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Here I would love to share with you our travels and adventures as international mushroom consultants. MEMOIRS about husband Pieter Vedder, who was a SCIENTIFIC PIONEER in Mushroom Cultivation Education. His practical handbook is in 9 languages and is called the MUSHROOM BIBLE: https://mariettesbacktobasics.blogspot.com/2020/08/modern-mushroom-growing-2020-harvesting.html
Showing posts with label Declaration of Independence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Declaration of Independence. Show all posts

Saturday, July 2, 2022

Husband Pieter's 1994, 4th of July Speech

 About time for sharing this special speech by husband Pieter, delivered on the 4th of July at the Dublin stadion before fireworks.
If watching video click on CC Closed Caption!
Pieter has written several speeches in his life time and he spoke at The International Society for Mushroom Science (ISMS) Congress numerous times. 
Always in a foreign language though...
~
The 4th of July 1994

Thanks for the kind introduction; now you know almost all about the two of us. 
For the introduction of a speaker a typical question always is, what is exactly your title?
In a certain booklet we found that there is actually no prouder title than to be an American Citizen. 
Although the weather is not cooperating too well, today we have something really important to celebrate as you all know we celebrate Uncle Sam's 218th Birthday, the birth of this great nation.
In the introduction, you have heard that we are new Americans, although we came to this country already in 1983.
My wife's love–affair with the United States started in April of 1983; her very first visit to the New World.
Some Campbell Soup people taught her at that time some history by visiting Rockford (Grand Rapids), Michigan, where President Ford grew up. They thought maybe she was homesick and thus they brought her to Holland in Michigan. 
She was not homesick but just absorbing all she could about this fascinating New World. 
One of the highlights was the visit to Chestnut Street in Philadelphia; to the Independence Hall—the home of the Liberty Bell, a shrine of Patriotism for all Americans.
There we learned more about Life with a capital 'L' and also about Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. 
The next day we flew to Dublin, Georgia and there we fell deeper and deeper in love with the New World. 
So, in August of 1983, we came to live here.
This was Our Pursuit of Happiness.
Last year we got our American Citizenship and since then we can say: we are Dutch by birth and Americans by choice, and we are proud of both. 
There are a couple of reasons for that pride. Maybe you didn't know, but the Dutch, of any nation, have the longest uninterrupted friendly relationship with the U.S. and for sure we like to keep it that way.
It was on November 16 in 1776, that the Fort on the Dutch Island of St. Eustatius in the Caribbean returned the salute from the American warship Andrea Dorea, as it entered the harbor. 
 This was the first salute by a foreign power to the flag of the United States of America. 
As the history books say: this was a very courageous action by the Dutch, and it enhanced the diplomatic credibility of the United States of America. 
It also gave a strong boost to the moral of the revolutionary troops.
So, today it is 218 years ago that the U.S. has been founded.
In the Dutch tradition, Birthdays always are important events, often celebrated with an all–day open house, birthday gifts etc.
A good question, not only for us but for all immigrants could be: 'Why did you come to the U.S.?
What did we expect to find here what we eventually didn't have in the country where we lived before? 
Although a lot of things have changed since then, the answer will be more or less identical to what brought the founding fathers to this of the world over 200 years ago.
The most important reason for them was the freedom and the space to live in the broadest sense.
The freedom to believe in God in different ways; the freedom to have your own opinion, the opportunity to develop yourself up to the limits etc. 
On this Birthday we should never forget that the Founding Fathers, and after them numerous immigrants, have for sure not chosen the easiest way. They didn't find a paradise; they just found a place with almost unlimited opportunities, but they had to be explored. 
Very important also is that their Freedom was based on a STRONG MORAL AND PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY.
That, in combination with hard work, made this country into what it is today; in our opinion the best country to live in.
We have a number of good reasons to make this statement.
As you perhaps know, or picked up from the introduction, for our job we traveled and still do, all over the world and lived in several countries.
We lived in Dublin, Georgia from 1983 through 1988 and after that in Italy and Indonesia.
We more and more discovered what a great country the U.S. is to live in; we got homesick and looked for every opportunity to return.
With O'Henry we can say, "You can't appreciate home 'till yu've left it... or old glory 'till you see it hanging on a broomstick on the shanty of a consul in a foreign town."
We think Americans in general don't realize how blessed they are, too many things we just take for granted. 
Especially the younger generation should realize that it hasn't been always this good, just travel the world and find out how spoiled in fact we are.
As the Founding Fathers long time ago, we've found our real happiness in this country. 
We often have to answer the question why we've chosen to live in America. 
We think we are able to give a reasonable answer because we can compare.
Our standard answer to that question is: The U.S. is for sure not paradise and not the ideal society because it is built up by some 250 million human beings. But traveling over the world, we can assure you that you will have a hard time to find a better place to live. Therefore, we have good reasons to be thankful and to celebrate the Birthday of this great nation. 
Like in the Dutch tradition, we should not come to a Birthday party with empty hands; one has to carry a gift.
What kind of a gift could we come up with for the Birthday of our country?
The most appropriate gift in our opinion would be that we promise to contribute our share in what the Founding Fathers once started.
They worked hard to develop this country, made it prosperous and a better place to live for everybody. They installed and maintained high moral values, based on a strong believe in God.
They've shown the world that they could handle their freedom.
Our forefathers didn't contribute frivolous gifts to this country.
So, let's celebrate this Birthday of our nation not only with a spectacular firework but let us wrap up a big box for Uncle Sam, containing:
A huge amount of humility, a lot of tolerance, respect for each other and patience, the most of integrity and compassion and a strong will to share freely with others.
Thank you Founding Fathers!
Happy Birthday Uncle Sam, we love this country.
May God bless this nation and all of us.

