The most famous pub owner in Baarle-Hertog is no longer. Manager Disco Nel died at the age of 98. For 72 years the Baarlese Grande Dame stood behind the bar at Café Nova. “Baarle says goodbye to an icon.”
Mayor Philip Loots thinks it is a huge loss, he says on his Facebook page. “Such a shame, we had agreed to ride with the mayor of Baarle-Nassau with a carriage through the village next year, if you would turn 100. Rest softly, Nel. You have more than earned it,” he says.
“During last carnival we were able to honor Nel as the oldest resident of Smokkelgat,” the members of CV De Grenszuukers write sadly on their Facebook page. For villagers, Nel Jacobs-Peeters was a true phenomenon. She was the oldest pub boss in the village, the oldest resident of the village and a beacon of hospitality. Everyone was welcome in her pub.
Smuggling aid
Disco Nel has experienced a lot behind the bar. She taped beers, neighborhooded with everyone and did not shy away from anyone. “I can tell it now, I helped them a lot,” she said in 2017 laughing about the smugglers in her pub. “I had to remove the numbers from the butter. The suppliers then came with a thousand kilos of butter and if they were caught, they could see the songs we had brought it. So they had to get rid of it. That was quite a job.”
Generation gap
But times change. “It has become a lot less pleasant,” Nel said then. “If there is a group of five young people here, they are all looking at their phone. I say, would you not even get rid of that thing and a little neighborhood?” A little upbringing from behind the tap. Who didn’t get big with it.