The pea peelers
](https://micrio.thingsthattalk.net/JYOxU/views/max/640x640.jpg)
A poster of a can of green beans, produced in the Nieuwenhuizen factory, c.1925. - Erfgoed Leiden en Omstreken
Ton points out that the stones next to the doorway to his house are completely polished. If you touch them with your hand, they feel soft and smooth - they hardly resemble stone. But as soon as you move your hand further away from the door post, the surface gets rough again.
The reason for this difference is that for years, knives have been sharpened using the stones of the wall. Ton tells us that there used to be a large can factory right across the Wolmaransstraat - the Firma Nieuwenhuizen. Nieuwenhuizen produced canned vegetables such as peas, carrots, green beans and broad beans. This factory was in use up until 1972. This means that Ton and Loes moved here after the factory moved away, but Ton still knows a great deal about its history.
In the vicinity of the factory were several streets with workers' houses. One of these is the Wolmaransstraat, built in 1880. All the houses in this street were workers' houses. The rent was often (partially) paid by working in the factory. In particular, the women in the street were overrepresented in factory work: almost all women worked as bean shellers to earn some extra money. They often sat in front of the house, peeling and shelling beans and carrots all day long.
Children were also dominant in the streetscape. Sometimes they helped with the shelling, other times they were just playing while the women watched. It was a family-like bond: the mothers in the street were mothers of all children, and the children were the children of all mothers. So as a mother you could safely leave your child alone in the street - you knew that it would be watched by one of the other women.
At the same time, there was also a lot of bickering amongst the residents, Ton tells us. For example, if there was a fight, shelled beans were stolen from each other, so that the victim earned less money. When the men returned from their jobs in construction in the evening, things got more physical. Yet these petty fights would often end the quarrel - and the next day all was usually forgiven and forgotten.