~

Happy 247th Independence Day!

900 impressions on LinkedIn...


Related links:
{December 30, 1993 U.S. flag flown over U.S. Capitol for both of us!} | previous post by me 
{The Dutch 1st to Salute to the Flag of The United States in 1776} | previous post by me
{4th of July Speech given by my husband Pieter} | previous post by me

Monday, January 6, 2020

Monticello Gardens of President Thomas Jefferson and Mulberry Row

So here we are now in Virginia and after checking out the weather we made our plans.
There would be rain in the afternoon and next day a tornado...
So we left early, after breakfast for Monticello, home and plantation of the 3rd President of the United States; Thomas Jefferson.
The one that wrote the Declaration of Independence... with tremendous Dutch influence (see link at the bottom of post).
Around 10:00 we were at Monticello and went with their bus to the place where the garden tour would start.
Here husband Pieter is in front of the Littleleaf Linden.
As a little girl, I went with my Dad, seated at the front of his bike, to Ommel, The Netherlands, a pilgrimage site of Our Lady of Refuge for Comfort in every need. There was a statue under a huge Linden tree.
 Seated on Dad's bike, I managed to touch with my hands those mature fruits!
Childhood memories...
This is also the tree from which they make the Linden Flower Tea and Linden Honey as we tasted in Eastern Europe in May: Day 6, Panoramic Belgrade, Serbia where I had Linden Honey in my tea.
This was the house but we both did not tour the inside as we come from the Old World and have seen enough of that architecture over there.
Thomas Jefferson did bring those ideas from Europe.
From the deck of his house, overlooking a vast area since it is built on a little mountain.
Pieter standing next to a huge potplant that obviously was thriving well, being partly indoors.
Interesting windows that could be totally pushed upwards.
Behind Pieter you still see where the potplant was, just behind his right arm inside the open space.
That's me standing at the top of those stairs...
WILLOW OAK or Quercus phellos
It's diameter was impressive!
Still the same tree, trying to capture it completely.
Our Garden & Grounds Guide showed us this laminated copy of Thomas Jefferson's 1766 Garden Diary - nice handwriting!
Of course we were visiting rather late in season, so the garden sure was not at its peak!
Here you see a variety of Okra, a huge one.
You also see that the sky is highly pregnant with rain...
There was an entire arbor where the Purple Hyacinth Bean was climbing up on both sides and overhead. A favorite of Thomas Jefferson.
A vineyard...
What an over view from there!
Vegetable garden and to the right you see a one-room slave house along Mulberry Row...
Yes, Thomas Jefferson maintained his 5,000 acres or 2,023 hectare by keeping some 400 slaves...
They lived in the tiny, one-room houses!
We did tour the smokehouse... Interesting and even I as a young girl remember smoked meats.
This is exactly what we also saw at: Netherlands Open Air Museum with Mom & Dad and American Colleague's Wife as shown in pictures taken there.
Aerial View: The Monticello Mountaintop just click and click through again for seeing how VAST this really is.
Thomas Jefferson's Daily Ride short video showing the vast property on the little mountain, just click and click through again.
Also interesting to listen to this documentary about Jefferson's 'concubine', the half-sister of his deceased wife Martha. At that time the slave owner often used his female slaves as personal property. His wife Martha's father, had done so and there were several half-sisters/brothers from a mulatto slave woman... Jefferson fathered 6 children with Sally Hemings. We both have mixed feelings about his part in history... Only in 1998 it has been proven by DNA that Jefferson was the father and sadly he never acknowledged those six children!
Sally Hemings (Documentary) click
We enjoyed some coffee and cookies (Pieter) at the Gift Shop and found some chocolate too.
In all, a great place to visit.
There also is a restaurant that serves fresh produce from the garden!
With our ticket we could have started the tour of the Home by 12:00 PM, but we left with their shuttle to the parking and went for lunch.
It was only a 25 min. drive back and forth to the Hyatt Place Hotel for us.
At 14:00 it was 17 ºC or 62 ºF

