The Story of Piet Stoop (1937)
Story of Piet Stoop (1937): worked for Jansen de Wit in Geldrop for almost 40 years.
"My father always said: if you go to work somewhere, don't take too long, because if you work everywhere, you learn something everywhere. That's how it came about that as a fourteen-year-old kid I worked in many different companies until the military service. Autogenous welder, mechanic. Then I voluntarily entered the navy; I was a trained steam and engine mechanic. No, there weren’t any tattoos. After that, I was able to work as an apprentice mechanic at Jansen de Wit in Geldrop. That was a spinning mill. That was where the yarn was made for the weaving.
I went from being a mechanic to becoming the chief mechanic, and spent the last 8 years as chief technical service. I had rather not been this. Because then the problems come from above and below, and you are stuck in the middle. I got away with an arrangement. Twice I had to get someone out of the machines. His arm was stuck past the elbow in the combing machine. There was no victim support, though. I saw my first looms in the weaving museum. I assembled the épinglé loom myself, but I have no understanding of threading armour. My heart is still with the spinning mill. I'll see the machines in a minute. If something wasn't right, I saw it immediately. Ironing and worsted yarn, nothing else was made. A weaver does not understand that a spinner must deliver first-class yarn; "hedde kwaai garen, dan hedde kwaai doek!" The spinning machines of the 'preparation' in the Weaving Museum belong to me. That's how it feels."
