Leo Kooy spent a great deal of time in Huis Sonneveld during the first few years of his life, between 1949 and about 1955. His father died when he was one, and Leo was brought up by his grandparents. Here, he talks about all the places in the house where he used to play. One of his favorites was the laundry chute, which he used to throw all sorts of toys into so that they'd end up in the basket downstairs. He would then run down there to see whether they'd arrived. Sometimes he’d forget that they were there, which didn't go down very well with his grandmother. Another of little Leo's favourites was the big carpet in the living room. This had geometric patterns on it which made ideal roads to play with his dinky toys on. When grandmother was out, Leo and his grandfather would sometimes have a knockaround with a ball in the living room. The door from there to the dining room was Leo's goal, and the big heavy curtains were closed to make sure the tea service didn't get broken. Another exciting place for a little boy to play was in the bowels of the house where all the pipes were, and which you could enter via various doors and panels. He would often hide, lose track of time and not hear people when they called for him, which inevitably caused a panic. All in all, Leo Kooy's memories of the house are pleasant ones.

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