More homely houses

Houses damaged by the 1953 flood

Last week I started this series about all the houses I ever lived in. It started with the house where I was born in 1944. The last one shown then, in fact it was number 6, brought us to 1953. That was the year large parts of southwest Netherlands were flooded. As a consequence thereof close to 2,000 people died during the night of February 1, 1953. During the morning of that very same day my mother told me that I would be living with a family in a place called Huizen. It is situated on the borders of the IJsselmeer in the middle of the country.

133 Nieuw Bussumerweg, Huizen

I lived there for about a year from August 1953 to September 1954. It was a fairly large house but so was the G. family living there. It consisted of 4 boys, 3 girls and their parents of course. I remember I had a great time there but after a year my stay came to an end.

46 Mimosastraat, Den Haag

We are still talking about the period less than ten years after WW2. The housing situation in Holland was such that it was quite common for two families to share a single house. And for us this situation was no different. So my mother obtained a floor in a house owned by acquaintances, Mr. and Mrs. Van W-D. van L. The house was situated in the part of The Hague called Bohemen. It was just a ten minute bike ride away from coastal Kijkduin where my father and grandparents lived before the war. The Mimosastraat house was our residence between September 1954 and early 1958. It is the house in the middle with the two lamps switched on. We lived on the second floor.

10 Tramstraat, Den Haag-Loosduinen

And then finally, 13 years after the war, my mother managed to get a house all to herself and to her two sons. Again this house was very close to Kijkduin and the North Sea beach. It was situated in the former village of Loosduinen, now part of The Hague. We lived in the house with the white curtains on the second floor from early 1958 until September 1963.
For me this was a very happy move because here I met the girl who is still my wife today. That memorable event took place during the first half of 1959.

124 Pisuissestraat, Den Haag-Loosduinen

In 1963 new apartments were built just around the corner from where we lived. This opportunity was too good to be true, a new house with an acceptable rent! So we moved again. Our house is in the block to the very left and just out of sight. I lived there until the day I married on October 29, 1965. Until that same date my future bride lived in the block that is pictured so prominently here. Her parents lived on the first floor to the very right. Together we moved to the neighboring city of Rijswijk.

To be continued

Photo credits
'Damaged houses' taken from Wikipedia
'Pisuissestraat' has been scanned from a picture postcard I have
The color pictures have been taken by myself on April 11, 2012, Jan. 18, 2012 and Feb. 22, 2007 resp.