72 Years Later... Gevaphone Spoken Letters to Marine Brother Employed Overseas

Pieter's Mom and Pieter himself went again to the special studio for a spoken letter to Marine Brother Toon

Marine Antonius (Toon) P.M. Vedder
The second son  had to go overseas in 1947 to Dutch Indonesia, for the Indonesian National Revolution. He'd joined the Marine on March 5, 1947 and after some special training they left for Indonesia.
On July 30, 1947 he left on the old 'Volendam', from Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

Once again: Grateful to NIMH The Netherlands for extracting its contents! See for more info link below from first post at bottom where I explain about donating these records to the Dutch Institute for Military History 

Nederlands Instituut voor Militaire Historie

Ministerie van Defensie

Pieter still being only child at home and this was with Easter, on March 28, 1948, a goose egg being boiled and  painted.

Pieter on the left, his Mom and his Dad.

This is my hand, holding the thin paper envelope around this Gevaphone record mailed out to Marine Antonius Vedder...

The Gevaphone record with spoken letter by Pieter's Mom and by Pieter himself, written down in Dutch.
Again it turned out to be 'speed-speech' for trying to say as much as possible in 1.5 minute!
Thanks to the help of Gillis Video we could hear it in slow motion for capturing the words!

Translated into English above:

Mother: And now I'm going to talk to you, it's not going to be that smooth yet, but I'll do my best.

First, Toon, everything is still going well with us. What are you saying? Are you as healthy as chicken? Yes you looked like you used to look like you were with us and now, according to the picture, I can't say you've changed a lot.

And now that you’ve become assistent cook now your tummy will grow in size. 

Because the proverb says who's closest to the fire warms himself best.

Has everything been repaired again that they don't need so many technicians and bench mechanics anymore?

Then you're ahead of us here in Holland.

And now I first want to move to our own surroundings.

We slowly are moving into summer.

Now I'm glad we've had the winter behind us because sitting in the cold isn't always fun either.

If only we had a bit of the cold here (she means warmth!) from you!

We live in the country for heat you can say, so every human has something.

East West, it's not that good at home.

To stay in Groessen, we are gradually sowing and planting again.

In the greenhouses, the lettuce and cauliflower are fine and the plants under the flat-glass also.

Finally, Toon,  thank the nuns on behalf of your parents for all the fun time you have spent there.

And now I end up with a firm handshake from your Father and your Mother and Piet will fill the rest of the record.

the plants under the flat glass... like in this photo showing flat glass gardeners click it

~

Yes, that is to say the voice of mine.

I'm talking to the microphone here for a minute and a half, but that's not that easy.

Oh, dude, you should have seen and heard those preparations! You'd have roared with laughter. 

You’ve lost your mind says one, you can't put that in, who knows who's going to be there when they play that record.

You know what you're doing, said another, you can just write everything you said to Theet, you'll change a few things. 

Yes, that's all well, but if they ever will switch it, you'll end up looking stupid.

We're all fine, you've heard that.

And a lot more, I don't have a towel for you either.

If you start picking on someone, you'll say exactly as Willem Kruis: 'You don't get any supper tonight.'

But then Thé, who writes that they're not so generous with the food. I told him see to it that you're pretty much back home again with Henk Lubbers, by then we'll make sure we have fattened a pig.

We are now also in the big fasting (Lent)!

But now no nonsense. I'll take the accordion and play a tune.

For Theet I played the Blue Danube but for you I have to turn down a few others because you're not that classic and then you can always trade it.

Well there it goes with the best greetings of your brother Piet Vedder.

Genbat is genie bataljon or genius battallion...

Pieter still only child, with his Mom to the left and Dad to the right, while his older brothers were at war for almost 2.5 and 3 years...

Pieter's Mom enjoying her cup of tea while reading one of her son's letters from Indonesia...

Pieter's Mom, penning letters to her two eldest sons at war...
Difficult times but they made it back home safe!

Listen to Pieter's Mom (side A) and Pieter talk (side B) to Toon... All merged together.
De Indië-Gangers 1945-1950
The Indonesia-Goers 1945-1950

A book with compilation of stories by e.g. A.P.M. Vedder about his Marine period.
He proudly shows his received copy on December 9, 2003.
Pictures from his eldest daughter Myriam, Pieter's Goddaughter.
Toon died almost 3 years later but he leaves quite a legacy behind for his descendants...

