Huibert den Hartog

In the spring of 1943 at the age of 39 Huibert was told to go to Germany, to work for the war machine. The Germans did not care if he was married with three children or not, he had to go or else! When he came back, he went back to work as a cigar maker at his cousin's cigar factory, where he was working before the was of 1940-45. It was a nerve wracking job, and for little pay. He had to get away from there. He left and worked for a while at a battery factory. That did not work out too well, and he quit. Than he got a job at the big ship building factory in Rotterdam, a factory by the name of Rotterdam Dry-Dock. He had a job as a material handler, it was not the greatest job, but he seemed to like it, and made a lot more money, than he used to. He worked there until July 1958.

In 1958 when Huibert's sister Cornelia and her husband Klaas come over for a visit from Canada, there was talk about how much better it was in Canada. Huibert and Cornelia wanted to do right for their family and give them a better chance, than they could give them in Holland. It was decided that they would go to Canada as long as everyone agreed, otherwise the deal was off. Everyone did agree and they sailed to Canada on the ship Groote Beer.

The Groote Beer took them across the ocean. They all thought at that time that they would never see their family in Holland again. They all did eventually. They all got sea sick, some worse then others. After 10 days the arrived in Montreal, Quebec with 13 big suitcases.

When they sailed out of the port of Rotterdam, they passed by the factory where Huibert worked. The ship "Rotterdam" was being built then, and on the back of the ship it was black from all the people yelling and waving their last good bye's. Huibert must have been well liked by his colleagues.

They arrived on the 23rd of July in Quebec, then back on the boat to Montreal. From Montreal they had to take a train to Toronto change trains and go on to London. The Doek family was waiting there for them to take them to Watford where they had their farm.

They stayed with the Doek's for 1 day until they were able to rent the farmhouse next door (later it burnt down). Their crate with furniture hadn't arrived yet, so they only had a table and chairs. They lived in the country with no car, so had to rely on the Doek's to go to the store in Watford.

The first car they purchased was a 1953 Pontiac, it was a nice car but a lemon. Uncle Gijsbert was the only one with a license. Most of the children had jobs in Strathroy and the car would stall every 2 miles or so. Gijs got angry and was going to walk home. But Piet started the car again and proceeded to drive off. Gijs came running back, and they made it to work. They did not keep that car very long. Next they bought a 1955 Chevrolet which was much better.

In April of 1959 they purchased a home in Strathroy on 185 Center St. East. It was the first time they had a bathroom in the house with hot and cold running water and 3 bedrooms.