We saw that presenter and actor Axel Daeseleire (54) likes to explore the boundaries in ‘Axel Scammed’ and ‘Once Another Time’. But even as a little man he liked to do mischief. For our series in which BVs share an old class photo, he brings out his images from the seventies and naughty childish memories for us. “In the second year at the new school, I didn’t do anything anymore.”
Actor Axel Daeseleire: “I attended Sint-Lievens College in Antwerp for nine years. That school was not very strict, yet teachers once reprimanded us with a rule or you got a pear around your ears. Mr. Bourdeaud’hui from the first grade did no such thing. He was an incredibly gentle man who cared about his students. In his class I had a great amazement for everything around me. I was a dreamer, just a little more than others.”
“We had the large playground, with a piece of woods and rabbit hutches at the back. I walked through there alone and still vividly remember that autumn smell of wet leaves. I could stare at those rabbits for hours. As a six-year-old it was my luck, call it being sensitive. I still have that amazement with art or walks.”
“The summer of ’77? Then we clowned around in the gardens of the royal museum.”
“I certainly played with other children, but nature was more interesting to me. That’s why the scouts were my hobby. Rik was there with me, although we are better friends now. My best friends in first grade were mainly Eric and Lode. We did get into some mischief. In the summer of 1977 Eric and I went clowning around in the gardens of the royal museum. We set off bombs or went to the joke shop.”
“I wasn’t a troublemaker until fifth grade, but when I was fifteen I changed schools. My parents thought it was a better option, less lax. At the new school I didn’t do anything during the second year, things were a bit messy at home. I actually wanted to stay at Sint-Lievens, because I felt perfectly at home there. I had my friends there, and I had a very nice and fascinating time with them.”
What do the classmates and the teacher say?
Guy Bourdeau today: “I remember Axel like it was yesterday. He was very pleasant. Still, I can tell some punches. (laughs) For example, I taught about the animals and the next day Axel was in class with a cardboard box. “This is my cat,” he said. “Leave them here, I’ll take them back later.”
“Or when he didn’t show up in the afternoon. He ate at home in the afternoon, then he might hide in the corridors. Finally, he walked into class with one of his parents: “Sir, excuse him.” Axel went home to the toilet, crawled behind it and got his head stuck between the pipe and the wall. They had to call a plumber to get it loose.”
Lode Last: “Axel was my best friend. In the first year we sat obediently at our desks and listened to the teacher in admiration. His thick beard and suit impressed us, but we had a lot of respect for him. Later Axel and I went to romp a lot. During the breaks we walked through the corridors of the large college or crawled on iron racks in the playground. That wasn’t allowed, but we stoked each other. Our interests changed, yet Axel remains one in a thousand.”
Rik Dupain: “Those much too short shorts were in fashion. We were also in class with many boys and we always played together on the playground. I mainly remember Axel from the third grade, because I was in school less during the first two years due to some surgeries. Axel and I were in the scouts together: those were times. We didn’t really grow together until later. Now with his program and my auction house, our paths cross again. He likes to help me and is jovial. Even as a little man.”
Eric Verbiest: “Axel and I went through a lot in our youth. But it bled to death, because I started dating and he changed schools. I think he encountered my daughters in the nightlife more often than I did myself. (laughs). Axel had three more brothers, all tomboys. The ‘better’ brother in my eyes was the eldest. In the first we were best friends and we also discovered the nightlife together. After that, Axel tried rights, but failed. We said, ‘You should be an actor’. He succeeded nicely.”
Every week, a well-known Fleming shows off with neat hair and a neat outfit on a class photo from the old box. They talk about the child they were and the person they have become.
Read also:
THE CLASS PHOTO. You’ve never seen Jolien Roets like this before. “I didn’t have my looks but tried to be funny”
THE CLASS PHOTO. This is what VTM journalist Julie Colpaert looked like as a teenager. “I taught my girlfriend to eat candy”
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