Next post is about Pieter playing his accordion for his Marine Brother.

Related links:
1948 Gevaphone Record with Young Pieter Playing his Accordion for Brother in Uniform | previous post
72 Years Later... Gevaphone Spoken Letters to Military Brother Employed Overseas | previous post

1948 Gevaphone Record with Young Pieter J.C. Vedder Playing his Accordion for Brother in Uniform

It was quite something for hearing this SURPRISE coming off one of the WAV files that got extracted from the Gevaphone records we donated to the Dutch Institute for Military History.
Nederlands Instituut voor Militaire Historie
Ministerie van Defensie
1948 March GEVAPHONE recording Pieter playing 'On the Beautiful Danube' with his Soberano Accordion (not on the Hohner shown in this picture from WWII era photo...)

Grateful to NIMH The Netherlands for extracting its contents! See for more info link below from previous post where I explain about donating these records to the Dutch Institute for Military History 

To the left in back row: Marine brother Toon, Pieter center and Thé in uniform for which Pieter played on his accordion.

Pieter's Mom and Dad in the front.
1948 March GEVAPHONE recording Pieter playing 'On the Beautiful Danube' with his Soberano Accordion (not the one in this earlier photo!)
While his brothers were serving in Indonesia, Pieter was quite musically involved.

'Cauber Elsje'
Accordion lessons and he already sang in the big choir during the summer of 1946 in the Rhineland Operette 'Cauber Elsje', where he also danced with partner Willemien Janssen.
Pieter also was requested to play his accordion at a wedding of Tilly Stokman's neighbors, she was an acquaintance of Pieter.
While doing so, someone turned violent and wanted to grab Pieter's accordion and throw it into the water well... Tilly managed to guide him out through a backdoor into the grain field... WOW!

Brother Thé, for whom Pieter played his accordion, was almost 3 years deployed, without any return home.
As soon as he got home, after the Marine brother, husband Pieter was wearing his uniform!
No 3 brothers at once could serve...
Pieter's Mom & Dad in 1950, with standing behind them from left: Pieter, Thé and Toon.

Husband Pieter in uniform... the youngest of three brothers serving.

Next post is a spoken letter to his Marine Brother...

Related links:
72 Years Later... Gevaphone Spoken Letters to Military Brother Employed Overseas | previous post
{Unique Accordion LOVE Story} | previous post by me about Pieter's 3rd accordion...

Pieter's Music Booklet from WWII Era | how Pieter learned to play his first accordion

72 Years Later... Gevaphone Spoken Letters to Military Brother Employed Overseas

It is hard to imagine the feeling of touching those Gevaphone records.
Even more so when finally HEARING THEIR CONTENT!!!

Spoken Letter was for Pieter's eldest brother Thé (Theodorus) Vedder who was in the military for nearly 3 years, during the Indonesian National Revolution, without ANY time visiting home!
Tough times for Pieter's Parents who managed to live through the Depression years with their three little sons.
Lived through WWII and the Evacuation while their home got severely damaged and ALL greenhouses flattened...
Then the eldest had to go overseas in 1946 to Dutch Indonesia for the Indonesian National Revolution.

Gevaphone Record
These came from the Belgian company Gevaert and they produced them in large numbers in the late 1940s.

They consist of a carrier of cardboard with a layer of (nitro) cellulose lacquer. In this coating the grooves were cut.
NO WAY you could play those with a regular record player...

Nederlands Instituut voor Militaire Historie

Ministerie van Defensie

So for years, since the death of Pieter's eldest brother Thé, in 2012, when we received them (had no idea they still existed) we searched for a possibility to extract their SECRETS...

Finally, the day before flying to The Netherlands to see Dad one more time while he was still alive, I got a tip from a Dutch history writer whom we had helped with info about Horticulture and Mushroom Cultivation in my Province of Limburg after 1945.
We packed all 7 Gevaphone records carefully and took them with us on the plane to The Netherlands and mailed them from there.
They got received by May 25, 2019 and we agreed to donate them to the Dutch Institute for Military History and in return receive anything that could be extracted from them.
The wait was long till December 18, 2019 when I finally got them via WeTransfer!
Now the speed was such that Pieter could not understand it...

