Sense's Reminiscences

It was an evening performance sometime around the year 1950. The church - the Gereformeerde Kerk on the Venne in Winschoten - which had a capacity of something like 1500 to 2000, was beginning to partially fill up. "Ol' Grezel" - a distinguished, well-to-do, gentleman with the name Grezel - sat in his customary seat in his pew. Pa and Moe (our parents) and other family members and friends arrived. What was going on?

The "Gereformeerde Kerk" on the Venne, Winschoten, the Netherlands, around 1940. Herman often played the big pipe organ in this church. To the left is the parsonage. In the middle can be seen " 't Olle Hok," a rickety piece of architecture from the past. This is where Sense , his siblings and untold many other young people received weekly instruction in the Heidelberg Catechism. The building no longer exists.

Well, that evening brother Herman accomplished what he had never tried before. He had composed an oratorio (for the life of me I can't remember what is was about, but it was "christelijk" - i.e. it had a Christian basis) for pipe organ, a recorder ensemble, a children's choir, as well as a number of soloists. The soprano was Nellie van Zanten. Of her Herman would say: "Zo'n mooi wichtje, Sense, 'k wor d'r hoast roar van" (such a beauty, Sense, it makes me almost sick). Yes, she was something else! I would sing the bass/bariton solos. Several people, whose names escape me, would play the "blockfloten" (recorders) and there was a choir. And - just like in Bach's "Mattheus Passion" - Herman's oratorio had an evangelist, a person who would sing the scripture passages.

The evangelist was Herman's friend and class-mate at the Groninger Christian Teachers College. His name was Pier Veldman (I hope that's correct) and he had one of those great tenor voices, so fitting for an evangelist. He was not a Winschoter, but came from "'t Hoogelaand" (i.e. the Groninger Highlands, the northern part of the province).

We had rehearsed, and rehearsed, and rehearsed.. It was decided that the evangelist would stand on the massive pulpit, the children's choir in front of the pulpit, the "blockfloten" in the loft beside the huge pipe organ. Nellie and I also sang from the lofty heights close to the keyboard, where Herman played and from where he directed the whole ensemble.

As far as I can remember, we sang and played our hearts out. The concert came off rather well and the audience appreciated it. It had been a God-glorifying event as well as a great experience for my talented brother, too!

I left for Canada in 1953 and Herman came that same year, too, to be with his beloved Stiny. Our mother wrote us that "ol' Grezel" had stopped her in church one day and said: "Mevrouw de Jong, wat is 't hier 'n dooie bourel, nou dat joen jongens vot bennen!" (Mrs. de Jong, it's become such a bore here now that your boys have left!)