We got back to our Hotel around 14:00 after going to Whole Foods Market where we ate some lunch and did bring some salad home for next day with yoghurt and fruits.
Due to a TORNADO WATCH we decided to stay in for that day on October 31 and catch up on our reading instead...
On October 31, it would be a very wet day and 19ºC or 66ºF
The weather would be a LOT cooler from 26ºC (78.8ºF) to only 15ºC (59ºF) for November 1.

Perfect for our plan... stay tuned! 

Friday, November 15, 2013

{1903 Ladies Home Journal by Edward Bok - The Mother of America & Dutch American Heritage Day}

We do have this October 1903 Ladies Home Journal magazine because of its publication by Edward Bok about The Mother of America
  • Edward Bok, a Duch immigrant who came to the USA at the age of 6, was the editor of The Ladies Home Journal
  • Edward Bok also was the friend of no less than four US Presidents and other leading Statesmen and Authors. 
  • He was a top journalist and changed quite a lot for this nation. "Go to it, you Dutchman," encouraged President Theodore Roosevelt. 
  • Edward Bok did just that and found substance in the American dream.

  • This October 1903 Ladies Home Journal is quite huge in size, far bigger than nowadays magazines. 
  • More comparable with the size of a news paper!
  • You also can view this as a PDF by clicking here: Cover of the Ladies Home Journal October 1903

Again, for easier reading this article you can view it as PDF by clicking here: The Mother of America Article by Bok October 1903
  • With Dutch American Heritage Day nearing on November 16, it is quite appropriate to understand a bit more about this Dutch born immigrant.
  • As a matter of fact, the reading world of America has yet to learn the real extent of the Dutch influences which underlie American institutions and have shaped American life... The Mother of America

IV. A Presidential Friend and a Boston Pilgrimage | excerpt of the book: The Americanization of Edward Bok (1920), which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1921
XXV. The President and the Boy | excerpt of the book: The Americanitzation of Edward Bok 

Did you have any idea about this enormous Dutch influence such as the American Declaration of Independence and the Federal Constitution of the United States and one, the Declaration, is based almost entirely upon the Declaration of Independence of the United Republic of the Netherlands....

See excerpt below from The Mother of America:


Related links:
{Dutch - American Heritage Day: November 16 since 1991} | previous post by me
{The Dutch 1st to Salute to the Flag of The United States in 1776} | previous post by me

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

{'Ravy', my Toyota RAV4 is 15 today!}

My 'Cute Ute' has another birthday! You can find a link below photos, about last year's post with lots of info and photos. But today 'Ravy', my Toyota RAV4 turned 15! Still love him and keep him. Such a loyal Mini SUV, so why ditch him? As written about in a magazine in 1998, for being a small, spunky, head-turner - to me that's still valid. The New Car Test Drive in 1996 called it: The new king of the minis. It's a shame that they discontinued making the 2-door since 2000. Even now, with high gas prices it would be even more relevant for having a car with such good fuel economy. 
The Chicago Sun Times wrote: Toyota's new, hot-selling RAV4 small sport/utility vehicle is terribly cute, practical and more affordable than larger sport/utilities. AMEN to that!
Ravy looks still cute and is in excellent condition. Always being loved, even though he worked hard for us... When this 2-door launched, it became hugely popular in France. 
That's me on July 13, 1997 after Ravy's first 1,000 miles. This is at the Philadelphia Franklin Mill's Outlet Mall. We parked, and funny enough, there were two RAV4 4-doors parked as well; Ravy's big brothers...
Here we are at the Delaware river in Philadelphia, with the Benjamin Franklin bridge in the back.
Ravy did bring us all the way to Pennsylvania, from Georgia, to visit also Independence Hall in Philadelphia. Our second visit, but now as Americans and it meant a lot.
Visiting the birthplace of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
Pieter in front of the Liberty Bell...
Me in front of the Liberty Bell...
Oh, Ravy hauled many a load with this cute trailer that Pieter himself has put together. He ordered it from Northern Tool + Equipment and added the upper part himself.
I still love Ravy today...  together we age!


