Pictures courtesy RVR
Happy Valentine's Day from “The Belgian Next Door”
I probably never have lived “next door” to you . . . Let me introduce myself: Rudy Van Renterghem, born December 31, 1932 in Brugge (Bruges), Belgium.
My father Edmond emigrated from Ruddervoorde, Belgium, first to Canada, then to Detroit. My two elder sisters were born there. But in the Great Depression the family went back to Belgium. After WW2, my sisters, being American born, were repatriated to the USA, and Mom, Dad, and I followed in 1947.
After graduating from Southeastern High School, I spotted a “wanted” ad in the Gazette van Detroit for a printer’s apprentice fluent in Dutch and English. The only applicant with those qualifications, I scored the job and worked with Pete and Rich Corteville, Hortense (Le Plae) and later Godelieve (Van Reybrouck), learning the rudiments of the printing trade. A year later, I enlisted for a four-year stint in the US Air Force and ended up in Korea when I was only 20 years old.
I married my long-time girlfriend Kathleen (Kay) Tomlinson on January 29, 1955 in Detroit. Our fi rst son, Rik, was born at West Pointe, NY. After my honorable discharge from the Air Force, I once more worked in printing, moving back to Michigan where two more sons, Kevin and Randy, were born in Mt. Clemens.
In 1978 we packed up and moved to Tucson, Arizona. We had done our research and found that the area had the most sunshine in the USA. For 16 years I worked as a postal employee there until my retirement in 1995. Our kids all married and are scattered from Arizona to Maryland to Texas. We also have four grownup grandkids plus one great-grandson. Is that an indication that we are getting older?
So, what do we do now that we are retired? We have always enjoyed traveling and being physically fi t. We’ve been avid bicyclists since the early 1970s. We have combined our love of travel and tandem bike riding and have pedaled in over 30 states, Canada and Mexico.
As a tandem-riding duo we have now pedaled over 225,000 miles . . . TWOgether. We have visited all lower 48 states . . . this is a big and varied and beautiful country! Have I missed Belgium? No, not really. Our older family is all gone, and we are now “the old folks”!