After World War II and the colonial war in Indonesia ended, life together could finally begin for my parents. They married in 1951. At that time, the man worked outside the home (and was thus the breadwinner) and the woman became a housewife. My parents were both forced to work early; my father at age 11 as a farmhand and my mother when she was 13 as a maid. Both had only elementary school as an education.
The common man
My parents, like so many at that time, belonged to that group of people called the ‘common man’. This description was used to indicate that your comeliness was not significant. So, for example, you were not of nobility, not a soldier, not a scientist. However, the ‘common man’ was usually someone who worked hard but also had many worries about daily life, about money. So were my parents.
Work
Before my father had to go to Indonesia as a conscripted soldier, he drove a horse and cart. During his (compulsory) military service, he learned to drive a truck which gave him the opportunity to earn the family income as a truck driver. At that time there was still great inequality and not everyone was rewarded according to merit. However, efforts were made to improve opportunities for all. My father started as a truck driver at a rendering plant. That meant he picked up offal from slaughterhouses. Since this was not exactly ‘clean’ work, it did get paid a little better.
The family
In those days there was still group identification. Everyone had the same goal: to get ahead both financially and mentally. My mother tried very hard to take good care of the family; she was frugal, clean and provided stability despite the war traumas. Traumas that were barely addressed in the Netherlands.
But only hard work for a barely increasing income, eventually offered little perspective reason why both my parents started evening studies. How and what? I’ll write about that in a next blog.
