Quirky Neighbors and Charming Friends

Spoiler Alert:  I seem to remember all these people through my recipe box.  Beware!

Think what a spark from the chimney would do to this roof.

Our neighborhood in Waterloo was a mix of Belgian natives and Expats.  I'm reporting to you on the most salient memories of my neighbors.  You probably could come up with an interesting or quirky fact about your neighbors.

Next door was a Belgian family with teenage boys and a large extended family. They were busy bees with relatives coming and going.  Their cozy house resembled an English cottage with its thatched roof.  Apparently the insurance on such an abode is no laughing matter. The wife and I had coffee a couple of times but our relationship boiled down to waving and smiles.

Down the street and around the corner lived Marie-Juliette’s friend Angela whose mother always cleaned the house in the nude in order to cut down on laundry.  Speaking of nudity, there was a Canadian couple down the way who once gave a rip-roaring party.  I learned that the skinny husband liked a cold bedroom with all the windows open.  In defense his rotund wife went to bed wearing a flannel night gown, bed socks and a wool cap. Picture that?

A cute little poltergeist.

Next door to Angela was another American family.  They had recently moved from England where they had lived in a haunted house.  Apparently when they arrived in Belgium and unpacked, they discovered that their British poltergeists had snuck into one of the boxes and continued to wreak havoc in their new abode.  Mary Jo, the lovely, soft-spoken Texan, told me she often found her kitchen in disarray.  So did I…but it wasn’t poltergeists.  I still have Mary Jo’s delicious brownie recipe.

Next door lived Christina, her husband and little boy Andreas.  They were Swedish and decorated their house with bright red hearts at Christmas time.  Christina made a delicious almond cake that we enjoyed with coffee.

Then there was Margaret and Phil and their two children, Richard and Karen.  Margaret and I became good friends because Richard was at the local francophone school with Christopher.  We walked the children back and forth to school each day.

Back row: Marie-Juliette, Me, Phil, Margaret, Margaret's sister and husband.  Front row: Charles, Richard and Karen.

Margaret was a wonderful, “warm” person in more ways than one.  She was Welsh and grew up in a home without central heating.  She kept their house at about 55° F and wore a short-sleeved cotton blouse.  She was oblivious to the cold. Her husband Phil was often out-of-town and Vincent was never there, so we often had dinner together with all the children.  Margaret was quite the cook, I still have her recipes for Raspberry Cheesecake, Barbecued Lamb Riblets and Whole Wheat Bread to name a few.  I’m still in touch with Margaret at Christmas time.  The family moved to Germany and are active in a German Evangelical  ministry.

Lamb Riblets

For some reason, I joined a Belgian choral group.  I'm not much of a singer but I enjoyed the comraderie.  The oldest member of the choristers was an octogenarian who lived down the street.  Monsieur offered to drive me to practice each week and his wife would babysit the children.  This turned out to be a perfect solution.  Madame was also in her eighties.  With a stout figure, bright blue eyes and white hair in an untidy bun, she was a fairytale grandmother personified.  Madame was unable to climb the stairs but that wasn’t a problem.  The children loved her so much that they put themselves to bed without a whimper.  When I came home, the house would be dark except for one lamp in the living room illuminating Madame bent over her knitting.

A Chocolatier

One week they arrived with a box of chocolates.  What a treat!  It was explained to me that you couldn’t keep chocolates more than a week or two and the big box was too much for the two of them. Belgian chocolates are not made with preservatives nor fortified with paraffin to inhibit melting.  That’s probably why they’re so good!

I'm including the recipes for Christina's cake and Margaret's Riblets.  You probably already have a good recipe for brownies or a convenient box of Ghirardelli's.

Christina’s Almond Cake

This is a very easy recipe!

Heat oven to 350°.  Butter an 8” round springform pan.  Sprinkle lightly with breadcrumbs.

Cake:

7 Tablespoons butter

3 Eggs

1 cup sugar

1 cup flour

Melt butter.  Whip egg with sugar until light.  Add flour.  Add lukewarm butter.  Pour into prepared pan.  Bake 30-35 minutes.  Meanwhile prepare topping.

Topping

3 1/2 Tablespoons butter

1/3 cup sugar

1 Tablespoon flour

1 Tablespoon milk

1/2 cup almond slices.

