5 I am the Cap! I am not any kind of cap. I am a baseball cap. The Baseball Cap of a Customs Officer. Produced by This story is part of the European Story Suitcase.
Hey. Hello! How very nice it is that you re looking at me. Yes, that s right. I am a cap. I am not any kind of cap. I am a baseball cap. The Baseball Cap of a Customs Officer. Do you know what that is? A customs officer, that is someone who stands at the border and checks people s papers and their cargo! That s a real mouthful. But once all that HAD to be checked... At the border. I ll explain it. Do you have a minute? Or are you in a hurry? I can totally understand that. Everyone is in a hurry these days. Things used to be different. I can tell you all about it. But if you re busy, or in a hurry... I won t keep you. Oh, you do have a minute? That s wonderful. I love talking to people. Especially if they are younger than me. I always say: the future belongs to the young. Old things belong in a museum! But don t tell your teacher that, okay. I reckon you have no idea what borders are. When you drive to France or to Spain... Sure, you see a sign that tells you you re there. Are we in France already? And then your mother checks her mobile phone and she sees whether you are there yet or not... It was all very different in my day. Back then you couldn t just go from the Netherlands to Belgium. Or to Germany. There was The Border. It was very strict. Page 1
With barriers. And a man or woman stood there. With a baseball cap. With me on his or her head. That was the customs officer! And he or she would stand at your window. You had to wind down the window. And then my boss would say: May I see your passports? And mum had stowed them inside a large bag. And dad angrily: You could have placed them on top. And mum all flustered: I didn t know we would be at the border so soon. And my boss a little impatiently: Can we find it? Mum even more flustered, dad even more cross. And behind a whole queue of cars would form. And the people in them would also get angry because they were having to wait so long. And then my boss would make a gesture that signalled Calm down. I am in charge here. And I will decide when you can pass. Did you know that tourists cross the border 1 point 25 billion times per year? And all that delay. I liked it at the time... You got to see people. But I do understand that it was very impractical. These passports every time. In the past, these borders were also much more important. Early in the last century butter was much cheaper in the Netherlands. And you couldn t just sell it in Belgium... No, that was forbidden. And then you had smugglers. They would put 25 kilos of butter in a knapsack, a bindle and then they would cross the border in the dead of night... Page 2
On the lookout for the excise officials... These were customs officers who would lie in wait everywhere for smugglers. And if you were caught, you went to prison. Bindle carriers they were called. I remember that my boss himself was at border post 159, near the smuggling bridge... So much trouble... And gradually in Europe they came to the conclusion that it was all a bit crazy. There needed to be free trade in Europe. That was a good thing for the economy. And free travel, too... So that you could simply go from one country to another without all that passport hassle. So, in 1985, a number of countries signed a Treaty. Initially, this involved Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany and France. They felt that these passport checks no longer served a purpose. That treaty became known as the Schengen Agreement. Schengen is a little village that lies in the Luxembourg tri-border area, with borders to Germany and France. This is where that first agreement was signed. I remember that. My boss was a bit sad that day. What am I going to do now? he asked. He was already old by then, you see. He retired. And he got a job in the museum here. To tell stories. About borders and how they disappeared. And he placed me in a wonderful display cabinet. Since then a lot of countries have signed up to that Schengen Agreement. Only the United Kingdom (so, that s England and Scotland and Wales and Northern Ireland), Romania, Ireland, Bulgaria, Croatia and Cyprus... They have not signed up. Page 3
Although... Romania and Bulgaria probably will soon. But the mad thing is that Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Iceland have signed up... But are not part of the European Union. Four hundred and fourteen million Europeans yes, four hundred and fourteen million!!! That many people can now travel within the Schengen area without customs checks. And that means that we can cross the borders between all these countries really quickly. We call these internal borders. What a difference that makes! Dad no longer needs to get angry. Mum can just leave the passports at the bottom of the bag. We happily drive through to Spain. Right? It goes much faster. And what a difference it makes at the airports. Oh, man. I was never at Schiphol as a cap but I know quite a lot of other caps who worked there. And there were sometimes queues because of these passports. Now, they are still there because, of course, you have to have your passport checked for America or Australia. But a lot of time is saved! And annoyance. And travel is more fun. And the whole thing is more convenient. Just imagine what that means for lorry drivers. I often had them at my border. You d have a driver who would collect cargo from the port of Rotterdam. And this then had to go to Romania. He would have to show his papers at four or five border crossings for checking and stamping and have his cargo inspected every time. Money had to be paid for this... It was called import duty. And this in turn made these products much more expensive abroad. Page 4
