The Flower Parade will be on the Eelder menu for the 67th time tomorrow. Four volunteers from Hooiweg-Schelfhorst corsowijk are already building the corso for the 46th time this year.
Together they have 184 years of corso experience, yet none of the four men dare to make a prediction about the success of their float. Although Chris Huisman’s ‘Wandering’ design is popular, modesty suits Theo Stroetinga, Berthus Arends, Arend Arends (no relation) and Pieter Wit. “I find it very difficult to say,” says Arend Arends, for example. “But when I see how we work together and how we have scored in recent years, I see no reason why we should do badly this year.”
Nevertheless, construction colleague Pieter Wit says that it is not all plain sailing. “Three weeks ago we didn’t like it at all,” he laughs. “The car was too big, we thought. We would never finish it. But within a few days you saw the car grow, foil came around it and we thought: oh, yes! Now if you see how it is going… Yes, that’s great.”
Together with Theo, Pieter puts ‘staples’ on the wagons. Simple work but no less important. “You just have to tackle all the work,” says Theo. “We have a whole team that assists us, fortunately. And it’s just fun.”
Conviviality predominates and that’s how it should be, says parade district chairman Berthus. “That’s how Mr. Plantinga, who was at the cradle of the parade, came up with it,” he knows. “With us you see that after every evening a beer is drunk. Whether it is half past nine or a quarter past eleven: we close together. That’s great.”
With three evenings a week, countless hours are spent building a car. Berthus admits that he will be happy if he has nothing to do for a while in the autumn. “Then you have a few more evenings when you are at home. Fortunately, my wife knows that there is a period in which she has to miss me more often in the evenings. That starts in the spring and ends a week after the parade.”
It is clear that the four volunteers now approach things differently than they did thirty years ago. For example, a new generation is ready to tackle the heavier work, says Berthus. “We do have some guys who take up the welding work, for example. Pieter and I have three generations here, which is nice to see.”
“You’re getting a bit stiff, aren’t you”, Pieter laughs. “Then you wake up with some trouble. But while we still can, we will continue.”
Tonight we are still working hard on the car, which must be ready tomorrow morning at 8 o’clock. “That goes on all night,” says Berthus.
Only when the car joins the parade can the great enjoyment begin. The corsowijk has often succeeded in winning the main prize. “If you take the highest price, you just walk along the course crying,” says Arend. “That does something to you, even if it’s all for fun. You end up doing it intensively.”