HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News-Record, 1986-04-23, Page 70Family of six boards crowded vessel...
• from page 14
Mrs. Van Baaren recalled the
boat was dirty and crowded
with over 750 people on board.
One floor of the boat was the
living quarters with the men
sleeping at one end of the boat
while the women and children
slept at the other end on three-
storey bunkbeds.
"We had no water to wash
ourselves or the kids. There
was lots of food, but everyone
was so seasick, they weren't
hungry anyway. It was just ter-
rible," said Mr. Van Baaren.
Upon landing in Quebec, the
French Canadians, who Mrs.
Van Baaren described as being
"ignorant" to the Dutch im-
migrants, put them into groups
according to their destination
displayed on a tag. The Van
Baaren's tag said "Six -
Forest." They then boarded a
train for Toronto and
transferred to another train to
meet their sponsor, Iver
Weaver, in Forest, Ontario.
After working on the farm for
13 months at a salary of $75 per
month, Mr. Van Baaren even-
tually moved his family to Sar-
nia where he worked on a con-
struction'crew, the Union Gas
Company and in a factory mak-
ing office furniture.
In 1956, they left Sarnia to
begin farming in Hullett
Township where they've lived
ever since.
The hardest aspect of coping
with Canadian life was the
language barrier, says Mrs.
Van Baaren, which resulted in
a feeling of isolation from other
people. The couple picked up
the language by listening to
their children who were atten-
ding school. She also attended
school in Sarnia for six months
to learn the language.
Page 97
"We still have a lot of pro-
blems with English. It's still
giving us problems," says Mrs.
Van I3aaren.
Canadian Climate
The Canadian climate was
not exactly what the Van
Baaren's had anticipated,
either. In fact, had they known
about the harsh Canadian
winters before immigrating,
it's doubtful they would have
come at all, says Mr. Van
Baaren.
"They (the Holland immigra-
tion officials) never told us
there was so much snow. They
told us there was wide open
spaces and lots of opportunity,
but they never told us about the
snow.
"If they had of told us about
the snow, most would never
have came to Canada," said
Mr. Van Baaren.
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