Melt butter, add sugar, flour and milk.  Mix well.  Add almond slices.

Remove cake from oven after 30 minutes.  Spread topping on cake.  Put cake back in oven for another 5 minutes or so until light brown.  Remove cake and cool.

Barbecued Lamb Riblets

Don’t confuse “riblets" with Rack of Lamb.  Riblets are the spareribs that come from the breast of the lamb.  They are much less meaty.  The sauce might be good with pork spareribs.  

Simmer 4 pounds of riblets in boiling water and vinegar to cover. (2 Tbsp vinegar per quart)

Cool and trim fat.

Place in roasting pan

Blend sauce ingredients over low heat.

Brush sauce over riblets.

Bake at 400° for 30-40 minutes.

Sauce:

6 Tbsp. soy sauce

3 Tbsp. honey

3 Tbsp. plum jam

3 Tbsp. white vinegar

3  Tsp. Worcestershire sauce

3  Tsp. dry mustard

6  Tbsp. ketchup

Juice of 1/2 a lemon

Castles, Outings and Precious Time

Groot Bijgaardin Castle, Vlaams-Brabant, Belgium

An American friend once wrote me that when the family moved back to the States after an extended stay in Europe, the children would ask on Saturday mornings, “What castle are we going to visit today?”   Unfortunately they were more likely to be going to soccer practice followed by the mall.

Bouillon - Medieval Castle in Bouillon, Luxembourg, Belgium.  Think how much fun it would be for kids to climb around this castle.

In fact there are hundreds of castles, historical monuments and museums to visit in Belgium. And of course, France, Germany and The Netherlands are just a hop, skip and jump away.  Many expat families used the weekends to travel afar or to visit local historical sites.

One chilly Sunday we went into Brussels to the Grande Place to view the Marché aux Oiseaux (the Bird Market).  The children were fascinated by all the exotic birds and we ended up buying a bright, yellow canary.

Little Christopher, Kristin, me, Charles and Marie-Juliette

Marie-Juliette has our new, feathered friend in the white box.

We stopped for les gaufres (Belgian waffles) and hot chocolate.

Absolument Délicieuses 

Then we proceeded to view the Mannekin Pis.  This famous statue of a chubby, little boy peeing in a fountain is a well-known tourist attraction.  The bronze statue was installed in 1618.  The little fellow has a prodigious wardrobe of costumes presented to him from countries all around the world.

Famous Mannekin Pis

We enjoyed picnics and outings to various sites.

Cute kids with big smiles.

One Saturday we were invited to join a local, Belgian community group of parents and kids for a day of games.  We spent the afternoon playing a version of Capture the Flag which included children and adults.  Running, hiding and sneaking around trees; it was superbly exciting.

Marie-Juliette and Kristin lined up for a ball game.

Charles and Chris playing King of the Log.

What of these memories; your memories and mine?

Tempus fugit: Time flies.  But I prefer the actual quote: fugit inreparabile tempus : “it escapes, irretrievable time”.  We cannot capture and hold the swiftly moving drama of our lives. Our souls can momentarily grasp a misty, fluid memory and feel the warmth of that moment. Then it escapes, like a teasing, woodland nymph and we fall back to the hard reality of the day.

Schools, Diversity and Bananes Flambées

The original home of the International School of Brussels.  These days they have a new, modern building.

That fall Marie-Juliette and Charles were enrolled in the International School of Brussels (ISB).  It was an English language school with everyday classes in French. In the first few weeks the children were given a language test and were put in an “English for Foreigners” class.  At first, they resented this because they were AMERICANS.  While we lived in Verona, I spoke to the children in English but as the years passed we began to use more and more Italian with a good smattering of French.   It was explained to me that the children’s English was weak in “school vocabulary.”  I’d been telling them to brush their teeth and eat their spinach but we hadn’t discussed erupting volcanos, multiplication tables or through vs. though.  

Charles particularly had problems.  He had just learned to decipher reading and writing in Italian and now he had to transfer those skills to English.  He found it so stressful that he began to write a mirror image of his name.  Eventually, this propensity righted itself.

ISB was truly international.  There were a large number of American kids but also children from all over the world.  I felt this diversity provided a healthy environment for the children.  There was no dress code, no “in” hair style, no popular brand of sneakers.  For lunch kids brought onigiri (Japanese rice balls), or couscous and tagine, or strips of meat with sweet-potato fritters or peanut butter and jelly.  Along with these outward signs of diversity, there were a myriad of different ways of thinking, acting and reacting. 

