Waregem, Flanders, Belgium
Waregem in the West Flanders between Ghent and Kortrijk is
my mother’s hometown. It’s not quite as small a place as I had imagined as a
child, now with about 38,000 population between the town and outlying villages
that are part of its commune. She followed my uncles who moved to the U.S. to
work shortly after WWII in 1955 as a young adult. With most family in the U.S.
the people we were in touch with in Waregem were mostly her cousins and her
best friend from childhood, Josette.
We visited for the first time in 1985, my mother’s first
return to Belgium in thirty years. Her only other trip back was when I took her
for a week visit in 2002. By then most of the family connections were deceased
and we stayed with Josette and spent a lot of time with her daughters and
grandchildren, with whom in recent years I have been in touch with on Facebook,
now my main connections in Belgium and my Waregem “family”.
Each time they see me traveling in Europe they asked, “but
when are you coming to Belgium?” This was finally the year, only about nine
months after my brother and sister-in-law met up with them all on a short trip
to Belgium last November.
My Waregem “family” treated me like royalty and gave
me a big box of local sweets and other goodies to take home. Hmmmm, I think
I’ll need to eat them on my trek since I’m not heading back to the U.S. right
away.
I planned my visit to coincide with Waregem’s biggest annual
event at the end of August called “Waregem Koerse”, essentially the Kentucky
Derby of Belgium as the country’s best-known horse race. As a child I often
heard my relatives talking about Waregem Koerse, an event that dates all the
way back to the mid-1800s as not only a horse race but the biggest party of the
year in town over several days. And it still is a town holiday when most
offices are closed and many people get the day off. Nowadays it’s a typical
carnival with downtown streets closed down and amusement park rides and fair
activities cluttering the central market and adjoining streets. And, of course,
there’s music the night before, lots of drinking, and festivities which
culminate in fireworks over the lake in a city park after the races are over.
“There’s our tax money going up in smoke,” Wesley commented.
I’ve actually never been to a horse race before. I had
planned to go to Kentucky Derby this year in May, but canceled when it ended up
pouring rain all day. Entrance at Waregem Koerse was only 20 Euros, and I
essentially had the run of the place, anywhere that didn’t say VIP. As crowded
as it was, it was surprisingly easy to work my way up to the fence for a “front
row seat” of the races, since with so much time between the eight races of the
afternoon, space quickly became available along the fence. I tend to think of
regular horse races just as which horse and its jockey can run around the track
the fastest. Here, though, there were three kinds of races – jockey on horse,
horse pulling chariot, and the steeplechase, one of which “The Grand Flanders
Steeplechase” race is the biggest and most famous of the all, a steeplechase
being a kind of horse racing obstacle course with several gates and berms over
which they have to jump.
But Koerse is a whole social event, with business side
parties held in the VIP suites of apartments overlooking the Hippodrome, to
women wearing big fancy hats as at Derby, appearances by a big crowd of Miss
Belgium contestants, and lots of drinking.
And, of course, it was good weather.
They say it’s always good weather for Waregem Koerse.
Being in Waregem again I felt right at home because I could
understand people very well. Flemish dialects differ significantly in grammar
and words as well as pronunciation. I’m hesitant to speak elsewhere in Belgium
or Netherlands because what I can say is a little different from what other
people are speaking, and I have no idea if the words I’m inclined to use are
standard ones, or in many cases local ones that someone from elsewhere isn’t
going to understand. But in Waregem all is good, and I can even joke around
with people.
So sixteen years since I was last in Waregem I was impressed
by how much modern construction there is around town, not just the ugly modern
shopping center built in the town in the 1970s but sleek glassy residential
buildings both in the center and on the outskirts. There’s just not a lot that’
quaint about the place to be honest even if there are a few prominent houses of
the former wealthy and even two castles in town.
As well as a church and market square, the center of Waregem
has a memorial statue to soldiers from town who died in the two world wars.
Unlike WWI, Belgium did not much fight when Germany invaded 1940 so experienced
few military casualties. One of few WWII names on the memorial, though, is
Maurice Vann Coppernolle, first husband of my mother’s cousin Celine and father
of my second cousin Jules who was killed on the second day of the war.
Waregem is also known for having the only American World War
I cemetery in Belgium, the Flanders Field American Cemetery and Memorial, which
President Obama visited in 2014. We visited in 1985 but I figured I’d pay a
second visit again to the small (only 390 graves) but beautifully laid out and
maintained cemetery. The U.S., of course, got into WWI late and didn’t enter
the fight in Belgium in the Ypres salient until August 1918, after which there
was some success in liberating some of Belgium from German control up until the
November 11th armistice, including a push through this area of the
country to Oudenaarde.
People in Waregem still have a significant relationship
with the cemetery. One of my hosts recounted how she had to learn the Star
Spangled Banner when she eight for a ceremony with her school at the cemetery,
while another member of the family recently “adopted” a soldier from the
cemetery to try to trace descendants or other family relations. President Obama
even went to the cemetery in Waregem in 2014 for 100th anniversary
of the Great War commemorations, maybe the most famous person in modern times
to visit my mom’s hometown.
It was great to see all my friends in Waregem and hard to
believe it was 16 ½ years since the last time I was there. It won’t be another
16 years until I’m back again!
2025-05-22