Yesterday was my father’s birthday. If it was already celebrated, then with the people of ‘office’. They appealed to each other with the surname.
Koster, Stam, Gerritsen, Sigmond, Vermeulen.
My father was ‘Van Roosmalen’, he insisted that it was not abbreviated to ‘Roos’ or ‘Roosje’. According to him, a civil servant was always formal, also in leisure time, because there too you could meet citizens.
His chef was called Kateman, we sometimes met him and his wife on the market. My mother said what groceries she had seen in Mrs. Kateman’s shopping bag.
“Cauliflower and a whopper of a baguette.”
Koster had a bunch of keys on the belt, the son of Sigmond always ran over the shoulder with a linen bag from the PSP. All officials voted CDA or PvdA, they all had posters behind the window during election time.
My father always treated apple pie. Never homemade, he thought that was too personal. Twelve pieces.
“Only for the ‘water’ department, otherwise I will continue to get started.”
He also said that there was singing in the department. And he got a hand from everyone. They watched each other’s reports, it went really hard.
“An official has no compassion.”
A younger colleague had once submitted a report on the cycle path between Rheden and Velp that partly ran along the IJssel. My father set out for a week to read it. He thought it was a very bad report. He practiced with my mother how he would bring this announcement.
“Keep it for business,” she said.
“But how do I do that?” My father asked. “He can’t go on vacation like that, it has to be all over again.”
He eventually offered to help, the younger colleague could go on vacation, but the typewriter had to come. My father also brought his typewriter to Switzerland. Sometimes they consulted, then my father called from Hotel Berghof in Wilderswil to his colleague’s holiday address.
It then closed with: “It will come.”
The report came, there was never anything with the recommendations. It always went that way, almost all his reports disappeared unread. But without language errors! After all, you never knew whether it was consulted later in the archive. Ever.
Marcel van Roosmalen writes a column on Monday and Thursday.