Club life in 1957
A survey from 1957 gives a good picture of club life in Diegem. There were trade unions (the Christian ACV with 110 members, the socialist ABVV with 248), health insurance funds of every persuasion, such as the ‘Volksbond’ with branches in the centre and in Lo, the League of Large and Young Families with 134 families, the Davidsfonds with 90 members and a parish choir of 30 singers. People played billiards in the Gildenhuis and shot at the horizontal pole, and there were five pigeon clubs, among them ‘De rappe Duif’, ‘De Hoop’ and ‘De Zwarte Duif’. Diegem then had one cinema, Cinema Modern with 300 seats, and four dance halls; at Epiphany people still went from door to door.
Farmers' guild and Davidsfonds
The Diegem farmers' guild, affiliated to the Belgian Farmers' League (Boerenbond), was founded in 1907 and was active in both parishes. At its golden jubilee in 1957 Mgr Cruysberghs, general chaplain of the Boerenbond, was a guest; the guild then still had 45 members, and in 1977 it merged with that of Machelen.
The Davidsfonds was founded on 18 January 1931 in the Patronaat, as an offshoot of the Zaventem branch; of the 150 people present, 100 had previously been members in Zaventem or Evere. The initiative came from parish priest J.E. Davidts; the first chairman was the industrialist Edward Hendrickx. The branch had its own drama group, for which Victor Servranckx painted the sets. In 1940 everything stopped, but it started again right after the war. With about 100 members the Davidsfonds put on plays, lectures, song evenings and exhibitions, and major concerts in the parish church, such as an organ recital by Jozef Sluys and the oratorio ‘Dodendans’ (Dance of Death).
Women, workers and theatre-goers
The KAV (Catholic Workers' Women) probably began as early as 1927 as a Christian women's guild; in 1930 the members went to the World Exhibition in Antwerp. At the instigation of Maria Boulanger-Couder this gave rise to the Kinderheil Sint-Anna child welfare clinic, which held its first consultation on 21 April 1932 in the St Joseph school. The branch ran a practical school, hospital visits in Vilvoorde, gymnastics and swimming, needlework exhibitions and annual trips, and had 280 members in 1980.
The KWB (Christian Workers' Movement) also had roots before the war, in the Christian Workers' Union, and revived in 1945; that year Diegem-Lo got a branch of its own. With 160 members the KWB was one of the most active clubs, with competitions, trips, cycling and walking tours, courses and St Nicholas parties. Its drama group was already performing ‘Schip in nood’ (Ship in Distress) in the Gildezaal in 1952 and since then staged two plays a year, in other villages too, for years directed by Jan Van Tilborgh.
The Friends of the KVO (the Antwerp opera) went back to the pre-war drama group of Diegem-Star. After the liberation they still performed operettas such as ‘The Land of Smiles’, but gradually it became a club for theatre visits, mainly to the KVO in Antwerp, combined with outings and trips as far as Lourdes and Vienna. Under Emiel Verbeke the circle grew to 800 members by 1980; in 1977, 657 people went to the theatre with it in a single season.
Families, pensioners and veterans
The Veterans' League, founded in 1922, had 136 members in 1980, soldiers of 1914-18 and 1940-45. On 1 November they went to the cemetery after mass, and on 11 November to the war memorial. The League of Large and Young Families went back to a fund for maternity and large families set up in August 1930, which from 1931 paid out a municipal birth bonus. The ACV trade union got its own branch in 1950; Karel Honinckx was its chairman for many years, and a new flag was blessed at its 25th anniversary in 1975.
Around 1952 Frans De Geyndt founded the League of Socialist Pensioners, and around 1953, with Julienne Galland, ‘Bobonne’, the Socialist Provident Women, who used an annual needlework exhibition to pay for holidays at the seaside and in the Ardennes for workers' children. The Christian Pensioners' League (1960) brought some 50 elderly people together every Thursday in the club room behind the Gildezaal. Around 1960 the former Public Assistance Committee gave rise to the End-of-Year Committee: at first the poorest were given an afternoon snack and a food parcel; later the year-end party was opened to all pensioners.
Around the municipal school
‘The Friends of the Diegem Municipal School’, founded on 18 August 1959, had about 800 members and supported, among other things, the St Nicholas party, seaside and snow classes and the school canteen. Their sports afternoons gave rise in 1964 to the Municipal School Sports Club, officially founded in 1971, with more than 300 members in football, volleyball, gymnastics, athletics, swimming and cycling. From 1972 the municipal staff had their own football team, and on 9 February 1976 they founded the Diegemse Fietsklub, which rode out as a group every Sunday from April to October.
Red Cross, Amnesty and other clubs
For many years Red Cross activities in Diegem came under the Zaventem branch, until on 19 June 1978 a separate Machelen-Diegem branch was founded, chaired by Gilbert Putteman; in 1980 it bought its own ambulance. The Vilvoorde group of Amnesty International also came to Diegem, holding letter-writing evenings in the De Reine centre, among other things. The list of subsidised clubs further included the billiards club ‘De Kroon’, an archery club, the Diegem-Sport supporters' club, Sasja-Diegem and F.C. ‘De Pomp’.