Written by Jip Kok
There is a breath of fresh air within the association this year: (for the first time in forever) there are five enthusiastic board members, about twenty new members and, can you believe it, an active Archive committee! After we had blown away the dust from some archive pieces, there appeared to be some very interesting objects. The Media committee had the brilliant plan to let us write blog posts about these artefacts, to share some of the fascinating history of our association. As head of the Archive Committee, I have the honour of writing the first edition and I have chosen two related subjects: the original Pouleke on the one hand and why I joined the Archive Committee on the other.
This story begins outside the archive, from before I even knew the Archive Committee existed. I had heard from my lovely boyfriend Alex, your current praeses, sometime last year that there was once a mascot of LPR named Pouleke, named after ‘ma pouleke’ from Et Viens, our association's anthem. I thought this was fantastic, considering the chicken is one of my favourite animals and mascots are super cute. I became increasingly enthusiastic about court dancing at that time and had decided to join the association in September. Since the same lovely boyfriend had told me that I did need to do or make something for my inauguration, I decided to crochet a new Pouleke. Having no more information besides 'It's a mascot and it bears the name Pouleke', I started making a chicken over the summer.
As I was crocheting, LPR was at Radboud University's Introduction Market, and of course I was there as well. One of the objects the Introduction Committee had brought along to entice new members was the 1985 lustrum booklet. As I was curious, I picked it up and I don't think I put it down for the next hour; I read all kinds of fantastic stories about the first forty years of the association and the story that stayed with me the most can of course only be one: that of Pouleke. 'The Story of Pouleke' tells that the original Pouleke was a hand sewn mouse and had a blue (or green?) colour with a cute little white wig on her head. My first question, of course, was "Why a mouse?” Fortunately, that is explained in detail. I quote (in translation):
"In the days when L.P.R. had no permanent rehearsal space in the Lindenberg for the very simple reason that it had yet to be built, members of Précieuses were hard at work looking for a new rehearsal space, which they found in an old barn. They toiled hard to refurbish the thing to the point where you could dance in it. While everyone was sanding and painting, sawing, scrubbing and sweeping, they were visited by several families of mice, who curiously came to see what was going on in the shed.
And when the place was renovated and used as a rehearsal room, the mice danced along. Hence, a handy member got the idea to make a mascot in the shape of a mouse, which received the name Pouleke."
I read that Pouleke was given to the abactis, partly because she did not yet have an attribute, and partly because the little mouse fitted in the trophy — the praeses' attribute — and the abactis and praeses of the board in question had wedding plans, "like so many before them and so many after them". Now I hope my praeses (as mentioned earlier, also lovely boyfriend) and abactis do not have such plans, but I did find enough cause here to gift my magnum opus, Pouleke the chicken, to the abactis at my inauguration.
This piece is already starting to get far too long, but there are still three things I want to touch on briefly. Firstly, that in 'From Hammer to Table Bell' in the same lustrum booklet, it is explained that Pouleke the mouse (aka Pouleke I) was gifted to the new board in 1971 by Marianne, who was the abactis at the time, and that in 1984 she (Pouleke, not Marianne) was deemed old enough to wear an evening gown, given by the LGG board, at the gala.
Secondly, that I was told by Hans that there was another Pouleke after the I and before the III. This one was also a little mouse and it was also known as Pouleke Noir. He also corrected me at the inaugural GMA, rightly so, that my Pouleke is therefore actually Pouleke III, and not Pouleke II, as I had said in my speech. Perhaps a future edition of 'From the Archives' could provide some more information on Pouleke II?
Pouleke III
Lastly, a word about why I joined the Archive Committee. After standing at that introductory market boring, um, entertaining everyone with all the marvellous stories from the lustrum booklet, I was told that there were even more booklets! Not only that, but also an unknown archive to be unlocked! In case this does not sound like music to your ears, I can only conclude that we are different people, because this sounded like a dream to me. How the archiving has pleased me and the rest of the committee so far can be read in the latest issue of the Balancé ;)
~ ◈ ~
Reactie plaatsen
Reacties