Geert de Jong is happy that the municipality of Emmen now has the girl on loan for an indefinite period. “It was about time,” says De Jong, who is now 80 years old. “Especially given my age. I already said to my wife: ‘I hope that I will live to see the statue come to Emmen’.”
Merijn Vrij of Center for Visual Arts Emmen is also happy that the girl is back on familiar ground. “I think it has enormous emotional value for Emmen residents, especially the people who worked at the Danlon factory. The ‘Stocking Girl’ belongs to that factory and is a household name in Emmen. That factory no longer exists, but fortunately the ‘Stocking Girl’ So that she is back is very good news, “says Vrij.
“Emmen has made money from it for forty-three years,” says De Jong when he thinks back to the stocking factory. “It was very important for post-war Emmen. Danlon was one of the larger companies. At one point we had 1,500 or 1,600 employees there.”
After the statue was found in the Gelderse garden, the statue was restored. After the restoration, the ‘Stockings Girl’ stood in Museum Beelden aan Zee in Scheveningen as part of a retrospective exhibition by artist Pieter Starreveld.
For De Jong it seemed as if there was no end to it, but the girl has arrived here anyway. “You live towards it. I’ve always believed in it, but something kept coming up,” says the former employee, referring to the exhibition in Scheveningen.
“But he’s here,” says De Jong proudly. “He looks good here. I think he can stay here.” Nevertheless, the statue is temporarily in the town hall in Emmen. In a few months, the statue will move a few hundred meters away and will be located opposite the entrance to the Rensenpark.