President’s message

St. Paul MN, 3/15/2008—“Die winter is vergangen, Ik zie des meien schijn” (Winter has gone, May is appearing) as the 16th century Dutch/German song says. Like our foreparents, NAAM looks forward to thawing and celebrating our Dutch heritage in the coming months.

Not that the winter was bad, we Dutch-Minnesotans enjoy the cold weather. Cold, ice, sun, skates and hot chocolate warms our hearts. As became clear at the First Annual NAAM skating party on Lake of the Isles in Minneapolis. Organized by Board Member Elisabeth Beelaerts.

I had brought my wooden ‘Noren’ skates, the kind you tie under your shoes. They are hark back to the original skates, pieces of animal bones sharpened and tied to whatever the foot coverings were in that long ago past, which were invented, of course, in the Netherlands by the Friesians (who generously allow themselves to be claimed as part of the Netherlands). I was eager to join the NAAM members skating on the lake, easily recognized by the orange armbands thoughtfully provided by Elizabeth. However, I found out that if you don’t skate for forty years, you will forget how to do it. It took me half an hour just put on my skates (I’m not as limber as I used to be) and I ‘skated’ only a couple of yards. Luckily, there are lots of (Dutch) Minnesotans who do remember skating, gliding over the frozen lake, making it look so easy.

By the way, bicycling is a whole different matter. I bought a bike last year, just hopped on and rode away. Although the helmet felt a little awkward at first – cyclists in Amsterdam don’t wear helmets, we are immortal.

Anyway, let us spring forward. The NAAM will kick off the return of warmer weather with the Queen’s Birthday party, on Sunday April 27. The party will be from 2 to 5 p.m. at the house and yard generously opened by Board Member Dirk van Toor and his family. (See the announcement in the menu on the left, under 'Events).

Our celebration this year is on April 27, three days before the official observance back in the Old Country. But that’s okay, the birthday of the current queen, Beatrix, isn’t April 30th anyway, she was born on January 30 (1938). But the weather at the end of January is too cold to celebrate outside, even in the Netherlands. So when she ascended the throne in 1980, queen Beatrix made April 30, the birthday of her mother, former queen Juliana, the official day to celebrate the queen’s (and in the future king’s) birthday.

Soon after we recover from toasting the Queen, it will be time to go to work at the Festival of Nations in St. Paul, May 1-4. This celebration of diversity is NAAM’s annual chance to show Minnesotans that ‘Dutch’ is different from ‘Deutsch’ (German) and to make clear that fried potatoes aren’t French, but are Dutch (ok and Belgian) and are really called “patatten.”

We are looking for volunteers to fry the ‘patat’, fill the ‘roomsoezen’ and sell those plus real Dutch cookies. If you forget to volunteer: the board will soon start calling members asking for help run the food stand (which, by the way, is also an important fundraiser for NAAM).

See you at Koninginnedag, the Festival of Nations. Or, a little further out, the annual NAAM picnic, July 20.

And don’t forget the monthly Dutch ‘borrel’, organized by our former president AlbertJan van Afton. Every fourth Thursday of the month, at W.A. Frost on Selby Avenue in St. Paul, next meetings are April 17 and May 15.

Benno Groeneveld, NAAM President