Found a dear friend Gil Gillis from Gillis Video click it, who slowed the audio down so we could understand it.

For about 3 years, Pieter was the only child.
This is at Easter, March 28, 1948, peeling a decorated goose egg and Pieter is almost 19 here!
Pieter's Dad wore a hat often and hence his skin coloration difference.

Thé's task was in the military liaison element...

The Gevaphone record with spoken letter by Pieter's Mom and by Pieter himself, written down in Dutch.
With the slower version, I did manage to capture it and write it down.
Sure, they did try to cram as much as possible into their given 1.5 minute!
Not easy to understand at an old age with hearing difficulties...

Translated into English:
Hello Theet (his Mom called him that always!), here's your Mother's voice.
I've already written a lot of letters to the East but now there's something new under the sun.
And I'm here to have a chat with you.
First, we're all still doing excellent.
What are you saying? With you, too? Yes, I believe so!
Especially if you're making a trip to the Bandung with your boss in such 125 Horse Power truck.
Along the sawas and those beautiful overgrown mountains, a beautiful natural beauty.
And then again in a short time, eight days on leave to that beautiful city from Cirebon to Bandung.
If you let your eyes absorb a little bit of  it, then you can enjoy a lot.
The three of us have talked so many times about Indonesia and said what do these guys benefit in such a beautiful country.
Not only the population but above all the beauty of nature.
We've made the plan by bike, but because the bike's saddles are too hard we opted out.
Now Thé, another point; winter is almost past and sleeping in is over with.
Now pressure is again on horticulture with sowing and planting and in the greenhouses the lettuce and cauliflower are beautiful, and the plants under the flat-glass as well.
So you can see, we're busy again and we'll get a green leaf soon.
Well Thé, now I have to say goodbye with a firm handshake from your Father and Mother and Piet and he will fill up the rest.

Example for flat glass: Depression years market gardeners - Tuinder zijn in de jaren 30 - zware klus 

~
Pieter: I’m here with the assignment for chatting one and a half minute into such a thing you call microphone, but I’m sure that is by far not easy to do, at least you should have seen and heard the preparations.
You're crazy said the one, how can you put that in now?
That doesn't make sense, who knows where these things are being played, and especially at your office, there’s a big chance in the presence of some high ranking ones. 
Yes, but that then says another - oh go away that is of absolute no value for him and so on.
That we're all doing well, you've already heard and the same you are writing, so in that regard we're even.
You have to see Toon in a few months.
You reckon that in his capacity as a cook-assistant he will not do bad, at least as far as belly gaining is concerned.
What I can gather from your letters, they're not so generous with food at your location. 
But yes if you can only get along, a human does not easily starve as you can see in Gandhi!
If you're going to last as long until you get back home, by then we'll make sure we have another pig fatted.
It's not going to be that easy to bite into a skinny piece of bacon with a mouth still tasting of chili sauce.
Ah well, I'll grab the accordion and play for you “ON THE BEAUTIFUL DANUBE"
If the musical performance isn't that great, it might still be good for ousting extremists.
Well there it goes with the best greetings from your brother Piet Vedder

This photo is from all three brothers with Parents during the 1940s...
Husband Pieter is to the left and his middle brother Toon is next to him and Thé is seated next to his Mom, with Dad on the left.
~
Those were scary times, not knowing when and IF they would return home safe; so many lost their life while overseas.

For Pieter it was also hard, especially at his young age for dealing with all the emotions and for helping out as much as he could; being the only one.
Here, his Mom's sister with husband and children are with them.
They lived across the street, and were very close.

Luckily in Indonesia, the two brothers somehow got to be together at times... as seen in this photo!
But none of them could get home for all those years!

It has been quite a job for putting some old photos with text into a slide show and then adding the audio in order to upload it as video on YouTube Audio is in the original speed, not the slow version! A little part of history being preserved... Next post you will hear Pieter playing his accordion ! Related link: {MEMORIAL DAY - FREEDOM HAS ITS PRICE} | previous post by me mentioning the flattened greenhouses and home...