Oostburg Rides Again

By Dr. Donald Kranendonk

It is about small town America, simple farm life, family heritage and conservative family values. No topic is off limits. It is about religion, politics, political correctness and the folly of indoctrination. It is about the soul of America past and present.
With many graphics, pictures and humor it is a fun, think for yourself book written for the pre-teen and early teenage reader. It is a book with substance and educational value. The book includes a partial biographical account of the author’s formative years.
Seniors and adult readers will appreciate or fondly remember the simple life illustrated and described in “Oostburg rides again.”

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 12, 2009
• ISBN: 9781462802579

Book preview

Have you ever heard of the greatest story ever told or the greatest book ever written? Well, this book is NOT it! Put it back on the shelf.

WHAT IS THIS BOOK ABOUT?

I t is about small town America, simple farm life, family heritage and conservative family values. No topic is off limits. It is about religion, politics, political correctness and the folly of indoctrination. It is about the soul of America past and present.

With many graphics, pictures and humor it is a fun, think for yourself book written for the pre-teen and early teenage reader. It is a book with substance and educational value. The book includes a partial biographical account of the author’s formative years.

Seniors and adult readers will appreciate or fondly remember the simple life illustrated and described in Oostburg rides again.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

WHAT IS THIS BOOK ABOUT?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

PREFACE

FOREWORD

CHAPTER 1

MILKING COWS AND THE GOOD LIFE

CHAPTER 2

ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-FIVE BLACK ANGUS

CHAPTER 3

LET’S HAVE A GOOD HORSE LAUGH

CHAPTER 4

THAT OLD WOODEN KITCHEN TABLE

CHAPTER 5

Oostburg Mischief 1950s

CHAPTER 6

THE LOST ISLAND PARADISE

CHAPTER 7

Great-Grandpa Hugo’s True Stories

CHAPTER 8

BRAVE LITTLE HOLLAND

CHAPTER 9

Wilhem I Van Cranendonck, King/Lord Of Cranendonck 1289-1323

CHAPTER 10

The Fable Of Jacob And The Ants

CHAPTER 11

GRANDPA UNIVERSITY

CHAPTER 12

SOCIALISM & THE 1,000-POUND GORILLA

SUMMARY, WHAT COMES NEXT?

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

D r. Donald Kranendonk was born on a Wisconsin dairy farm in Oostburg, Wisconsin in 1938. He married his high school sweetheart and they raised three children, who have become two MDs and a dentist. The author has two grandchildren who live in Minneapolis while Grandpa lives in Jupiter, Florida.

Dr. Kranendonk decided to be an orthopedic surgeon because of several influences, one of which was his assisting in the treatment of a bike rider who was hit by a semitruck in front of the Kranendonk house while he was milking the cows. Then army experiences convinced him to pursue orthopedic surgery completely.

The author has been retired for fifteen years and has absolutely nothing to do. He decided to write this book to himself (and his two grandchildren) to remember his childhood and to instill conservative values.

The author has blue eyes. (Pause.) OH MY GOSH! We are very sorry. That statement was not politically correct; someone might be offended. This book will follow the 2010 rules of political correctness. This is the author’s very best book and he has been assured that this book will become a New York bestseller. It covers exciting subjects like cows looking for their stanchions in a barn in 1950.

You have to be conservative to stay on Grandpa’s horse. Liberals just seem to somehow fall off. Come to think of it, that may be the same for this book. You will have to check it out and see.

The author has three patented inventions, all of which have lost significant money. However, this project, his first book, is sure to make him very wealthy. He has already warned the publisher to prepare for volume production. If you have gotten this far, maybe you should at least look at some of the pictures and the author’s splendid sketches and artwork.

Thank you and enjoy.

PREFACE

The sources the author used for this book include:

1.Countless hours of Internet research for the historical and geographic sections about Holland. Part of the Kranendonk family history and the Coat of Arms graphics also came from the Internet

2.The Kranendonk Kranicles, a family publication by Robert Kranendonk and Paul Kranendonk

3.My father Hugo’s videotape and stories I recall him telling me.

4.The book entitled Oostburg, Wisconsin (printed by Standard Printing Inc). Cedar Grove, Wisconsin 53013, July 2001

5.The 1955 Sauk Trail (Oostburg HS annual)

6.The 1956 Sauk Trail (Oostburg HS annual)

7.De Geslachten Cranendonck

Mr. Kees Sigmond,

Statenweg

NC Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Book published 2002

8.America’s talk radio, which I only occasionally listen to, but was and is a great source of common sense

9.Endless photo albums

10.EcoBridge.org Causes of Global Warming

11.Newsweek Article on global cooling, April 28, 1975

12.Nature Magazine, April 21, 1999

13.New York Times

14.Wall Street Journal Opinion Archives

15.Science Journal

16.Business and Media Institute Special Report: Fire and Ice

17.Purdue News Service

18.The book, How To Draw Cartoon Animals, Christopher Hart 1995

FOREWORD

W hy write a book? I started to write a story or two for the grandchildren about five years ago. A few family members and friends saw the stories and graciously said that they were interesting. I cannot be sure how many of the stories were actually read. The first stories about the cows and the horse were written for ten-year-olds and younger. As the kids grew up, the stories started containing more historical content and family interest, yet were still appealing to the early junior high age. Brave Little Holland is an example. When children become teenagers, thoughts like who am I in the universe? and is there a God? need to be addressed. When I was a teenager, I did not always accept or believe everything I was told. If something did not make sense, forget it.

