Anecdotes

Events

One-year anniversary

Cor and I liked to do things that were a bit different; sometimes for the better, sometimes for worse. But by far the best things were made up by the people of Cor-rupt; in shenanigans, in music, and in events. One of the best surprises was the party for the one-year anniversary. We were picked […]

All in it together

Christmas decorations together

Cor-rupt was a long and narrow café with relatively little daylight and dark wooden panels on the wall. A kind of modern ‘brown café’. That didn’t really affect the conviviality but creating a different kind of atmosphere was difficult. Decorating for a birthday or a holiday required a lot of imagination and especially a lot […]

Food and drink

Picnic

Of course, it got a bit routine having brunch every week throughout the year, so in the summer we had a picnic instead. Everyone out to het Amsterdamse bos! We had one car, a lot of bicycles, a tram (yes, it was still there) and a boat, Pierre’s tugboat. In the car went the dogs, […]

Events

Tip Jar Outings

In Cor-rupt there was an old stone ‘piss-pot’, our tip jar. We got quite a lot of tips and therefore decided to have a weekend outside Amsterdam with all the (more or less) regular customers once every two years. In total, we left Cor-rupt four times in the nine years. We went to Antwerp then […]

Events

The trip to Lochem

On outings, we usually went with one coach, sometimes supplemented by our own transport. However, hiring a coach was pricey, especially if we didn’t go back the same day. So, we decided to go to Lochem with as many cars as possible. The rest (about twenty-five) would follow by train. On that Friday we all […]

All in it together

Regulars of the Brainbox Bar

Having many foreign guests we often went to Schiphol. Hardly anyone had a car and taxis were expensive butwe always had an old car (for moving beer barrels). We collected people from and brought people back to the airport. It was nice to pick up family of friends or people who came back every year. […]

All in it together

Opening Cor-rupt during Anti-Nuclear Weapons demonstration

In ’83 I think, there were large demonstrations against nuclear weapons in the Netherlands. That led to many interesting (political) discussions in the bar. Cor and I wanted to join at least once so we had announced that on one Saturday we would not open the bar until 6pm. However, a few regulars always played […]

Cultures, quirks and customs

To tease or not to tease that is the question

Cor-rupt was an Amsterdam café and that meant Amsterdam humour. Everyone took part in all sorts of ways. Sometimes very implicit but sometimes a bit rude. (That ‘always’ also applied to grumbling, if there wasn’t a complaint, we’d get worried). Of course, there were easy and less easy ‘victims’ although it must be said that […]