
Pietersbierum village square, she was widow then and had a shop there.
The sign of the pub read "PAS VER EN RUST WAT" (step far and
rest some).
The boys thought that to be an odd sentence.
They greeted the pub owners wife.
Some children walked ahead of them, also going to school.
When they were close, it turned out to be an old cart. Nothing special. Then Klaas says: "Ynze, we still have to bring Mems shoes to the cobbler". So they go back a little, into the street. The shoemaker is in the first house before the village square, next to the alley to the churchyard.
Back on the village square they see the smith just opened the large doors of the smithy, the furnace is already glowing. In front of the smithy is the horse box in which the smith fixes the horse to give it a new horseshoe. It is right across the house of the Hibmas, the house with the small windows at the north side of the square, where mother Lieuwkje had lived for a while. And to the left of the Hibma house is the house of Master Faber. But he must be in school already. Master Faber, since 1855 in Pietersbierum, had married Reintje Lourensz, the daughter of the former schoolmaster, Folkert Ulrichs Lourensz, who retired in 1855 and who died two years later (his wife died in 1861).
It has become silent in the square. The children are gone.
Master Faber waits patiently in front of the children.
He raises his baton.
No, not to beat, but to beat the rhythm of the first song.
The children sing a lot.
Master Faber finds music important.
Perhaps so much so that the teaching gets short thrift.
Master Faber teaches, outside school time, also some musical instruments.
Ynze learns to play the flute.
Klaas will go to learn play the violin.
But let us now leave the children and the Master to what they normally
have to do in school.
After some hours, the children can play outside a bit. Look, there comes Klaas, with a friend. They walk to the path to the south, to have a look outside the village. Nothing happens there except for a pair of herons lifting off from the side of a ditch. A few sea gulls fly over.
When Master Faber has finished for the day, after some more singing, Ynze and Klaas go onto the square. They look at the smithy on the east side. The smith has closed the doors already.
Now they have to go to the shop, on the west side of the square, across from the smith. Ynze hands over a note from Mem with some orders.
Finally they pick up Mems shoes at the cobbler. And now down the street, to the bottom of the mound and in the direction of Wynaldum.
Then Ynze says: "I look forward to tomorrow!" Tomorrow they will go to Harlingen. With Uncle Gerrit and Aunt Aafke of the farm on the Âlddyk. They will come and pick up Ynze and Klaas with the carriage, with their stepdaughter Minke, the daughter of father from his first marriage. Perhaps also Folkert, mothers son from her first marriage, will come along. "I want to look at the ships and the lock", says Klaas. "But I want to go to the Southern Harbour, that is where the marvellous big sailing ships are!"
And now they walk up the entry to the farm while Ynze waves to Mem with the repaired shoes.
Klaas Sjoerds de Boer, 2016.04.28 Pietersbierum1880-e.html