Column Ronald den Boer
Dinosaurs may be officially extinct, but in Den Helder they are still very much alive. And the group is growing steadily.
There is nothing wrong with that. By now, I am also one of the ‘things-were-better-back-to-the-days’ generation. One of those behemoths who wistfully looks at old photos of the city. From the time when you still had furniture stores, a bakery, and a supermarket at the end of Spoorstraat. All gone. Just like the Tivoli cinema on Koningstraat. There, you would furtively peek at shop windows advertising film titles like 'With Your Waldhorn Among My Alps' and 'In Tyrol, the Trousers Hang from the Mountains'. Only later did it turn out that you saw more on an average beach than in those films, and that the main actors, moreover, acted like old news. But for a fifteen-year-old, anything unattainable or forbidden was incredibly exciting. Nowadays, I still occasionally roll off my chair. I look at a photo of Beatrixstraat on social media. One of those from the time when you could effortlessly drive four cars side by side there. The Beatrixstraat, where small trees stood withering away in concrete planters. I read in the comments: 'Yes, back then the city was still cozy.'‘
‘'Huh?'’
Or I see a photo on Facebook of sixties-era apartment blocks with a stone expanse in front of them. On Saturdays, Julianaplein was completely—mind you: completely—filled with cars. Then I read in the comments: 'Back then, at least you still had enough parking spaces.' I would rather think: East Germany is not dead.
Nowadays, Beatrixstraat is car-free. The many leafy terraces are packed with people in the summer. A striking number of young people, too. Anyone exiting the station no longer looks out onto a expanse of stone – once touted as a parade ground for the navy – but onto a city park. That leads you to the sea in a fifteen-minute walk.
All sorts of things are happening in Den Helder. The city is changing, sometimes drastically. That takes some getting used to. Especially for us dinosaurs. Besides, life used to be simpler back in the day. The internet didn't exist; no one had heard of smartphones, TikTok, or Facebook yet. Did you have something to complain about? Then you went and sat on a bench, usually along the harbor. That is where older residents would gather to wistfully reminisce, leaning on a cane. Grumbling that everything was better in Den Helder in their younger years.
What were those places popularly called? The 'lie benches'.
