Internist/haematologist Dick Johan van Sponsen (57, right) sat on the tractor in the farmyard at 13 Traansterweg in Tolbert in the summer of 1971 with friend Piet van der Til (56, dairy farmer).
“It was the first time on Piet’s farm. We were classmates. My mother brought me and took a picture. I see my uneasiness. She was a farmer’s daughter from Buitenpost. As a student, my father went into hiding on her father’s farm during the war. Something beautiful arose. After the war he became a teacher in Loosduinen. There they started their family. But the north kept pulling. As a believer, he got a job at the Christian school in Boerakker. In 1963 they moved to Boerakker. A year later I was born, the youngest of six. I met Piet at my father’s school. His father had built his own farm as a cattle farmer. That cost him a lot of energy. As the eldest son, Piet had to cooperate. At the age of five he was already driving a tractor. In May, he was out of school for two weeks because of harvest time. “Hay fever”, Piet called it. I liked being among the cows. Where possible I helped, although I was not really handy. We were inseparable for six years. I stayed there a lot. Build huts in the winter. On the tractor, we had long, profound conversations. Why birds fly south – those kinds of questions. What was a game for me was already a responsibility for Piet. This became apparent in our school choices: I went to pre-university education, Piet to mavo. The farm made his learning difficult. Our lives diverged. Piet took over the farm. I went to study. Yet we always kept in touch. When we are together there is the same good chemistry. Or as Piet puts it: if Dick Johan suddenly turns left, I will follow. Because I know why he wants to turn left.”