Hennie Kuijer presented the Radio Drenthe program for over 25 years Hemmeltied. She retired in June 2016 at the age of 70. This morning she was a special guest on the program.
Kuijer once started with the Drents Programma on Radio Noord, when that station was still broadcasting in two provinces, but moved along when Radio Drenthe itself started broadcasting in 1989.
Kuijer then did the very first broadcast on January 1 together with then editor-in-chief Henk ten Oever from cultural center De Kolk in Assen. “And there was a Saturday morning program that definitely had to be Drenthe. That’s how Hemmeltied was created,” says Kuijer. She liked live radio the most. “That is spontaneous and then something can go wrong.”
“People stayed at home for it in those days. That was the golden age, then a lot was still possible. The best thing was that we went on location. Then you came to a room where people were happy that you were there. Radio was then still very important.”
After her farewell, she did not sit still. Kuijer has more than 2,000 biscuit tins in a separate room along the wall in her house, which she collects. “People also bring them along and often there is something in them, a lot of glasses for example, or children’s toys. I have a hundred drums with the most diverse things.”
She also receives groups in that room. “There is room for 24 people. I have also devised a kind of theater performance. So I entertain people for an hour. And people also come up with stories themselves, the drums bring back memories. I really enjoy that.”
Kuijer is also active as a volunteer at Museum Farm Het Pasmanshuus in Ruinen, which is completely furnished as it used to be, with tools that were used in the past. “Next Saturday, July 22, we organized a farmers’ day. A bit in the vein of the fifties, when people could not take anything with them when they emigrated to Canada, for example. A lot of stuff was brought in. The proceeds go to the museum.”
“I have been writing columns for about fifty years now. I still do that under the name Jos in the local newspaper ‘T Ruunder Waopen. If you have a subject, the story is there,” says Kuijer.