Related link:
'Ravy', My Toyota RAV4 is 14 today! | previous post by me

Monday, July 4, 2011

{4th of July Speech given by my husband Pieter}

Worthwhile sharing this speech by my husband Pieter, given to the people of Laurens County, prior to the fireworks.


The 4th of July 1994
The Uninted States and Georgia State Flag on July 4th 2002
Those weeping ilex trees are no more...
Thanks for the kind introduction; now you know almost all about the two of us. For the introduction of a speaker a typical question always is, what is exactly your title? In a certain booklet we found that there actually is no prouder title then to be an American citizen. Although the weather is not cooperating too well, today we have something really important to celebrate as you all know, we celebrate Uncle Sam's 218th Birthday; the birth of this great nation.
In the introduction you have heard that we are new Americans, although we came to this country already in '83. My wife's love affair with the U.S.A. started in April of '83; her very first visit to the New World. Some Campbell Soup people taught her at that time some history by visiting Rockford, MI, where president Ford grew up. They thought maybe she was homesick and thus they brought her to Holland in MI.
Holland Michigan on the shore of Lake Michigan
She was not homesick but just absorbing all she could about this fascinating new world. One of the highlights was the visit to Chestnut Street in Philadelphia; to the Independence Hall; the home of the Liberty Bell, a shrine of patriotism for all Americans. There we learned more about Life with a capital L and also about Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Pieter with  our foster-daughter Anita, in 2004 in front of the Liberty Bell
View from the Hershey hotel in Philadelphia where we stayed

  The next day we flew to Dublin, GA and there we fell deeper and deeper in love with the New World.
From Camden, New Jersey we flew on the Learjet from Campbell Soup to Dublin, Georgia on Saturday, April 23 of 1983
Wearing my red Campbell jacket...

So in August of '83 we came to live here. This was our pursuit of Happiness. Last year (1993) we got our American citizenship and since then we can say: we are Dutch by birth and American by choice and we are proud of both. There are a couple of reasons for that pride. Maybe you didn't know but the Dutch, of any nation, have the longest uninterrupted friendly relationship with the U.S.A. and for sure we like to keep it that way. It was on Nov. 16 in 1776 that the ford on the Dutch island of St. Eustatius in the Caribbean returned the salute from the American warship Andrea Dorea, as it entered the harbour. This was the first salute by a foreign power to the flag of the U.S.A. of America. As the history books say: this was a very courageous action by the Dutch and it enhanced the diplomatic credibility of the U.S.A. It also gave a strong boost to the moral of the revolutionary troops. So, today it is 218 years ago that the U.S.A. has been founded. In the Dutch tradition, Birthdays always are important events, often celebrated with an all day open house, birthday gifts etc. A good question, not only for us but for all immigrants could be: why did you come to the U.S.A? What did we expect to find here what we eventually didn't have in the country where we lived before? Although a lot of things have changed since then, the answer will be more or less identical to what brought the founding fathers to this part of the world over 200 years ago. The most important reason for them was the freedom and the space to live in the broadest sense. The freedom to believe in God in different ways; the freedom to have your own opinion, the opportunity to develop yourself up to the limits etc. On this Birthday we should never forget that the founding fathers and after them numerous immigrants have for sure not chosen the easiest way. They didn't find a paradise; they just found a place with almost unlimited opportunities but they had to be explored. Very important also is that their freedom was based on a strong moral and on personal responsibility. That, in combination with hard work, made this country into what it is today; in our opinion the best country to live in. We have a number of good reasons to make this statement. As you perhaps know, or picked up from the introduction, for our job we traveled, and still do, all over the world and lived in several countries We lived in Dublin from '83 through '88 and after that in Italy and Indonesia. We more and more discovered what a great country the U.S.A. is to live in; we got homesick and looked for every opportunity to return. With O'Henry contribute our share in what the founding fathers once started. They worked hard to develop this country, made it prosperous and a better place to live. They installed and maintained high moral values, based on a strong believe in God. They've shown the world that they could handle their freedom. Our forefathers didn't contribute frivolous gifts to this country. So, let's celebrate this Birthday of our nation not only with a spectacular firework but let's wrap up a big box for Uncle Sam, containing: A huge amount of humility, a lot of tolerance, respect for each other and patience, the most of integrity and compassion and a strong will to share freely with others.
Thank you  Founding Fathers.
Happy Birthday Uncle Sam; we love this country. May God bless this nation and all of us.
Pieter J.C. Vedder


Also for today, Happy 235th Birthday United States of America!!!


Related link:
Husband Pieter's 1994, 4th of July Speech | later post by me with actual video of speech

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