Juergen's done it again! Sometimes you feel like dancing!

Juergen has been uploading pictures, taken in the Netherlands
He’s showing bits of the Netherlands in a beautiful way, making the very best use of the quirky weather there, and highlighting some of the more attractive parts of this crowded country, partly below sea-level and holding the same population as Australia, in an area half the size of the smallest state of Australia, Tasmania.
With this picture
he’s brought back a flood of memories again because it’s taken in the area of the Lage Vuursche.

That is where the leaders and members of the A.J.C. (Socialist Youth Centre) had a building erected in 1923, which was named: De Paasheuvel (Because on that hill, in the past, at Easter time, fire had been lit.) Around this building a camping area was established.

As a member of the A.J.C., like my parents (who met through the AJC) before me I too stayed in one of those tents, in probably, 1954.
Only child (two younger brothers didn’t survive birth), I am supposed to have been rather protected and so, going camping, on the other side of the Netherlands was quite an experience.
The A.J.C., as can be seen by my translation of it’s name , was more-or-less, a left-wing version of the scouts and guides. More casual uniform and emphasis on boys and girls singing, dancing, walking, acting, and learning skills together, with an perhaps idealistic goal of making a better, more understanding world, in a country where pillarisation was the norm.
(My mother used to love to repeat: Class difference has to just be! She meant it to be slightly ironic but a statement of reality that people simply are different.)
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I’ve told all this before but Juergen’s picture brought back memories of spending a few days with one, or two hundred fellow AJCers, who sat around campfires at night. Who sang lots of songs. Who went walking a lot, possibly where Juergen took his photo and who taught me the Dutch version of the song: There’s a hole in the bucket, which I enjoyed teaching to pupils, on the other side of the world, many times over.

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P.S.. I was too young to understand but, during the week that I attended, there was a group of very young teenagers present. They were from a sister-organisation based in a country to the north of the Netherlands and I don’t know whether it was a particular type of cider, or some other liquid but they were a little too happy and too keen to sing, at night, in the amphi theater, around the campfire. :)
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Kids! Kids!
Laughing, singing, dancing, grinning, morons!
And while we’re on the subject!
Kids! They are just impossible to control!
Kids! With their awful clothes and their rock an’ roll!
Why can’t they dance like we did
What’s wrong with Sammy Caine?
What’s the matter with kids today!
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The “Paasheuvel” was the pride of the A.J.C.. Margot Vos wrote a song about it:

Voor ’t donkere bosch, aan de wijde hei.
(Before the dark forest, beside the wide heath)
Machtig beschermd en toch eindloos vrij.
(Mightily protected and yet endlessly free.)
Tusschen de rust en het naaldgeruisch,
(Among the peace and rustle of the pine-needles)
Rijst onze woning, ons makkerhuis.
(Rises our abode, our comrades home.)
Thank you wikipedia and thebroadwaymusicals.com

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Tags:

ajc, arbeiders, camping, centrale, idealism, jeugd, memories and youth