That took so much time, goodness me. Yes, I still remember that. Whole rows of lorries just waiting for a stamp. We worked so hard. There was a fair bit of sweat on those heads under me. Sometimes I was hung on the hook soaking wet. But it was impossible to get done any faster. My boss explained it to me. When he retired. He said: Cap, you must understand... The entire European Union has become one big market. Sometimes he sat here, near the display cabinet. And he never placed me on his head again. But he did speak to me. Cap, those were wonderful times with those smugglers, remember? And then he told exciting stories about cars which they had very cleverly welded coolers in for smuggling butter. Sometimes they would be carrying as much as 1500 kilos of butter and they would drive through muddy paths where a car like that would get completely stuck. And then we would chase after these smugglers and throw spikes on the road. Those were metal barbs that punctured your tyres. The adventures we had... They sometimes resembled a cowboy film. Do you actually know what a cowboy film is? That is all in the past. My boss could tell you some fine stories. Exciting. But yes, it is better as it is now. And not all border controls have been abolished. No, they haven t. Yes, my boss and I... We are in the museum. But there is still an external border to Europe, of course. Page 5
If you go from the Schengen area to Russia, or from America to the Schengen area. Or to Africa. Then you still have border controls there and you still have checks there and you still have to show your passport there and you still have baseball caps there. And it has to be so. It is not always butter that is smuggled. These days, it s also people. People from Africa who are having a hard time there. And who want to come to Europe. Yes, you can t just do that. There are rules. Refugees whose lives are in danger, they can come. But not others. These caps have to keep tabs on them. I would not want to work there, to be honest. Who may, who may not. Seems difficult to me. Fortunately, it s not up to me, being a cap. I prefer to be here. In my display cabinet. And I think it s good that I hang here now. Did you know that eighty per cent of Dutch exports go to European countries? So, it s handy that you re not constantly being checked at the border, right? Once it was very good that we conducted checks at the border. But back then we weren t really a European Union yet. What I mean is: we all clung to our own little country. And whatever was outside it, that was very much abroad. You didn t want to have anything to do with it. But that is now different. The world has become so small. Or big. On your internet you can reach the whole world, right. You know within a minute what is happening in the world. Page
So, it s good that they have taken away those barriers. But it s also nice that history is not completely forgotten. When you next go across the border, by car. And mum says: Are we in Belgium already? You can tell a great story about smugglers, about butter, about secret compartments in cars, about spikes on the road. And perhaps also about a baseball cap in a museum that briefly wanted to share his story. You should be getting on. Thank you for stopping for a while. I appreciate that. And feel free to come again. Because stories... I ve got plenty of them! Page 7
THE BASEBALL CAP The story of the Cap is about the frontiers between countries. In the past borders were guarded with barriers and passports were checked. This used to take much time. It was also very expensive for companies when their trucks had to stop at each border crossing. To this end deals have been agreed in the Schengen Treaty. Now cross border travel and trade is much easier. Now answer the following questions: 1. What did customs officials always use to ask for at the border? insurance documents passports travel forms 2. Which two EU Member States share a border with the Netherlands? Belgium and Germany Denmark and the United Kingdom Luxembourg and Belgium 3. As a Dutch citizen, do you still need a passport for all EU Member States in order to cross the border? yes, for all of them not for most of them, but you should have it with you no 4. The Schengen area is made up of...? the countries which you can travel in and out of without border checks the countries where there are passport checks at the borders the countries of the European Union 5. The border between the Netherlands and Germany is...? a customs border an internal border an external border. Do children need their own passport or identity card to travel abroad? no, they can be included on their parents passport yes, all children must have their own passport or identity card from the age of 14 years, all children must have their own passport or identity card WORKSHEET
THE BASEBALL CAP, questions and answers 1. What did customs officials always use to ask for at the border? insurance documents RRpassports travel forms 2. Which two EU Member States share a border with the Netherlands? RRBelgium and Germany Denmark and the United Kingdom Luxembourg and Belgium 3. As a Dutch citizen, do you still need a passport for all EU Member States in order to cross the border? yes, for all of them RRnot for most of them, but you should have it with you no 4. The Schengen area is made up of...? RRthe countries which you can travel in and out of without border checks the countries where there are passport checks at the borders the countries of the European Union 5. The border between the Netherlands and Germany is...? a customs border RRan internal border an external border. Do children need their own passport or identity card to travel abroad? no, they can be included on their parents passport RRyes, all children must have their own passport or identity card from the age of 14 years, all children must have their own passport or identity card WORKSHEET