Staphorst Piano Stool

My favorite place to take visitors to in The Netherlands was always Staphorst. 

Back in the 1990's the men and women and children there were still wearing the local native attire that the inhabitants have worn for ages. I even collected a few items of clothing at the local souvenir shop. All of the clothing was second hand, but it still looked in great shape.

Back in the 80's and 90's it was impolite to photograph the religious residents in their native costumes, but I will see if I can find a photo or two by Googling.

Since the following photos are on the official city of Staphorst website, I suppose that I can show them here.

The first one is of two small children in klederdracht (traditional native costume). Besides the wonderful clothing, look at the bright blue painted lower part of the brick house. That color is not unusual. 

This second shot is of typical female attire. (Probably a special day or contest for the most authentic clothing.)

Love the bright shawls, headpieces, and isn't the little blond girl's hairdo amazing? Those girls have on layers of clothes, and most of the skirts are pleated wool.

This third photo shows the bright green and red shutters on this house. Notice the blue windowsills!

And here is a photo of a house visited by Queen Beatrix on a special occasion a few years ago.  Although this is a working farm, everything is immaculate all the time, even when the queen does not come to call.

Besides the odd piece of Staphorst clothing, I own the Staphorst piano stool shown below. When we were visiting Staphorst about 20 years ago, there was a barn sale going on. We bought this piano stool for about $5.00.

Notice the same color green paint as on the outside shutters. It has looked like this since we bought it. I would never even dream of removing the original paint.

We do not use the stool by the piano, since we already had a piano stool. The stool pictured above sits in my crafts room waiting for me to sit down and take a break.