Lots of fun, a cold ‘pilske’ at the bar and home with a cordial ‘Houdoe’. It sounds like a typical Brabant place, but this is the description of a eatery kilometers outside the provincial border. At ‘t Ouwe Mestershuis of the Kaasjager family from the Gelderland village of Gameren it is Brabant up. “It’s Gelderland, but I feel Brabander,” says Dick Kaasjager.
On the Waal, about ten kilometers outside of Brabant, the sounds of Omroep Brabant on the radio sound in the eatery. For Dick Kaasjager it is the most normal thing in the world. “That is always the case here. It is Gelderland here, but I feel Brabander.”
“I get there just about every hour of the day,” he says with a wink. “We just say ‘Houdoe’ here. That ‘doo’ and ‘day’ we don’t have that much with that. Many people are focused on Brabant. I also like to go there for a snack and a drink.”
Sitting at the bar with a view of the billiard table, he picks up some Brabant memories. “I have been billiards for a long time in the Den Bosch region. The click there was great everywhere with everyone. We did billiards, but it was mainly a nice ‘pilske’.”
“I think that’s because it’s more fun in Brabant.”
His son Peter Jan Kaasjager is in the kitchen. He recognizes himself in the statements of his father. “If I’m honest, I feel more like a Brabander. We’re close by and talk here too. We are raised with it. In addition, I attended the Koksschool in Eindhoven and I can often be found in Den Bosch.”
Historian Wouter Loeff understands that feeling. “I think that is because it is more fun in Brabant,” says the historian of Heritage Brabant with a wink. “Look, Gelderland is of course a very large and vast province and does not have such a clear identity. Brabant has that a lot stronger.”
The historian often sees in border areas that people identify more with areas that are closer than those of their own province. “Or that people recognize themselves in several regions. An example of this are Heusden, Altena and Geertruidenberg.”
“That belonged to Graafschap Holland for a long time,” Loeff knows. “But now it is Brabant and they often feel Brabander there. Land van Cuijk has also been such a disputed area between the Duke Dommen Brabant and the Counts of Gelre. Gameren was also such a place, but never belonged to Brabant.”
“Above the rivers, we have very little with that.”
Whether Gameren will ever belong to Brabant is therefore the question. “I know more about the past than the future. Although De Maas has been the border of Brabant for a long time. Shifting to the Waal? I don’t know if there are plans to breathe new life into the Gelderland wars,” he laughs.
Although that is not necessary according to Dick. “I think we will be called back. It’s also fine. If I go around my bike here, I see the provincial house of Den Bosch. But if you ask me about that of Gelderland, I know that it is in Arnhem, but I would not know where exactly.”
“We are just very oriented to Brabant,” adds his wife Hennie Kaasjager. “Above the rivers, we have very little with that. They often come here on the terrace here. Think that the friendly Van Brabant can also be found here.”
