The Jolige Uilenspiegels
In 1936 August Vanistendael, Florent Michils and Jozef Coleman wanted to offer something other than plays and organised a variety evening. They called themselves ‘De Jolige Uilenspiegels’ (The Jolly Owlglasses): Vanistendael wrote the texts, Coleman the music, and Michils played the piano and directed. It was an instant success, with performances in Diegem, Zaventem and as far as Zemst.
During the war a second generation of young Catholic workers (KAJ) took over, led by Maurits Materne and Isidoor Spruyt and with a small band. When Coleman was sent to Germany for forced labour in 1943, Karel Coussé took over the musical direction. They played for Winter Relief among others, until a last show in March 1944, when the first bombs fell nearby. After the war the group merged with a cabaret troupe set up by curate Van Montfort in 1946. Highlights were ‘Shylock, the Merchant of Venice’ in 1945 and the parable play ‘The Prodigal Son’ in 1948, with a symphony orchestra and a mixed choir of 60 voices. Until 1975 the Uilenspiegels performed some 40 times; after that they remained friends, with a monthly savings-club evening and an annual trip.
Chiro
Shortly after the liberation, in 1944, curate Frans Van Montfort founded the St Tarcisius Chiro group for boys, with Georges Boulanger as its first leader. At first the parish hall served as its base; new youth premises followed in 1964. In 1979 the group celebrated 35 years with a soapbox race and a Star Parade. In 1945 a girls' group followed, the Chiromeisjes Gidi, with Suzanne Vanhooff as first leader. They met in the parish school, from 1956 in ‘Ons Gedoe’ and later in an empty house of the church council in the Groenstraat. The Chiro also held a children's song festival, which reached its tenth edition in 1978.
Milac and ’t Diegemnerke
When Vital Orolé became curate in 1956, he also founded Milac, a club that built a bridge between parish and barracks: it kept in touch with the young men doing military service and sent them parcels. The first chairman was Jan Van Leemputten. In February 1957 the monthly ’t Diegemnerke appeared, at first as a stencil of 60 copies, with a front page by Arthur Peeters, who from then on was its regular illustrator and later its editor-in-chief. In January 1978 the 250th issue came out, celebrated with an exhibition of Peeters' work. The paper grew into a Diegem monthly of more than 900 copies that few households were without. Milac also organised concerts and a book fair, and in 1978 the provincial opening of Soldiers' Week.
New clubs after 1960
In the 1960s and 1970s many new clubs appeared. The angling club ‘Het Stekelbaarsje’ (The Stickleback, 1960) was allowed to fish the pond around the cultural centre. In March 1962 André Van Win founded the Brabant Accordion Club, which grew to 30 accordionists of all ages; Rudy Perdaen became Benelux organ champion in 1975 and 1977. In September 1964 came the table tennis club Smash-Club, which played in the Gildenhuis. The Edelweiss drama group performed from 1965 to 1978, and the Astron youth club existed from 1967 to 1972.
At the end of 1969 the Nagasaki jiu-jitsu club started, on an old mat that was really meant to be put into storage; after five years it had more than 100 members, and every Monday evening the Diegem police were given lessons there. In 1971 came the Bacchus youth club for people in their twenties, with carnival, wine festivals and the football team F.C. Inonzentijd, and the golf billiards club B.C. Diegemlo in the café ‘Sportvriend’. The United Traders, founded in January 1975, held an annual trade fair from March of that year, three weeks before Easter; in October 1977 the Difodia photo club started in the old town hall.