Household walk: Hauthem Hoegaarden

Hoegaarden a walk. With whom is not mentioned in my old diary. Wedefy at St Gorgoniuskerk, down the mountain towards Hauthem St Katrine, at the new post and the old brewery Loriers turn left and Then on the right up in an old, concreted hollow road. Knotty elderberry bushes populate the canals as usual. Almost above we find on a field still flowering remains of the special field weed poppy and cornflower. Also real chamomile is present here. intoxicating quality, this is the “Haupel” (Apple?) of my childhood, the weeds cursed by the peasants and my father. But for me the smell and the healing power is indisputable. I am catapulted by the smell 60 years back in time. To the edge of the cereal fields where I experienced my own little pleasures among the stubble. White in wonderland.

Now I walk again in Hauthem. We cross the cobblestone mountain, our Col de Tour, the Kauterhof and dive into the next hollow road, higher and narrower but now concreted. 60 years ago there was a caravan with 'dangerous' Bohemers. The fear and magic of then is now completely gone. Above, out of the hollow road, at a very rural crossroads we see in front of us the houses of Hauthem, but behind us above all a beautiful view of Hoegaarden with the dominating church on his own mountain.

Hauthem St Katrine, the highest hamlet of Hoegaarden, where I lived until I was 12, my real hometown. Walking here with others has something strange, intimate. As if I was committing adultery. Here two Moriskes meet. Still there are aunts, uncles and frame (cousins). I wrote this a few years ago, now there is only one aunt left. Soon, I sneak away in my coat, through the village. BB dealer Willy, my earliest inseparable friend, past the “kabin” and my home where my aunt still lives, past the old mulder Huon, Near and past Taverniers a rougher but long dead friend from the past, past the last house and shop of the village, where a good nodding nigger stood on the counter. We walk out of the village to the chapel, where the procession took place. Behind the chapel we turn a hollow Essen, elderberries and maples bring us back to Hoegaarden.

Right in the Stoopkensstraat with its famous brewery, in my youth a lemonade factory. We end in the brewery café with a Forbidden fruit or just a Witte van Hoegaarden.

Hauthem is a beautiful, late Gothic building from the middle of the 16th century.Later a bell tower and the sacristy was added. The 17th century painting on the high altar represents the torture of Saint Gorgonius. In this pilgrimage chapel you can invoke Saint Catherine against all kinds of