Good Friday And JC's Coaster Collection from 1965
Good Friday, 2020
Winter returned to The Valley this morning -- shocking my little dogs and causing my heart to drop a little. I'd expected the skiff of snow we got yesterday, but hadn't anticipated the two inches that was in the yard this morning. The poor Robin looked a little lost and the grackles and red-winged blackbirds just perched in the pin-cherries with their feathers fluffed out looking disgruntled. Kitty took one look outside and decided she didn't need to pee after all; Baby loves the snow but still seemed surprised to see it return as well. Appropriate for a Good Friday I suppose; normally the church lot and my side street to the lake would be full of cars this morning but all is quiet with the new fallen snow and pandemic restrictions.
By noon it's all but gone and the heavy rain expected tomorrow and Sunday and Monday will knock the snow down in the bush in readiness for turkey hunting season which opens in two weeks -- same day as the trout season nominally opens, I'm hoping the ice will be off the lake and I can get the rowboat in the water for some early season lake trout action. My canoes -- which I'd hoped to take to a local little lake or two in the hills -- are stuck at the Camp in Quebec. I'm also hoping that our government sees that for some of us this is ideal for physical distancing -- please, don't take away the solitary recreations as well.
I'm slowly finding my muse returning with the longer days -- writing is getting easier and flowing more naturally. The pandemic, the daily death count, the strange numbers of walkers on Round Lake Road, the low traffic volume, are starting to form a new normal; reinforcing Malcom Lowry's belief that even in the shadow of an abattoir the human spirit flowers
I'll shift gears here away from JC's Travel Diary to the collection of coasters he built during the trip. John was not a collector, not someone who felt magic in things. For him happiness came with clean spaces and simplicity; he was an anti-hoarder. His rule in the kitchen -- for when he was working -- was no more than 5 items on the counter; I suspect my kitchen gave him the willies...
So you can imagine my surprise in looking through his papers for the photos that he took on the trip to find a collection of beer coasters from the summer of 1965. Carefully held in a bag in the bottom of a blanket box. I'd never seen these before to my knowledge and he didn't get them out in the 40 years I knew him. Yet, there they were, pristine except for his note of the town and date of acquisition on the back hidden away waiting for me to find them; 35 in all.
They fall into two groupings -- one from the first part of the trip through Holland, Belgium and France and then a second group from later returning through France to Switzerland, Germany and back finally to Holland. In this posting I present the first group; I suspect in Spain, Portugal and Morocco he drank mostly wine although Spain and Portugal certainly have respectable beers -- wine is just cheaper and JC would have taken that route without question.
Even in Europe I have found that coasters of this weight and quality are very rare now; maybe gone altogether. They've been replaced with cheap single use paper coasters where coasters are used at all. In those civilized times no one would consider letting a table flood with the condensate from a tray of beers.
When I'm done with this I'll likely frame these and auction this off to my family for charity -- or maybe a nice gift for Drew or one of his girls -- After 55 years these deserve a pride of place and a reminder of John's trip.
The list of coasters from the first half of the trip runs as follows, providing a nice summary of the trip's first part.
- Heineken Coaster, Amsterdam, June 8/65
- Pschorr Brau, Amsterdam, June 9/65
- Oranjeboom, Dortmunder, Egmond aam Zee, June 10/65
- Amstel, Zwolle, Holland June 11/65
- Stella Artois, The Hague, June 12/65 -- The back of this one has what JC would call "High Finance"
- Supra Chevalier Marin, Antwerp, Belgium. June 13/65 ( more finance)
- Dortmunder Union-Bier, Bruxelles June, 14/65
- Wiel's Wielemans, Wolvertem, Belgium, June 14/65
- Stella Artois, Oostend, Belgium, June 15/65
- Ekla Super Pils, Atomium Bruxelles ( stamp on back), June 15/65
- Dubbel Export ( Ekla vanden Heuvel Super Pils), Bredene, Belgium, June 15/65
- Celta Meiresonne, Bredene Belgium, June 16/65
- DAB/Aigle Belgica, Brugges, Belgium, June 16/65
- Chimay, Bredene, Belgium, June 16/65
- Tuborg, Antwerp, Belgium, June 17/65
- Porter 39, Paris, June 25/65
- Mutzig, Paris, June 25/65
- Ancre Bier D'Alsace, Paris, June 26/65
Some of these beer's are common -- Chimay, Tuborg, Heineken, DAB, Dormunder Union, are all well known brands. Mutzig was an Alsatian beer bought by Heineken in 1972 and then re-launched as an African beer in the late 1980's with an umlaut above the U and little resemblance to the original recipe. Ancre ( Anchor) is also now owned by Heineken and still in production. Vandenheuvel, the star of the world's fair in Brussels in 1958 was already in trouble in 1965 -- Watney's bought them about that time but shut the brewery down in 1974. I can find nothing but some old advertising on the Meiresonne brewery -- another defunct Belgian Brewery. Porter 39 is another brand bought by Heineken and then eventually retired -- it looks like it may have been popular in Asia until about 15 years ago?
For those interested in beer industry history there is a nice story about Wielemans and how their beautiful art deco brewery building was saved at this link.
https://www.beercity.brussels/home/2020/brasserie-wielemans-ceuppens-wiels-fonderie
I suspect some of these coasters might actually have real value -- although they have been popularly collected for a long time and there should still be quite a few out there. At any rate, I find some comfort on this chilly spring day, some good Friday comfort, in thinking of JC and his buddys on a brilliant June day not far from the middle of the last century with a chilled pint enjoying some of the last of the diversity of Belgian beers.
