Anyone born at this time of the year is pretty much guaranteed to be a product of the Christmas through NewYears holidays. Even one of my favorite television chefs Mario (with the orange shoes and short pants) discussed that recently on "The Chew."
But the holidays during the Hunger Winter of 1944-45 in The Netherlands was not the abundant holidays that we celebrate today. In the western part of the small country, sometimes erroneously called Holland, the people were literally starving to death.
It was the winter of boiled tulip bulbs and bread crumbs and potato peelings, since the Nazis had blocked all food and fuel supplies to the Dutch provinces in the west of the country. People in the big cities like Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and The Hague were lucky if they could scrounge up 500 calories each day of nutritional food.
18,000 people died of starvation during the five long months of starvation! http://www.news.leiden.edu/news/dutch-hunger-winter.html
But my in-laws lived in the east of the country, not far from Germany. According to my mother-in-law, during the Hunger Winter they never had a shortage of food. Farmers in the area still farmed, and they would rather give up their animals to their Dutch neighbors than to the Nazis.
I wish there were Time Machines. I would love to go back in time to just see what life was like in my hub's family during the holidays of 1944-45. Since I can't do that, I can enjoy the product (HeHe) of that time.
Happy 67th Birthday, Hub.
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