I was interviewed for the Christmas issue of the GelderlanderDespite everything, a great honor, my father spelled that newspaper. The Gelderlander was his window on the world. Maybe that’s why the big news events seemed to pass us by. My mother thought it was good paper compared to other newspapers, she used it to stuff into our wet shoes during the winter months.
The journalist’s name was Rob, we knew each other from the events surrounding Vitesse and he had interviewed me once before together with Theo Janssen, a conversation that, according to him, went completely off track.
Photographer and journalist sat together behind a steaming cup of coffee at a table in a café, waiting for their prey. It made me nostalgic; Oh well, that’s how it used to be. The photographer was allowed first, but Rob gave him a free hand.
“Do your thing and that’s it.”
The photographer saw a bare wall, a plant and a table lamp. He suggested that I lie down behind a table, bored, something I normally never do in a full cafe, but which he thought was very me. I especially hated De Gelderlander, which made Rob wonder why I did it anyway. I found that annoying for the photographer, he was never allowed to interfere with interviews and now the interviewer suddenly interfered with one of his photos, not even the main photo, the photographer had devised a whole scenario on the street, behind garbage cans in front of a wall with graffiti.
The photographer suggested that I lie down behind a table, bored, something I normally never do in a full cafe, but which he thought was very me.
Journalist Rob said that even though I do not live in Gelderland, I am still a well-known Gelderlander and that is why I appear in the Christmas newspaper with eleven others, just like Michel Schaay, the savior of Vitesse, and Alexandra van Huffelen who received him in a festive tutu in her room at Radboud University. I found it honorable and at the same time worrying that the editors of the Gelderlander could not have found a greater Gelderlander within Gelderland than I am. At the same time, I also understood that: the most successful Gelderlanders only flourish once they have left Gelderland, or they come from outside, get a high post in Gelderland and then act like the well-known Gelderlander for a while.
The best question was what De Gelderlander could do better to attract critical readers. I hope that Rob will type the answer from the band and not summarize it himself, but I have every confidence in that. For the reporting element, he walked along to the Hijman Ongerijmd bookstore, where I hurriedly wrote a speech for a meeting later that evening at which all Arnhem volunteers were put in the spotlight.
Rob waved goodbye. Too bad for him, lucky for me, because I had completely misjudged the atmosphere of the evening when the mayor and volunteers rubbed each other deliciously.
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