Sale
By Owner: Bonnie Meier

Currently we are having a sale on beautiful felt hats made by Juliana. We are selling them for $16 each (retail $32.00). We have quite a selection of colors and they are VERY warm. Wonderful for the winter ahead of us. We are also selling Stroopwafels for half price. They are just $3.00 a package while supply lasts. If you can't come in person, we also ship UPS. Just give us a call at 712-737-8920 or (cell phone) 712- 737-7012. The Christmas chocolates haven't arrived yet, but they were supposed to start sending them out on October 15, so they should be here soon. Again, call early if you want to get just the right chocolate letter. Remember, we have wooden shoes year round. I also just found a source for Dutch carpet slippers that are blue and white and look like Delft. I only have very small sizes on hand, but can get any size within a week.

Christmas Boutique November 23
By Owner: Bonnie Meier

Before our next newsletter we will have a table at the Christmas Boutique at the Sioux Center Library. I will be sharing a table with Renae Vander Schaaf. Together Renae and I have written a Dutch cookbook, which makes a great Christmas present. All the recipes in the book are Dutch and includes quite a bit of history and information about the Kingdom of the Netherlands. We will also be selling other books, Dutch chocolate, disc golf discs, etc.

Farmers Market in Orange City
By Owner: Bonnie Meier

Although by law 50% of items sold at a farmers market have to be home made or home grown, Orange City had one day a month when they opened the Farmers Market to other vendors. We were on the west side of Main Street while the homegrown items occupied the east side. We participated June, July and August and enjoyed it very much. Our best seller was the book about Doc Neumann, but we also sold some food, other books and Delft items. We hope to do this again next summer if the opportunity is there.

Juliana wins 2 Titles at the FPA World Championships
By: Juliana Korver

During the weekend of October 11 - 13, Juliana participated in the Freestyle Player's Association (FPA) World Championships in Seattle, Washington. This is the most prestigious Freestyle event each year and with it comes the most coveted title of World Champion. Each competitor is allowed to compete in as many as 3 of the 4 available events: Open Pairs, Mixed Pairs, Women's Pairs and Co-op. Juliana played in women's pairs with current women's top ranked player, Ilka Simon, from Cologne, Germany. Ilka and Juliana placed second together at last year's FPA World Championships held in Tranava, Slovakia. This year they came out strong with a very dominate performance in the semi finals. They faltered a bit in the finals, but played well enough to stay ahead of the pack. Giving Ilka her second World Title and Juliana her first Freestyle World Championships title. Click here to watch Juliana and Ilka's routine.

Juliana also competed in mixed pairs with superstar partner, James Wiseman from New York City. James is arguably the most skilled freestylier playing today. It is with little doubt that he has the potential to eventually be known as the greatest of all time. Juliana spent a couple of weeks in New York City over a few visits this year so the two could coreograph their routine. They performed it earlier in the year in Prague where they played very well but came in second to a fantastic, young, Italian mixed pairs team. James and Juliana reevaluated their routine, added more difficulty, and moved things around for maximum effect. In the end, every bit of effort paid off as James and Juliana won by only .2 points over the young Italian team. Click here to watch Juliana and Jame's routine.

In the end, Juliana swept Worlds winning both her first and second FPA World Championship titles. Juliana and James have already agreed to play together again at next year's FPA World Championships which will be held in Tel Aviv, Isreal in early September.

History of the Netherlands
By: Jon A. Boone

My Uncle Jon A. Boone has put together a short history of the Netherlands. Most of his information came from the book by Pieter Geyl, The Revolt of the Netherlands, 1555-1609 with some information coming from John Lothrop Motley's, The Rise of the Dutch Republic, and K.H.D. Haley's The Dutch in the Seventeenth Century. Since this is quite a long summary, I'll put part of the story in this newsletter and continue it in November's. Jon would be happy to receive comments on this at jonboone052@gmail.com.

Where did we (the Dutch) come from?

Many Dutch did not take well to Philip's strong catholic control and particularly to foreign Spanish rule. Already in 1566 "protestant" thought had begun to spread widely within the Netherlands, now consisting of 17 units. Remember that Luther had, particularly in nearby Germany, been stirring up religion since 1517 with his 95 theses. Any Protestant leanings were severely punished by Philip.

In the 40's and 50's it was the Baptists who supplied most of the martyrs in both the North and the South Netherlands, with their faith that taught how to suffer persecution. Not so with Calvinism that had more organization and more political sense, with the Calvinists becoming the basic strength of the revolt. Philip II remained determined to manage the Netherlands both through the political and religious offices that he, of course, controlled.

In 5 April 1566 unarmed nobles presented to the court a petition of protest about both religious limitation and lost political freedoms they had long held. As a mark of contempt they were called "beggars" and "beggars" became the general term for those in revolt against Spain. In August 1567 Philip II sent as a solution to problems a new governor, Fernando Alvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alva. Alva quickly calculated that they would immediately need to execute at least 800 noblemen to restore order. As was common most were burned at the stake.

Before his arrival many leaders fled the country, including William of Orange. Still not happy, Phillip on 26 February 1568 declared everyone in the Netherlands, Catholic or Protestant, to be heretics giving Alva even more power to act. Alva’s Dutch Inquisition came to have a worse reputation than even the Spanish Inquisition, with thousands of deaths due to religious persecution.

(Continued in the November issue)