We think we’re diversified here in the States but the truth is we live in a homogeneous society.  Target, Walmart, advertising and TV create a uniform way of dressing and living. I suppose we could say that these days, the Internet is creating a homogeneous global society?

Ecole communale de Mont-St-Jean - Waterloo

Meanwhile Kristin(11) and Christopher(5) were enrolled in the francophone local school (Ecole Communale de Mont-St-Jean).  This was a scary experience for Kristin but she was a real little trouper.  Before arriving in Belgium she had never studied French so imagine how challenging those first weeks were. I particularly remember her math notebook.  The teacher stressed neatness above all else; straight columns of numbers and the work written in ink.  No erasing and going back. 

Christopher was in kindergarten.  He understood French and was reasonably fluent, but he had a period of adjustment as well.  I remember that in kindergarten, the children came home for lunch.  After a sandwich or soup, Chris always wanted me to make him bananes flambées.  I would sauté the bananas, sprinkle with sugar, add a few spoonfuls of rum, strike a match and light it up.  I felt a little guilty about this ritual. I don't know whether he loved the syupy bananas or the flames.  Hopefully, he didn’t go back and tell his teacher I was serving him rum for lunch!

Waterloo, Belgium and the Language Divide

La Grande Place - Brussels, Belgium

In my last few posts I described my life in Milan.  In earlier posts I shared stories about living in Verona in the 1970s.  If you remember, we had to make a quick exit from Verona because of the danger of kidnappings or other reprisals from workers at the Barzetti plant because Beatrice Foods had laid off some 350 workers.

In early August, Vincent and I traveled to Belgium to look for a house or apartment.   The European headquarters of Beatrice Foods was located in Brussels.  Marie-Juliette and my niece, Kristin, aged 11 accompanied us.  Kristin had come to Europe to spend a year with us and attend a Francophone school. The boys stayed in France with my mother-in-law while we house-hunted.

Waterloo and The Lion's Mound

We looked at many houses during the day and eventually chose a rental in Waterloo, the scene of Napoleon’s demise.  A man-made hill, The Lion’s Mound, commemorates  this historical event.  “The lion is the heraldic beast on the personal coat of arms of the monarch of the Netherlands and symbolizes courage.” (Wikipedia)  The hill is made up of earth collected from all over the famous battlefield.  For a small fee one can climb up the hill and study the scene of the battle.

Our house was not far from the Lion’s Mound in a development of newish homes.  A mixture of Belgians and expats made up the neighborhood.  I absolutely loved that house.  It had lots of windows and was light and cheerful inside.  Along the back a series of French windows opened on to a yard with a cornfield beyond.  The spires of a church were visible on the far side of the rolling fields.  We had lived in apartments for years and I loved the wide open spaces and the fact the children could go out and play on their own. 

Because Belgium is on the  English Channel, weather was an ever-changing event.  Over the cornfield I could watch the clouds careening through the sky: cloudy, rainy, sunshiney and cloudy again; all that weather packed into a half hour.  

Belgium is a bi-lingual country.  Currently, 40% of the population speaks French.  They live primarily near the southern border with France.  58% of the people speak Dutch (Flemish) and are found in the northern regions bordering The Netherlands. A small number of people speak German.  Brussels is a mishmash.  But the collar communities vary.  For example the check-out girls at my grocery store were francophone but the tellers at my bank were flemish-speaking. When we moved there in 1977, a radical far right-wing Flemish faction was pushing for separation and independence. 

Yellow - Dutch,  Red - French, Blue - German,  Orange - Brussels

That evening after finding our new abode we were invited for dinner to a Belgian colleague’s home.  After dinner, the two girls 9 and 11 went out to play on the swing in the back garden. In Belgium, the sun sets very late in the summer.  They were having a good time running around and giggling.  We were inside having coffee, when there came a loud knock and rough voices.  Our hostess hastened to the door.  In came a swat-team of paramilitary policeman with machine guns and bullet- proof vests.  They swarmed through the house looking for Flemish terrorists.  Apparently a neighbor had been disturbed by the girls and had called the police.  Wow!  Welcome to Belgium.