Summary of Alanna Nash's The Colonel

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 The town of Breda, Holland, is a picture postcard of European charm and character. The van Gend en Loos building, which houses an upscale menswear shop, was originally built as a strategic fortress in the fourteenth century.
#2 The van Kuijk family could be traced back to the Middle Ages, when they were a wealthy, aristocratic family that ruled the small town of Hoogstraten. When the region split in two, the southern part was assimilated into Belgium, while the van Kuijks fled to the town of Breda.
#3 The van Kuijks were a family of travelers. They sold and traded household goods from their barge to other travelers on the water. They couldn’t ignore their greater wanderlust, and they preferred the itinerant life.
#4 Dries was a Ponsie, and he had the Ponsie sense of humor, playfulness, and appreciation of fun. He was also known as the family sleepwalker, as he would wander the streets at night. He had a difficult time taking orders from anyone.

Sujets

• Autobiography
• Entertainment
• Biography
• Performing Arts

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 24 juillet 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9798822547445
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on Alanna Nash's The Colonel
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3 Insights from Chapter 4 Insights from Chapter 5 Insights from Chapter 6 Insights from Chapter 7 Insights from Chapter 8 Insights from Chapter 9 Insights from Chapter 10 Insights from Chapter 11 Insights from Chapter 12 Insights from Chapter 13 Insights from Chapter 14 Insights from Chapter 15 Insights from Chapter 16 Insights from Chapter 17 Insights from Chapter 18 Insights from Chapter 19 Insights from Chapter 20
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The town of Breda, Holland, is a picture postcard of European charm and character. The van Gend en Loos building, which houses an upscale menswear shop, was originally built as a strategic fortress in the fourteenth century.

#2

The van Kuijk family could be traced back to the Middle Ages, when they were a wealthy, aristocratic family that ruled the small town of Hoogstraten. When the region split in two, the southern part was assimilated into Belgium, while the van Kuijks fled to the town of Breda.

#3

The van Kuijks were a family of travelers. They sold and traded household goods from their barge to other travelers on the water. They couldn’t ignore their greater wanderlust, and they preferred the itinerant life.

#4

Dries was a Ponsie, and he had the Ponsie sense of humor, playfulness, and appreciation of fun. He was also known as the family sleepwalker, as he would wander the streets at night. He had a difficult time taking orders from anyone.

#5

The van Kuijk family was poor, but not considered low-class. Maria took great pride in the fact that her daughters went to work as live-in maid servants and nannies when they were twelve years old, as a sign of good lineage.

#6

Dries’s mother, Maria, was a strict religious woman who did not allow him to play with Protestants or lower-class families. She instead sent him to a convent for Franciscan nuns. Dries was no exception and would often hustle a few guilders whenever he had the opportunity.

#7

Dries van Kuijk, as a child, had a fascination with the circus. He would often cut school to be at the head of the line to ride the merry-go-round, since the first round was free. He eventually became what Americans would call a carny.

#8

Dries was always up to something, and he seemed to relish it. He was unique among his family, and always seemed to be driven by something that the others weren’t.

#9

Dries’s clashes with his father became more frequent as he grew up. He began working for a small local circus on the Kloosterplein, run by a family named van Bever. The van Bevers couldn’t compete with the big European outfits, but Dries was guaranteed work there every season.

#10

Dries van Kuijk had many traits that were similar to his father, including his need to humiliate others around him. He also grew up feeling as if no one could be trusted.

#11

Dries’s first jobs were menial, at best. He sold and checked tickets on a trolley that ran between Breda and Oosterhout. But the bitter wind whipped through the trolley, and after a while, he decided he’d had enough.

#12

Dries was extremely dependent on his family, and he didn’t want to leave them. He wanted to be independent and make his money on his own time, in his own way. He felt resentment towards those who had made it.

#13

In 1925, Dries moved to Rotterdam to live with his father. He had a good job in the shipping office, and he was planning to start a new life with his uncle.
Insights from Chapter 2

#1

Andre had come to Rotterdam excited about his new life, but he soon realized that while his surroundings were different, some of the more irritating aspects of his home life were no better here.

#2

Andre worked at Spido, a company that made deliveries to ships. He also worked on a river taxi, or ferryboat, for passengers. He wanted to send money home to his mother, who was in terrible straits.

#3

Andre van Kuijk, the nephew of Jan Ponsie, left Holland to seek his fortune in 1926. He signed on board the Holland America Line, but never showed up in port. He may have been a stowaway, sneaking onto the ship.

#4

Andre van Kuijk, after getting off the ship, somehow managed to ingratiate himself into a Dutch family in Hoboken, and he lived with them. He didn’t write to anyone in Holland, and instead just disappeared.

#5

Andre worked for a booking agency that booked shows for small towns across America. He enjoyed the experience, but he was only able to do it during the summer season. In the winter, he hoboed around the country and learned about the various hobo jungles and crusty old vagabonds.

#6

Andre made it back to Holland on his mother’s birthday in 1927. He had spent nearly a year and a half in America, and when he returned, he seemed happy to be home. But within a month, his mood had darkened again. Europe was sliding toward a depression, and the jobs were becoming harder to find.

#7

Andre had a job with a shipping company called Huysers on the Prinsenkade, loading and unloading barges on the waterfront. He stored his good clothes and a few personal belongings in a locked trunk, which he positioned near his cot. He had no trust for the sailors, who knew better than to invite him for a night of drinking.

#8

The family received a third letter from Andre, this one provocative and suggestive. It placed him between two other men, sitting on a beach in an old-fashioned one-piece bathing suit, his legs drawn up and his knees together, his hands crossed in front of him in a feminine pose.
Insights from Chapter 3

#1

In 1957, Colonel Tom Parker was riding cross-country, returning to California from his home in Tennessee. He told young agent Byron Raphael that he had made a deal with someone to come to America, and that he was going to hide in the heartland to start working in carnivals.

#2

Parker was afraid of leaving the country, and he didn’t register with the US government because he was an overstayed seaman. He could have later just paid a fine.

#3

The search for Colonel Thomas Andrew Parker’s mysterious truth spawned a host of imaginative explanations. Some said he was a low-level government spy, or carried papers for the leaders of a radical social movement. But his family says he demonstrated no political agenda.

#4

The anonymous letter that was sent to the Breda newspaper fifty-one years after the fact stated that Andre van Kuijk had murdered the wife of a greengrocer on the Boschstraat in Breda. However, there is no evidence to tie Andre van Kuijk to the murder of Anna van den Enden.

#5

Andre van Kuijk was likely in Breda the weekend Anna was murdered. He had worked with the training of dogs, so he knew that police used German shepherds in the tracking of criminals. He might have thought that a snout full of pepper would prevent them from picking up a scent.

#6

The author of the anonymous letter that claimed Andre had killed Anna van den Ende was correct about 1961 being the year he was told the story. However, it is unclear if Andre actually visited the fruit shop on the morning of May 17, 1929.