Reminiscences of the Grandchildren of Jan and Agnes

By John Robert Kroezen son of John

I have very little memory of my Grandparents. I have no recollection of them before Morwell. I can remember the family excitement as we looked forward to a visit to Morwell, which was mainly by car but I can remember travelling by train on one occasion. My recollections of my Grandfather were of a very strict man for whom children were meant to be seen but not heard. I remember that he had a very large and productive vegetable garden in his backyard and some wonderful canaries.

My memories of my Grandmother are of a very kind lady with a soft round face.

By John MacTavish son of Agnes.

When I was 12 years old I went to Morwell to stay with Auntie Mary and Uncle Keith Locock on my school holidays. This was the first time I went on a train by myself all the way to Morwell.

After a week at Auntie Mary’s, Grand Dad came to take me to the train station with Auntie Mary. He gave me a box with a live chicken in it and told me to be very careful taking it home to my Mum as the chicken had laid an egg.

Well, I sat on that train for hours holding the box so tight so that it didn’t move and break the egg.

When I got home, I was so excited, I ran into my mother (Agnes Kroezen) and shouted with excitement that Grand dad and given me a real live chicken to bring home and it had laid an egg.

When Mum opened the box, it was true, it was a real life chicken, but no sign of an egg, only a potato in the box.

Grand dad always reminded me about incident every time I saw him; I can still hear him laughing about it.

My memory of my Grandparents – Barbara Stone (daughter of Gertrude Kroezen)

Granny was a very kind loving person. One thing I always remember she had beautiful thick white hair I had ever seen, so white and always so neat. She always wore a hand knitted jumper under her cardigan and an apron and when she walked or stood still, she would have her hand on her hip. She was a great cook and always had a big pot of rolled oates on the stove when we arrived at Morwell from Springvale.

Granny was a very, very house-proud person and if you moved or touched any thing in her home she would give you a look that you would never forget. She loved to listen to her Scottish music and sitting in the lounge room and watch people walk by the house checking them out. Before leaving her home on a visit she would line you up in a row and give you a lollie from her special jar. If you were good you would get one, many a time I missed out on a lollie because I was cheeky or didn’t eat all my vegetables.

Pa was a funny guy, when sitting at the dinner table he would wait until it was very quite and no one was talking he would bang his hand on the table that hard you would jump out of your seats. It frightened the daylight out of you. Then he would laugh his head off. If you weren’t watching him, he would come and give you a Dry Shave (that is whiskey on his face before he shaved) if would hurt like hell, if you tried to stop him, he loved catching you. The bigger the struggle you put up the more he liked it.

Pa was a great gardener and grew the biggest and best vegetables in Morwell and when it rained you could go outside and you would not find any overflow of water in his garden he dug all these dredges around his veggie garden and drained the water off. This was a real achievement, seeing his vegetable garden was laid out on very serve slop of ground. He won many awards in Morwell for his garden. I can still see him with his cap, waist coat on, always wore these outside attending to his beloved canaries which he still breed until his passing.

Granny and Pa loved their animals so much, I can remember the lounge suit being raised up on small blocks so that their cat could get under the couch/chairs without haven’t to struggle.

We often spent weekends at Granny and Pa’s and Pa wore wooden glogs which he would wear day in day. This particular morning I heard Granny tell Pa to be quiet when he got up in the morning as we were still in bed, he said he would. But then all hell broke loss; he put on his glogs and tip toe down the passage. Well the noise from those gloggs were unbelievable. Gloggs on lineo make a hell of a noise. He woke the whole house up. I still have those gloggs to this day, they hold many memories of Pa, I can still hear them been worn down the passage of his home.

I was very lucky to have such great grandparents, they were always kind and gentle and made you feel very special very time you saw them. If I was told we were going to visit them, I could not wait to get there as I knew I was going to have a good day with them.