The Rural Voice, 1988-03, Page 19Ontario, a responsibility that often
takes him away from the farm one or
two days a week.
With pigs and crops, not to men-
tion a family, to care for, how does he
find time for his work with the organ-
ization? He pauses for a moment, and
says carefully, "I find it difficult. I
find it very difficult to juggle the farm
and this additional workload. And the
family," he adds with a chuckle. "My
father and son help out when they can,
but it's difficult, and I can understand
the burnout that exists in the leader-
ship of farm organizations. You can
only keep this up for so long."
Fran adds: "The days he's away
means that when he comes back it's
catch-up time; family time becomes
very pressed. If we wanted to take a
Saturday off, and he's been away
Thursday, then it means Friday and
Saturday are very busy days here.
Sometimes you'd like to tear the
phone right out of the wall."
Jongejan is quick to point out that
the other executive members of the
board "take a lot of weight off my
shoulders." However, the Jongejans
acknowledge that it has been a sacri-
fice for the whole family. Their
children wonder why they have to be
so active, why Dad has to go to so
many meetings.
The answer is rooted firmly in
Bill's Christian faith and his cultural
heritage. In 1951, when he was three,
his family emigrated from the Nether-
lands. He grandfather had lost his
farm during the agricultural depres-
sion of the 1920s. After the war,
Bill's father, AartJongejan, realized
that if he wanted a chance to farm, he
would have to leave Holland.
The family arrived in Canada in
1951, and Bill's father found a job at
the Ford plant in Oakville. The chil-
dren were strangers in a new country,
and Bill remembers the teasing and
ridicule they endured. "We used to be
called `Dutchies' at school. We
dressed somewhat differently, more
conservatively, and we didn't bring
the jello and the salmon sandwiches
for lunch — we had cold bacon sand-
wiches. When you're a child, you
really notice those differences."
Jongejan also recalls how hard his
parents worked. "My mom cleaned
houses in the neighbourhood, even
took the bus to Guelph to clean houses
for five dollars a day, and paid two
dollars for the bus. They literally
scraped 55,000 together to put a down
payment on a farm."
Their reward was 120 acres in
Goderich Township, Huron County.
Along with the farm, they acquired a
new name. The neighbours were
unable to get their tongues around the
soft Js, and firmly anglicized the name
to "Jonnigan."
His father was about to sell the farm,
but happily reconsidered when Bill
came home and announced that he
was ready to give it a try.
Rather than the typical father -son
arrangement, Bill and his father
formed a three-way partnership with
an acquaintance who had recently
emigrated and wanted to start farming.
Peter Van Driel brought a background
in carpentry and construction which
meshed well with Jongejan's skills in
"I didn't have good vibes
about being a farm kid,"
says CFFO president Bill
Jongejan, whose family
emigrated from Holland.
"We had three acres of
cucumbers every year!"
The farm left Jongejan with some
bittersweet memories of childhood.
Though the school was two miles
away, there was no bus. On stormy
winter days, his parents took for
granted that the children would walk.
"I remember coming home when I
was so cold, and those woollen mitts
would get wet .... I think that families
that emigrated from Holland really
didn't understand Canadian winters."
After graduation from high school,
he entered an electronics training
program at Northern Telecom. At the
time, he was eager to leave the farm.
"I didn't have good vibes about being
a farm kid." By way of explanation he
adds, "We had three acres of cucum-
bers every year!" However, six years
on the road for Northem Telecom put
farming in a new light. He missed the
close-knit community and family ties
he had grown up with.
In 1970 he had married Fran
Zondervan, and a few years later their
first child was born. When he came
home on weekends and found that his
young son didn't recognize him, he
decided that it was time for a change.
machinery repair and electrical work.
Aart Jongejan has since retired, but
Peter and Bill have maintained their
partnership. While each now has his
own farm and farrow to finish opera-
tion, they continue to work as partners
on all the cropping, jointly owning
equipment and sharing the land. To -
Peter Van Driel, the president of the
local CFFO chapter, has a farming
partnership with Jongjegan.
MARCH 1988 17