On the initiative of the Seniors' Council and with the support of the City of Aachen, "Mullebänke" (storytelling and listening benches) were set up in all districts. We received a lot of praise for this at our market stalls. But the use of the benches is still far from a sure-fire success.
That's why we "occupy" our four Mulle benches in Burtscheid on Mondays from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. in dry weather, each with a representative of the Senior Citizens' Council - "Four for Four". We want to motivate people to sit down with us and tell their stories.
We sat on the benches for the first time on August 8. The response was rather sobering. Reiner Nerlich earned the virtual "Golden Mulle" prize in Ferberpark. He only had one "storyteller", but he couldn't get rid of it in the hour.
The people on the other benches were not interested or even disturbed by the speech.
The author was sitting on Wilhelm-Pitz-Weg. Contrary to our suggestion, a different bench was chosen as the Mullebank. The result: this bench is outside the pedestrian route. While only one person passed by the Mulle bench, I counted almost 20 passers-by at the originally planned bench.
However, we are not deterred by this and are trying to further optimize the concept. Next week, for example, the author will place a sign at the fork in the road pointing out the bench and is hoping for more response.
Addendum:
On August 11, it was our second Mullemontag in Burtscheid. Due to the current heatwave, we limited ourselves to the two shady benches. Although there were actually only a few people out and about, we each had someone to talk to in Ferberpark and on Wilhelm-Pitz-Weg and were able to have interesting conversations. One of the ideas behind the Mulle benches is to promote intergenerational dialog. There were already two generations at "my bench" and, interestingly, we were not far apart on many topics, if at all. Much of what moves me also moves the representative of the younger generation. Consequently, we should also join forces on these issues.