The Sixties:
A little Dutch girl with
pigtails and a mouth full of braces watched on black-and-white
TV and with Dutch voice artists a wonderful series with planes
and machines and asked: "Mom, can a human marry a puppet?" She
learned the road to and from school became longer as she made
up new stories, and the little Dutch girl's little boyfriends
obediently had to save her from fates worse than death. She
should've written down those stories.
The Early Seventies:
An 'adult' and
'sophisticated' Dutch teenager troubled her head over how to
combine fighting with her parents over the length of her skirt
and the hour she had to come home at night with watching a
children's series. Marry a puppet? No, but maybe you could do
other things with them. She should've written down those
stories.
The Late Seventies:
A less 'adult' and less
'sophisticated' Dutch teenager told everybody that it was a
sentimental journey when she watched that 'old series.' "No, I
don't know why I was so fond of that stupid thing." But now it
was aired with the original voices and that did something to
her. She should have written down those stories.
The Eighties:
A young adult Dutchwoman
sometimes smilingly remembered that fantastic TV series with
those planes and machines. It would be fun to see it once
more. It would be fun if there would be new episodes. She
wrote those stories down.
The Nineties:
An older adult Dutchwoman
needed a schedule to keep track of all the TV channels that
aired a series that was even greater than she remembered. But
she also foamed at the mouth because of what was being done to
her series. Ages, birth order... "Is there no one left who
remembers it as it was?" What was the use of writing about
them? And the stories that were, were destroyed.
The New Century:
The series is available
on DVD! I can watch it whenever I want. And there are people
out there who remember it as fondly as I do. And what's
more...they write stories too! And a middle aged Dutchwoman
with a young heart strives painstakingly to write again.
