SUGAR
BAGS
Filing cabinet I of Izak contains 35 files filled with sugar bags. And that is not all. Cabinet J of John also contains a number of ring binders. And on top of cabinet V there are four wine boxes with double bags and ones that still have to be put in the ring binders. It is obvious that I did not collect that many sugar bags by drinking cups of coffee all by myself in different places. I owe it to my many friends (male and female), acquaintances and family members that there are so many bags (and wrappers) in my archive.
Two years ago things got somewhat out of hand when my father went to the town hall of Nijkerk and -having a coffee- took a sugar bag without using it. This caught the attention of Mr Gerrit van der Zee, a civil servant: he also collected sugar bags. But he actually wanted to get rid of his collection. It had become too much for him and the more he got, the more difficult it became to still find pleasure in it. This was a collection of about thirty thousand bags. Would I be interested. Well, yes of course.
So one fine night he came by. With a car filled with blue files. We sat down and talked a while, and I understood very well that he wanted to be certain that his collection would be handled with decency and care.
The files were put on the linen closet and stayed there for a while, but this couldnft stay that way. That is why the filing cabinets were reorganized. The files of cupboard I – with boxes filled with information about my movies – were moved to cabinet G, and the contents of cabinet G was brought away. That was part of our Vrij Nederland collection, which was more or less complete since 1970. But yes, one sometimes has to make choices, so Vrij Nederland was transferred to the Nederlands Foto Instituut. (Dutch Photomuseum)
So at present there are a few major problems to be solved: I have to incorporate my own collection in the one of Mr Van der Zee, ánd I have to devise a comprehensible classification for all those bags that donft have the name of a pub and a place name printed. Of course they are all classified by country, and each country has its own classification problems, but for Holland it is most urgent. The amount of bags carrying advertising spots, major companies with many establishments, and caterers make it impossible to make a selection based on a place name. The most obvious method would be of course to arrange by pub, hotel, etc. I actually figured out a classification system, but I have to investigate whether this is indeed the most perfect one. The combination of the two collections is mainly a matter of doing a lot of work. In both collections the bags are pasted on different sheets of paper. But almost everything ought to be classified over again. This means that the bags have to be steamed over a kettle of boiling water and then, have to be pasted on sheets of paper again. Yes, my fingertips are slightly burned. The work is progressing steadily, but slowly. I reserve the winter evenings for this job, and I really take good care that my real work does not suffer at the expense of my hobbies.
Why, oh why? That is a question that is hard to answer sufficiently. I suspect that it is a kind of self-therapy, combined with a longing to have world power. (In my own sugar bag country I am master of a large emporium). The official reason I like to give is that the sugar bags are a kind of time machine. And that is also true. They enable me to step back into another era. The 1950s and 1960s were the heyday of sugar bags complete with images of local pubs and hotels. The graphic design and typeface of the bags also contribute to this feeling. I regard sugar bags as a kind of industrial archaeology. Of course every now and then I think: shouldn't I make a movie out of this? But of course, this is a subject that interests nobody. So I leave it at that, for the moment.