HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1981-05-20, Page 68Page 40
(Shelley McPhee photo),
Dutch-
Can�dians
honor the
great windmills
By Shelley McPhee
It blows in from the Atlantic, across the flat plains, the
rivers and canals. It brings heavy clouds and rain from the
west, summer, warmth and Europe's winter cold from the
east and it keeps the windmills churning.
Although internationally known as a symbol. of Holland,
there are few working windmills left in the country today.
Modern technology has offered more progressive ways to
provide power and to keep the threatening flood levels under
control. Still the beautiful structures dot Holland's coun-
tryside, lazily whirling in the breezes, reflecting the people's
love for them.
That love has travelled across more than 3,000 miles of
ocean and land, through long years of hardship and hunger,
and is still illustrated on many gardens and lawns in the
Clinton area,
Dutch people are said to have a particular fondess for
collecting kniek knacks and many of the men are excellent
carpenters, so creating scaled-down models of windmills
seems to provide a natural hobby and lasting remembrance
of the homeland for Dutch -Canadians here.
Judging- from the lawn.. decorations;.. the needlework
. creations and the photographs at their Orange Street home in
Clinton, Mr. and Mrs. Bill Bottema do have a special love for
-the unique wind machines.
"I lovemaking windmills and I have all the time in the
world to do this," Mr. Bottema, a retired baker and former
employee at the Sherlock -Manning Piano Facto: y in Clinton,
explanted.
"My wife's full of windmills too," he laughed, showing his
spouse's carefully stitched creations of Holland's grain and
water mills. '
Born in raised and Holland, and immigrating to Canada in
1952, the Bottemas proudly consider themselves Canadians
first, and Dutch natives second, but still they maintain a
lasting loyalty and devotion to their homeland through the
mills Mr. Bottema builds.
Mr. Bottema constructs mills from ones he remembers
seeing in Holland. He uses few prepared blueprints and
• according to Mrs. Bottema,"He's got some architectural
blood in him." ,
"I was always a baker by trade, but I've always liked
carpentry better. My mother's family were carpenters," he
added.
Mr. Bottema has build a grext selection of the machines
that work by the wind turning vanes, rotating from.a central
shaft. Some of his mills standless than a 24 inches high, and
others tower at six feet.
"The first one is always the most difficult to make, but as I
go along I write down all the measurements for other ones,"
he explained.
It takes more than just a few pieces of wood and a Splash of
'paint to make a mill like the one that has stood on the Bot-
tema property for the past 15 years.
When the wind is down, the sails can still rotate under the
power of an old washing machine motor, and gears inside lets
the mill and its sails move in a number of directions.
It took About three weeks to buildthe mill. and Mr_ .Bot-
tema worked on it eontinously in his workshop.
Variety is thespice of life even in windmill building, and
Mr. Bottema has also used his baking skills in the con-
struction of mills, Creating detailed models from dough and
sugar.
Taking close to a .year to create, Mr. Bottema has also
made a marvellous miniature town, reminiscent of Holland,
with trees and buildings, a tiny mill, a winding stream, a man
sawing wood and another pumping water. In another model a
little boat glides its way through a circular canal of water
and a lift bridge lets the vessel pass along its route through a
small village.
Through windmills and model settings, through
photographs and carefully stitched wall hangings, Holland
and its special attractions will always remain close to the
Bottemas.