At the bottom of Oranje street, across Utrechtse Road, we're facing the Blind Institute housed in the white building, behind it flows the river Rhine.
At the extreme left, just visible with the high roof was our place of residence only a few years back.
The tram shelter at the base of our street, became a look-out for us, but not for a tram.
At one time we were drawn into the craze of jotting down car registration numbers.
The kid who gathered the first 1000 numberplates on paper was offered a brand new bike from Hagen’s Bazaar at Hommel Street.
Day after day we set inside the tram shelter down Oranje Street facing Utrechtse Road, with pencil and paper, noting all passing vehicles until our necks were sore and hands were dropping off.
The bike was probably already under someone’s smart bottom, while we were still at it with our score sheet of useless figures!
Mind you it took us truly days and days to get that magical 1000 number, which says a lot about the volume of traffic that time. The prize might have escaped us, but at least the counting exercise strengthened our arithematic.
In the years ahead the traffic would decrease with the scarcity of fuel and we would see strange contraptions on the back or roof of cars, propelled by burning wood or coal.