Winter returned to The Valley this morning -- shocking my little dogs and causing my heart to drop a little. I'd expected the skiff of snow we got yesterday, but hadn't anticipated the two inches that was in the yard this morning. The poor Robin looked a little lost and the grackles and red-winged blackbirds just perched in the pin-cherries with their feathers fluffed out looking disgruntled. Kitty took one look outside and decided she didn't need to pee after all; Baby loves the snow but still seemed surprised to see it return as well. Appropriate for a Good Friday I suppose; normally the church lot and my side street to the lake would be full of cars this morning but all is quiet with the new fallen snow and pandemic restrictions.
By noon it's all but gone and the heavy rain expected tomorrow and Sunday and Monday will knock the snow down in the bush in readiness for turkey hunting season which opens in two weeks -- same day as the trout season nominally opens, I'm hoping the ice will be off the lake and I can get the rowboat in the water for some early season lake trout action. My canoes -- which I'd hoped to take to a local little lake or two in the hills -- are stuck at the Camp in Quebec. I'm also hoping that our government sees that for some of us this is ideal for physical distancing -- please, don't take away the solitary recreations as well.
I'm slowly finding my muse returning with the longer days -- writing is getting easier and flowing more naturally. The pandemic, the daily death count, the strange numbers of walkers on Round Lake Road, the low traffic volume, are starting to form a new normal; reinforcing Malcom Lowry's belief that even in the shadow of an abattoir the human spirit flowers
I'll shift gears here away from JC's Travel Diary to the collection of coasters he built during the trip. John was not a collector, not someone who felt magic in things. For him happiness came with clean spaces and simplicity; he was an anti-hoarder. His rule in the kitchen -- for when he was working -- was no more than 5 items on the counter; I suspect my kitchen gave him the willies...
So you can imagine my surprise in looking through his papers for the photos that he took on the trip to find a collection of beer coasters from the summer of 1965. Carefully held in a bag in the bottom of a blanket box. I'd never seen these before to my knowledge and he didn't get them out in the 40 years I knew him. Yet, there they were, pristine except for his note of the town and date of acquisition on the back hidden away waiting for me to find them; 35 in all.
They fall into two groupings -- one from the first part of the trip through Holland, Belgium and France and then a second group from later returning through France to Switzerland, Germany and back finally to Holland. In this posting I present the first group; I suspect in Spain, Portugal and Morocco he drank mostly wine although Spain and Portugal certainly have respectable beers -- wine is just cheaper and JC would have taken that route without question.
Even in Europe I have found that coasters of this weight and quality are very rare now; maybe gone altogether. They've been replaced with cheap single use paper coasters where coasters are used at all. In those civilized times no one would consider letting a table flood with the condensate from a tray of beers.
The list of coasters from the first half of the trip runs as follows, providing a nice summary of the trip's first part.
- Heineken Coaster, Amsterdam, June 8/65
- Pschorr Brau, Amsterdam, June 9/65
- Oranjeboom, Dortmunder, Egmond aam Zee, June 10/65
- Amstel, Zwolle, Holland June 11/65
- Stella Artois, The Hague, June 12/65 -- The back of this one has what JC would call "High Finance"
- Supra Chevalier Marin, Antwerp, Belgium. June 13/65 ( more finance)
- Dortmunder Union-Bier, Bruxelles June, 14/65
- Wiel's Wielemans, Wolvertem, Belgium, June 14/65
- Stella Artois, Oostend, Belgium, June 15/65
- Ekla Super Pils, Atomium Bruxelles ( stamp on back), June 15/65
- Celta Meiresonne, Bredene Belgium, June 16/65
- DAB/Aigle Belgica, Brugges, Belgium, June 16/65
- Chimay, Bredene, Belgium, June 16/65
- Tuborg, Antwerp, Belgium, June 17/65
- Porter 39, Paris, June 25/65
- Mutzig, Paris, June 25/65
- Ancre Bier D'Alsace, Paris, June 26/65
Some of these beer's are common -- Chimay, Tuborg, Heineken, DAB, Dormunder Union, are all well known brands. Mutzig was an Alsatian beer bought by Heineken in 1972 and then re-launched as an African beer in the late 1980's with an umlaut above the U and little resemblance to the original recipe. Ancre ( Anchor) is also now owned by Heineken and still in production. Vandenheuvel, the star of the world's fair in Brussels in 1958 was already in trouble in 1965 -- Watney's bought them about that time but shut the brewery down in 1974. I can find nothing but some old advertising on the Meiresonne brewery -- another defunct Belgian Brewery. Porter 39 is another brand bought by Heineken and then eventually retired -- it looks like it may have been popular in Asia until about 15 years ago?
 |
| Obverse of the Ekla Super Pils Coaster |
For those interested in beer industry history there is a nice story about Wielemans and how their beautiful art deco brewery building was saved at this link.
https://www.beercity.brussels/home/2020/brasserie-wielemans-ceuppens-wiels-fonderie
I suspect some of these coasters might actually have real value -- although they have been popularly collected for a long time and there should still be quite a few out there. At any rate, I find some comfort on this chilly spring day, some good Friday comfort, in thinking of JC and his buddys on a brilliant June day not far from the middle of the last century with a chilled pint enjoying some of the last of the diversity of Belgian beers.
Comments
Post a Comment