So then

For most of his working life, my father was employed by the municipality of Rotterdam. After leaving the navy and driving around in a taxi, he ended up at a hardware store in the old west and, with a short stopover as a methadone bus driver, he found refuge in Diergaarde Blijdorp, department of technical services. A visit to the zoo was like another #nature for me. My secondary school is on the other side of the tunnel on the Van Aerssenlaan and every hour in between, and even after school I was among the animals. Of course, it was also a great place to take friends and girlfriends and not only the Rotterdam zoo, but Amersfoort, Artis, Emmen and Beekse Bergen were also free for our family. At some point, the Efteling also joined this organization and, in my memory, we were also able to go to the Dolphinarium and the Spido, but that aside. The zoo as a private garden; complete with behind-the-scenes tours, visits outside opening hours and special encounters.

I remember well that the educational service had set out a scavenger hunt through Blijdorp, especially for group visits and schools. These were four A4 sheets with a short route through the garden, which at the time was only half as big as it is today - but more about that later - culminating in an observation assignment in the apes enclosure. The instruction was to keep an eye on a particular monkey for ten minutes. A diagram noted possible behaviors, such as climbing, playing, eating, smirking or laughing and patting the chest. Before this scavenger hunt came into circulation, I was allowed to test the route and questions for eligibility. Armed with a sharp pencil and, if possible, an even sharper eye, I caught mail with the primates. Without technological tools such as a timer on a smartphone (the mobile wasn't there yet) or even a stopwatch, I lost sight of the clock above my head and was even disturbed at one point by the evening shift sweeping the garden. The peats placed in large numbers, but I was still waiting for the one empty booth to be filled in. I believe I've never seen a monkey hit his chest.

The zoo also has an active staff association. For all professional groups (babysitters, public functions, first aid, management, office, hospitality, etc).) was provided with entertainment in the form of a football tournament, card nights, a billiards club and staff parties (often accompanied by the Blijdorp Band), including the annual birthday party on December 5. The holy man had made a pact with Bart and the blacksmith's secret was to guess what story the packages were once again not at the agreed location on time. Both the servant and staff were right for me for a few years and I even had my brother on my lap without revealing my true identity. When a colleague of my father participated in the Rotterdam Marathon at a good time, the idea of the mini marathon came about. The circumference of the zoo was exactly 42 kilometers and with weekly training after work, the fun plan was to take a walk out of it. At its peak, the race had at least forty participants who put their best foot forward with varying degrees of success.

The ice cream sale as an additional income, but also attending special moments such as shooting television programs with the zoo as a setting (The Puppet Stand) or location (The Playback Show), made this part of Rotterdam an indispensable place for me. My little brother quickly became a driver on the train that connected the two continents after the construction of the Oceanium. My favorite memory of the underwater world is cleaning the tunnel tube in a diving suit.

Kiboko children's jungle was also exactly nothing at first. In my opinion, the wooden structure connected to thick rope cables was stomped out of the ground at a pace that was far too slow. For weeks, I had to wait for the one announced Thursday afternoon when we were sent into the jungle with thirty, maybe fifty men at the same time. The only real test phase, so anything was possible and everything was allowed. I can still smell the new wood and fresh rope, I can still feel the roughness of the wicker, as it were, and can still think back down the swinging slide for the very first time. All in the hammock to see if it could take the weight and climb back up twenty times. Not because it was necessary, but simply because it was possible.