Contactdag/

Contactday

September 5, 1969

by: Jenneke JR.

In 1947, the Interprovincial Contactday was held for the first time. It was a very simple day and they had no idea that it would developed as such a big day in 1969 with football, volley-ball and tennis competitions during the day, some excursions to all kind of things in the province, a dinner and a special evening to close the day. And what a day it was that September 5th, 1969!

I had a whole day off from school. I don’t know or it was easy for my parents to organize that or not, but it was so nice to know that all your classmates are sitting at school and you’re free! I can tell you that.

In the morning, there was an excursion. We went to Spakenburg by bus together with some of my father’s colleagues and some people from other provinces. Of course, I was the youngest one and because my father was involved with the organization of that day, they all knew me and they were joking with me all the time. In Spakenburg itself, we made a trip with the most awful boat I have ever seen. We could hardly believe, that it was permitted to sail away with it. It wasn’t stable and we’re all afraid that the boat could sink every minute. Both my parents couldn’t swim so I had visions of whom I had to save first as the boat indeed turned up side down, but luckily we made it safely back into the harbor of Spakenburg after or tour. We all were relieved to stay on the wall again.

After the tour, we walked through the streets of Spakenburg and I got another costume doll here for my collection. Everybody in the bus asked me to tell them something more about my collection. It wasn’t that big at the time. I received my first costume doll from my father. He bought it for me during his days for the Interprovincial Contactday in Zeeland many years before. In that time I wasn’t collecting and obvious to young for such a doll, because I stripped her completely and then later had to bring her back in her original form again, which costed us (especially my mother) a lot of extra time and energy, but at the end the doll looked like the doll she was before.

In Spakenburg we also eat our lunch and drove then by bus to the sportfields where the members of the provincial games were playing against each other. That was the beginning of the search for my father, which continued almost the rest of the day. My father was wanted then here, then there. When we "thought" we found him, somewhere on one of the sportfields, he just went over to another one. Not very enjoyable. And when we later that afternoon went to the Kurhaus in Scheveningen, the same happened again. But there it was very amusing. Because I was so small, my mother said to me: "Go and find your father". There was no way out so what could happen? The question itself was very easy, but the result….. I slipped through all the people and asked everyone: "Can you tell me where my father is?". Everybody got to know me in the meantime and of course they knew whom I was searching. They answered me: "Sure. He’s there and there". I said: "Thanks" and run away to the location they told me, but when I finally arrived there, my father was gone again. At last everybody started to laugh if I showed up asking: "Did you still not find him?" "No" I answered then: "He looks like a ghost or something, disappearing all the time". And to make it even funnier: you never guess where he was when I finally, found him….. standing next to my mother and now it was me they were searching for!

We were reunited with each other and it was almost dinnertime. There were long tables standing in the Kurhaus and we got a place on a table with some others of the Contactcommissie. The food was great with ships, some meat and green peas. Especially the green peas where very funny. Jumping up and down my plate from time to time and we even rolled them over the table just like young kids are doing and we laugh a lot. There’s a special story to tell about the ships as well. For an 11 years old child, ships are the most wonderful food of the whole world so I eat and eat. Really got very hungry after all the excitement of the day. When the other people realized what was happening at our table, they started to bring their dishes with ships, which were left over there to our table. So I ended with a mountain of dishes of ships in front of me. They kept going and with every new dish that arrived they said: "There are more to come if you want". You had to see the faces of the waiters when they wanted to pick up everything. I guess, they had never seen something like that happening in the Kurhaus before. My father made jokes all the time about it and I hardly couldn’t eat a ship anymore, because I had such a pain in my stomach from all the laughing.

After the dinner, we had to leave the room for a while so that they could remove the tables and replace them with chairs for the evening. It was such a great show they brought us. First Frans van Dusschoten showed up and doing a little conversation with his "Jacob de Uil" performance and he got the biggest applause of the evening for that.

Then we get two singing girls, an illusionist and at the end The Cocktail Trio sang some songs. As you can see on the photo below, I even had a "connection" with a total stranger. Till now, we still have no idea who he was, but obvious he "liked" me, don’t you think so? By the way: good shot of the photographer!

Around 11 o’clock the evening ended and we went home. I had so much to tell my classmates the next Monday, they were so jealous when I told them, I had seen Frans van Dusschoten life performing. The TV program "De Fabeltjeskrant" (with Jacob de Uil) was very popular on Dutch TV at that time. It was so great to see from nearby all the things that happened during such an IPC and what my father was doing. Things I heard about so many times, but never realized what it really mend. Now I knew!

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