Dike Construction 101 at Lake Charlevoix

Young Van Dykes and TerMaats get a lesson in dike contruction from Robert at Lake Charlevoix in 1964. Some Little Hathaways also present. Click here to browse the set or click here for a slideshow.

Four Seasons

These are all mystery photos. Presumably they feature Dutch immigrants, perhaps some of them are TerMaat-Dykstra cousins and the locations are either in Central Wisconsin or they were mailed to relatives there by friends and family elsewhere.

The fade-to-white of this photograph probably makes it seem even chillier!

Spring is for baseball. I like their "uniforms."

Barefeet and wildflowers says summer to me.

Harvest time. Remember you can click on the pictures to see an enlarged version.

Dykstra Children

Here are the little Dykstras, Winnie, Ralph, Bertha and John probably around 1905-6.

Back to the Old Country

I understand that Great Grandpa Dykstra (far right) went back to the Netherlands once and I assume this photo was taken shipboard.

Immigration Day

My great grandparents Kornelis Jan and Grietje Dijkstra.

These photos were taken in Gronigen, perhaps for their passports? They departed for New York on April 1, 1899 from Rotterdam and arrived on April 19. Maybe the ship looked like this. And check out these photos of life on board ship.

Grandma Grietje was not just looking after 4 year old Betje and 2 year old Jan but was pregnant with Ralph, born that August. I think about Joan and Pete herding three little ones on a plane to Florida. Imagine a two week boat trip followed by a train trip to Chicago!

Sheboygan 1962

More Sheboygan pictures: Click here to browse or click here to view a slideshow.

(I'm not sure that some of the '62 photos aren't really mislabelled '63 and vice versa but I'm too lazy to sort it out.)

We must have made a stop to visit Quists coming or going from Sheboygan.

Sheboygan 1963

I've put together a set of slides from a 1963 trip to Sheboygan. Click here to browse or click here to view as a slideshow.

If it's Shebogyan, you can be sure there will be a brat fry. Uncle Joe does the honors.

My favorite picture of Uncle Con and cousin Vernon.

Chris with cousins Vernon and Richard.

Cousin Ann and I in new dresses (probably given to us by Aunt Hattie?)

London Bridges

With Granpa TerMaat at the drawbridge where he worked.

With Grandma TerMaat at Long Lake picnic.

Chris and Richard fishing. Those look like bamboo poles.

Amazing Grace

It's Amazing Grace Day and I've dipped into AK's slides for these mid-fifties pictures.



Fritz as a pup. Now this picture was taken in '59, sometime prior to May 1. I detect the shape of good things to come!


Of course this day has its own theme song and I've been exploring a service that allows you to add music to a page choosing from a database of artists trying to promote their music and I stumbled on this version of Amazing Grace,

Now it happens that Deborah Liv Johnson was a year or two ahead of me at St. Olaf and played regularly at the campus coffeehouse. I hadn't thought of her in years. Well, its an appropriate addition to all the other nostaligia on this blog, for me anyway. Hope you enjoy!

Family Portrait

Are we back in Muskegon again? This one takes us back, hmm, nearly 75 years, well maybe 74... I don't think I have anything on hand that shows a younger Gracie.

Dress up!

Continuing with our Valentine's theme-- Little Connie ties the knot! Details- such as the brides name- of these nuptials remain murky, but the groom seems game considering this probably wasn't his idea.




Not sure what Jess and I were up to with these costumes, but AK and Angelyn seem game to play along.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Chris and his first sweetheart, Stephanie. The slide is a reproduction so difficult to date, but probably from around 1958.

Muskegon 1963 and 1962 - Slideshows

Here are a few more pictures from Muskegon 1963 and you can click here to browse the whole batch or view as a slideshow.

In addition you can click here to browse Muskegon 1962 pictures or view as a slideshow. I shared some of these in the pre-blog days. You will note a convergence of Stevens and TerMaat cousins in this set, as this vacation swing included stops in Grand Rapids to see Quists as well as Sheboygan and it appears Grandma and Grandpa TerMaat were along for this visit. I can be seen on a bench with Rebecca and Jessica, then on the same bench with Grandma and Grampa and one of the Quist boys.

The Farm

I've been familiar with this photo of great uncle Ralph Dykstra with Grandma and Grandpa TerMaat on the farm in central Wisconsin for a long time, in fact a copy is sitting on a bookshelf in my living room, but I noticed that the photo below contains the same three tiny figures... with cows and horses! (If you squint, you'll notice the horses are visible in the far left background of the first picture as well). I'm going to assume that these photos were taken prior to 1916, else they would have included little Hattie. Remember you can click on the photo to see a larger version.

And here is Grandpa TerMaat with the two horses. I find myself wondering what their names were...

Peter and Grandma TerMaat

This snap is from 1968. Peter's doing a good job of looking like a Dykstra in this one!

Pete's Hockey Career

I learned on my trip back east that Morgan is learning to skate. I'm doubtful that I will uncover any pix of Pete in action, but we do have this evidence of Pete at the pinnacle of his hockey career, attending a hockey banquet and receiving a certificate for being on the "mite" team. He really milked this one for all it was worth as he got this picture both in the local newspaper and in the regional church newsletter.

Hattie and Kitten

I spent a good deal of my time back east scanning old family photos which will appear here in due time. This picture of Hattie with kitten is my favorite so far. Hattie was born in 1916, so that gives you some idea of the age of the photo. Most of the photos in the family collection of this vintage are either formal studio portraits or families posed in front of their new barns and such (we'll get to those later), so these are really the first candids, the first photos taken by a family member or friend experimenting with a new toy and not by a professional. Judging by the format (and rate of deterioration) the murky photo of Grandma and Grandpa TerMaat was taken at the same time. Very Walker Evans, no?

This little exercise in photographic excavation is reminding me of a novel I read recently (twice, in fact), W.G. Sebald's Austerlitz. The book concerns a man trying to unearth the fragments of an identity lost when he became a part of the Kindertransport, often using fuzzy images which are reproduced in the book. Not a book for everyone (Sebald's one of those European writers who disdains paragraphs), but for you more literary types, I recommend it.