With that orientation, I approached the always off-limits subject of politics. Of course, I projected my slant to my grandchildren. Each story is independent and one of the last stories, Jacob and the Ants, is a fable (a fictitious story, usually about animals, meant to teach a moral lesson). The last story, Grandpa University, uses analogies (something similar in some ways) in the story of the Irishmen. Satire (a literary work in which follies are held up to ridicule and contempt) is used in my story of indoctrination, moving from a car to a bicycle to walking to nothing. There are several satires in the chapter called Grandpa University. The last two chapters with fables, analogies, and satire require the maturing mind of a young teenager to follow and understand. In this book I decided to combine the stories just in case these individual stories, which few or none have interest in, would get misplaced. By writing the stories and the book, I could tell my stories and no one would interrupt me or start telling theirs. You can look this book over and just check out the sketches and pictures. You can start at any chapter because they do not have to be read in any sequence. You can read story five then story two without adverse consequences.

When I am gone, there will be this book, which almost no one has read, and a tombstone in the Hingham, Wisconsin cemetery. Both, I have already paid for. The stone with my name on it is standing a little crooked already. So far I have not carved on the final date. I know few or even none will look at the tombstone or the book.

But this is the real point: I wrote this book for myself. This was fun for me, and even if no one else reads it, the stories and all the memories have returned to me. I was not interrupted while telling the stories. I did not have to listen to someone else’s stories in trade.

Do not get me wrong. I do like many other people’s stories and some are incredible. I also love simple stories like my dad told me. I have included some of his stories in this book. I think people write to make themselves feel good without much, if any, regard for the response of the reader. That is why some parts of this book may not be politically correct. Others may not be totally complimentary or covered with flattery. This is how I saw it. This is my way of apologizing to any reader who may get his or her dander up or their nose bent out of shape because of something written. Sorry, but I wrote the book for anyone with bizarre interests, my grandkids, and most of all, for me.

This book is meant to be both educational and entertaining. It appears that adults can relate to it as well as older children.

I am an occasional listener to talk radio. I only listen when I am driving and running errands. I most enjoy Glen Beck, who to me has a unique blend of crazy humor, humility, and common sense. I hope to include such humor and common sense in this book. Glen Beck’s story about baking your own pie in America—just bring the ingredients—may be the greatest truth I have heard in years. This story is retold in this book.

This book is primarily a living history book. Living history is more interesting than regular history. For example, a regular history book about the Crusades would tell you dates, who fought in which battle, and who won. A living history of the Crusades would talk about the problems a knight had getting on his horse in full armor, or how panic struck when he saw one thousand Arabs suddenly appear over a sand dune on horseback heading his way. He would describe beheading a barbarian who tried to chop his horse out from under him. These are personal stories. This is living history and this book is full of living history. Oostburg Rides Again describes the details of life in small-town America as actually personally experienced, with its good and its bad, during the life of the greatest generation. I wish Julius Caesar had written his personal history relating how mad he got when his horse got stuck in the mud in Holland. He could talk about the Dutchman who put wooden shoes on his best horse, named Dykie, so he could walk on water. What a movie that could be! It would be like Gone With the Wind and The Ten Commandments combined.

This book is living history and what a movie it will be. I could be towed by my horse, Chief, out into Lake Michigan during a sunset, with the football team in the background racing through the sand to swim and cool off. Grease has nothing on this upcoming movie called Oostburg Rides Again.

As you have just discovered, this is a juvenile book, written with cynical humor and crazy graphics the juvenile mind enjoys. The author, Grandpa, still has a part of him that is twelve years old. This book is a book of conservative thinking, loaded with conservative messages and conservative values.

If you are a liberal and are exposed to this book, you have two choices. You can enjoy reading it with your self-proclaimed open mind, or you can burn it. I know you will not burn it because you are extremely worried about global warming.

CHAPTER 1

MILKING COWS

AND THE GOOD LIFE

The Jersey TOM. Always stay away. He was very mean and dangerous. He was always chained up and never handled except with a staff and snap in his nose ring. He was very scary.

M y dad loved good dogs. But this is about milk cows. The best cow dog in the world was our QUEEN. She will find the cows for this story.

Queen was a very black German shepherd and the best farm dog Dad ever had. She would listen for the milk cans rattling together as the cans were carted to the barn. When we were getting ready for milking, the rattling cans were the signal to go to the pasture and bring the cows back to the barn. Queen would race full speed, jumping through the farmyard gate, running up the lane to the forty or so grazing cows in the pasture.

The cows’ udders were tense and full of milk. If the cows ran, they would start releasing their milk onto the ground, wasting it. Once Queen got to the herd, she would slow to a walk, moving back and forth, slowly moving the herd to the lane and then down to the barnyard. Some of the cows would start for home when the dog was seen coming full speed toward them even when she was some distance away. The dog would nip the cows in their heels if they didn’t start for the barn. Once in the cow-yard next to the barn, the cows knew what was next. Dad would open the barn door. Each cow would walk in on her own without being led or chased. Sometimes a few cows would head-butt each other and not want to go where they were supposed to go. Then we would have to go after them with a stick to bring them to the task. Usually they would turn right or left and walk directly to their own place.

The stanchion is a device with two bars that gently holds the sides of the cow’s neck, keeping them from moving forward or backward, but allowing the head to move up and down to get food and water. Cows drink lots of water so that they can give lots of milk. Water was delivered to each cow by a pipe and a watering cup that the cow learned to control. The cow would push down with her nose and water would fill the dish. After all the cows were in the stanchions, the stanchions were shut, locked with a lever. Now milking could begin. Cows usually eat hay, but during milking we gave them a treat.