Crimsons Creative Challenge
John: Have you seen who has bought that house next door? Immigrants, Goodwife, more cursed immigrants.
Goodwife: Religious refugees, John. We’ve opened our borders to them; it wouldn’t hurt you to open your heart.
John: They take our jobs.
Goodwife: They bring new skills.
John: They’ve taken that shop on the corner.
Goodwife: The cobblers? I know. And they’re doing good trade.
John: And two stalls in the market.
Goodwife: The spices?
John: I forbid you to buy any. You’re not to encourage them.
Goodwife: So, no ginger, no cinnamon, no peppers… what about coffee and tea? Do you not meet with your trade associates in the Coffee Shop? And don’t shrug like that.
John: I shall say this again, Goodwife, I will have nothing from those Netherlanders here in my house.
Goodwife: If you say. Oh, and thank you for the flowers. They’re beautiful tulips.
The ‘house next door’ was built in 1603 and shows Dutch influence. This area of Norfolk was heavily settled by the religious refugees… as a track deep into the parish records reveals of my ancestry.
crispina kemp 
The bias goes deep.
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🙂
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I remember seeing a program about the protestant Dutch settling in Norfolk. It was very interesting.
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Yea. One one strand (father’s) I have abundant Dutch. On the other (mother’s) I have Breton Hugenots. And a good helping of Scots and Norse on both. English? An itsy-bitsy bit
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That conversation has (does still, no doubt) taken place in many a household, I don’t doubt. One often is more open-minded than the other!
I really liked this!
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My intention alwasy was for the Netherlanders. Yet as I was writing it I saw so many parallels to the situation we have today. Yet back then the incomers shared our religion.
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And that makes a whole lot of difference…
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Yep. 🙂
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😊
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Well done, this historical take.
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Thank you. Although not a period of history that feastures much in my fiction, it is a period that interests me because of my family
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It is a great parallel to our own times. The “strangers” of Norwich brought more to the city and surrounding area than they took. They took care of their own community, and apprenticed Englishmen in their weaving trade, They even brought the canaries. Great tale.
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It’s arguable that without the “Strangers” input Norwich would have failed as a trading city long centuries before it did. The weavers yes, and that caused uproar, taking trade from the local families, but they brought new fabrics, new patterns, and lace-making, and millinery, and leatherworking… not to mention market gardening. Even without my family’s connection, I have to admire them.
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In Canada we were taught that it was a Kaleidoscope. Each nations people could keep their identity. We cherish that concept and defend it.
I like the story. Are they Dutch Tulips perhaps? 🙂
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Hi Jen, I’ve replied to this by email 🙂
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Thanks Crispina.
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🙂
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I have a touch of Dutch in my ancestry too. Apparently the Howards were dissenters of the Church of England and migrated to Holland before crossing the Atlantic.
Judy 😊
Sent from Mail for Windows 10
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Howards were big in Norfolk. Like, they were the DUKES. Though obviously not everyone by that name, and only from late Tudor times.
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Great ending! How could he forget about the tulips? I guess love is sometimes blind.
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Especially Tulips from Amsterdam 🙂
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What an interesting heritage. And a wonderful story that deals with timeless concerns!
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It hadn’t begun that way… yet it veered into it.
Glad you liked it.
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Wow. A good one there. Somehow, prejudices never die.
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There’s nothing new. It’s a fact that they were riots in Norwich and violence done to the immigrant Netherlanders.
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Yes, it’s nothing new. No matter which country or place, it’s the same. There’s so much hatred these days, I feel, even for most simplest of things. People hate for no reason
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All fuelled by main-stream-media.
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I ought to say that this was back in the late 16th century
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Then time isn’t a factor
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No, I’ve said it before, we humans see the world as them and us, and have done so since we were apes on the savanah. Truly, chimps do the same. There really is little difference between our behaviour and theirs. We have speech which enables lies, yet they’ll deliberately lie with their actions and body language. We’ve lost our hair, and gained technology and call ourselves superior.
BTW, to be *civilised* merely means to have learned the necessary restraints to live in a dense community without resort to violance against out our kin.
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