| Rugebregt / Frank |
I was born in Blitar, the Netherlands East Indies (a colony of the Netherlands since 1602). During World War II I served in the Royal Netherlands Navy on a destroyer and sailed as part of the allied forces in the Atlantic and Caribbean protecting convoys.
After the war I married Willy Buys in Utrecht, the Netherlands, in 1948 and we're still best friends.
We both went back to the East Indies until in it became the independent nation of Indonesia in 1949. John, my oldest son, was born in Indonesia-Soerabaja in 1950. We returned to Holland in 1951.
I left the navy with a honorable discharge and 12 years of service. I worked with KLM (Royal Dutch Airline) after my discharge. Many of my American friends in the airline industry asked me what KLM actually stands for. Well, KLM stands for "Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschapij" which, translated in English, is "Royal Airline Corporation" soon known as "Royal Dutch Airlines."
Our family has grown and we were blessed two more children; Maureen - born in Katwijk and Rudy - born in Amsterdam.
On November 11, 1958 we immigrated to the United States. After a short period of working odd jobs and a few months with an airline in San Diego we moved to South San Francisco were I found employment with United Airlines on the big maintenance base at San Francisco Airport.
We moved around in the Bay area, Fremont, San Jose, Half Moon Bay, and after 27 years with United Airlines I retired in 1985 and we moved to Hartstene Pointe, Shelton in Washington State.
All the children have grown up and married and left the house and we have three wonderful grand children, Chloë, from John and Claudine, and Sara and Jeffrey, from Maureen and Tom. Rudy and Luann did not have any children but are very happy together...!!!
In 1995 we moved back to California and finally settled down in Turlock, California, where we hopefully will spend the rest of our days. One of my hobbies is cooking and I have put together an Indonesian Cookbook and altered the recipes a little to suit the American palate. Living in California, most of the ingredients are readily available due to the big influx of Asian people and the many Oriental grocery stores and restaurants.
There is a web site where you can order ingredients over the internet:
Try it it's pretty interesting and growing with more products available every time I look at it.
Willy and I had our 50th wedding anniversary on 28 April 1998, and are still going strong ....!!!!! We hope to have still some time to go, and enjoy life here in these United States....!!!
You can send me email at: frank@rugebregt.comLast Updated: Sunday, October 14, 2012