'Kastenbaas in Mokum' and 'Kroegtijgers van toen' by Frans Bakker
| Title: | Kastenbaas in Mokum |
| Author: | Frans Bakker |
| Pages: | 182 pages, softcover |
| ISBN: | 90.809098.1.5 |
'Kastenbaas in Mokum' and 'Kroegtijgers van toen' are both written in Dutch.
Althoug this website is visited most by english speaking people, I do wish to include these dutch books.
At least english speaking visitors will now know they exist, and the dutch speaking visitors can buy these great books.
Both books are written bij Frans Bakker. He was an operator of jukeboxes, pinball and gambling machines in the city of Amsterdam, from somewhere in the 1950s until the 1990s.
The books are a collection of short stories, each two to six pages long, of what happened during his career. Stupid, funny, tragic events.. special people he met, and much more.
Usually each story could be summarised in one or two sentences (i.e. they had to hurry so picked up a bingo in an open trailer, didn't tie it down so the machine fell out).. but Frans has an entertaining writing style, and gives you so much extra information about the people and where it happened, that you can really visualise everything like you would have been there yourself.
Because they're all small stories, these are not books you read from beginning to end in one session. Just read every day a few stories.
I really like these books. As far as I know they are unique, I don't know of any other operator that have published their 'memoirs'. Most operators have a lot of strong stories that they'll gladly tell you when you sit with them in a pub, but these never get published..
| Title: | Kroegtijgers van toen |
| Author: | Frans Bakker |
| Pages: | 174 pages, softcover |
| ISBN: | 90.809098.2.6 |
'Kroegtijgers van toen' is the second book by Frans Bakker.
After the success of the first book he wrote down more stories about what happened during his life
as an operator in the center of Amsterdam.