Tulip Festival
By Owner: Bonnie Meier

Well, the 2021 Tulip Festival is over and it was a great success. Quoting our local paper "Indicators are that attendance broke records, from the Wednesday ride night and car show through the Sunday morning worship gathering in Windmill Park." We in the Straat Winkel were very busy. We limited the number of people who entered to three at a time, partly for Covid and partly so that I could keep up with sales on my iPad since my daughter, Juliana, wasn't there to help me this year. I did have help from Dan Hurt, Arlys Oolman and Alica Wassenaar. It was good to work with these people again.

I had ordered a large order of new items last March and was a little afraid I had overdone it. However, I ran out of many things so next year, I'll have to order even more.

I hope we never go without a festival again. People were so happy to be able to be out and about again. We sold out of all the Dutch cookbooks, I had taken with me. I should have taken more. I also bought some antique Dutch items from a man whose Grandmother had come from Holland about the turn of the last century. The Dutch Bible I bought from him sold quickly the next day.

Farmers' Market
By Owner: Bonnie Meier

The Orange City Farmers' Market opens Saturday, June 5. The first Saturday of each month will be open to all vendors, not just food venders. I'm not sure whether Jubon Juweelen will be participating or not. It might depend on the weather.

Golf Discs Available
By Owner: Bonnie Meier

I understand that some stores are having trouble keeping discs in stock. Evidently the pandemic has been very positive for disc golf. It's a wonderful sport that you can play without close contact with other people. Jubon Juweelen still has a nice selection of discs available. They range in price from $6.00 (used ones) to $22.00 (very colorful tie died ones).

Juliana's Frisbee Adventures
By Owner: Bonnie Meier & Juliana Korver

Juliana has started participating in disc golf again after a long hiatus. In one of the first tournaments she entered this year, she entered her age bracket (40 and up, although she actually turned 50 this year). She won it by so many strokes that in the next tournament she entered the open class (all ages).

In a recent tournament in Stockton, California she took 6th out of a field of 37 of the top women's players. So she's back into the competition again. The big difference between now and 25 year ago, is that she is not dependent anymore on the cash payouts to live. You can tell the difference in how much more relaxed she is playing. She is playing for the fun of it now rather as a means to make a living. She commented that she can't believe how far Disc Golf has come in the last few years. Everything is so much more professional now, from the videos that are available, to the commentaries, to the records kept on each player. In fact she was asked to do commentary on some of the events. You might see her a little more in the future describing some of the activities. Look for her in future tournaments.

Book Reviews
By Owner: Bonnie Meier

I'm going to review three books that we have for sale in the store. We only have one copy of each, so it is first come, first served. Two are soft cover and sell for $3.00 each and the third is hard cover and sells for $4.00.

Written in 1996, this book starts out kind of different, but by the end I couldn't put it down. It is the story of a man, Grandpa Herman, who starts his own church. It is attended mostly by family and extended family. Grandpa Herman is very strict and if someone sins they have severe punishments plus they have to pay a fine, half to the church and half to Grandpa Herman. When one of his granddaughters gets pregnant before wedlock, the whole church community faces quite a challenge.

Written in 1992, I believe this book is based on an actual person. It is the story of a young lady who was raised in a well-to-do family in Montreal. Her father was a physician and educator. She had all the opportunities of Eastern society and affluence. Her father would often take on promising young interns and Cassandra fell in love with one of them and they planned on getting married. Although her successful father offered the young man a part of his practice, he wanted to go west and serve those who did not have access to medical care. This was around the turn of the last century and so living in the west was a shocking experience to this privileged young girl. The story goes on to tell about how she helped her husband and eventually was called Mrs. Doc. This is a nice human interest story. It was kind of a simple, feel good read.

This book was written in 2004 and takes place in the present. If you like adventure, you will love this book. This is the hard cover book and contains over 600 pages. It gets into the pros and cons of climate change and is very hard to put down once you get into the story. I stayed up until 2:00 a.m. when I got close to the end because it was hard to put down.