WELCOME!

WELCOME! This blog begins with a few photos from my trip there...and I will be adding information and links to it from time-to-time, including current news. I am an American but have Dutch ancestory which is very much remembered and celebrated in the Dutch-American community in which I grew up (west Michigan, Christian Reformed Church (CRC) & Reformed Church (RCA) et al). My late, great,  grandfather was a pastor and spoke Dutch & English from the pulpit and helped new Dutch immigrants settle in the area around Bellflower, California. When we were growing up, a common saying among us Dutch immigrants (most of us who didn't speak any Dutch) was "if you ain't Dutch, you ain't much"...ha ha...one of those ethnic things that keep people together for generation after generation. Albeit even in our Dutch-American community there were those who rejected the Dutch connection and others who glorified it to the maximum (wore the costumes during ethnic celebrations, had wooden shoes and/or windmill decorations around the home, etc). , and then those who were somewhere in the middle. I grew up mostly in Grand Rapids, but also spent significant time in the nearby city of Holland (Michigan) which is very much Dutch, and has an annual tulip parade which includes a Dutch festival at the Christian high school. There's also a historic wooden windmill in the little city of Holland which is on the coast of Lake Michigan. Stay tuned for more !