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Rob Dempster
'Allo 'Allo Gardens ! (AAG) Howick (uMngeni) AAG Blog Allanridge & A road well travelled Allanridge - Durban 23 February 2024 Popup images and comments viewed using a PC/Laptop |
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I was born in Bloemfontein, the city of roses, on the 16th of December 1947. My paternal grandfather passed away in 1946. When I turned six years of age, I was enrolled at Grey College, the school my farther had attended. There I completed Sub-A. When I turned seven, my grandmother's second husband took ill, and needed to move to the coast for health reasons.
So we sold up our lovely home and left for the Strand. There we stayed with my maternal grandmother. Before I had completed Sub-B we left for Durban. A memorable trip up the South African eastern coastline in the old ex-army Chevrolet. We spent the rest of the year living in a residential hotel in Durban. There I completed what was left of Sub-B at Windsor Park Primary School. I made some good friends there, and enjoyed the stay.
The next move was to Ladysmith, where we stayed in a semi-detached. I attended Egerton Primary School, and hated the school lunch I was expected to thrive on. I did make some very good friends, and had a great time there. As I was completing Standard 1, my father secured a job (plus a nice home) in Allanridge, a small mining town in the Free State Goldfields.
Unfortunately on his return from the interview my father rolled the car on van Reenen\'s Pass. Fortunately he only broke his collar bone. Not to be deterred, the removal van arrived, and we had to also clamber into it once the furniture had been loaded. Unfortunately (2nd one) the removal van packed up somewhere near Harrismith, and we had to be fetched by Mrs Malherber, the owner of the removal truck. We arrived at her place in the middle of the night,and spent the night there.
You will simply have to take my word for the next bit. Mrs Malherber's home backed onto our new home, and so the next morning we all walked down her road (Keurboom), took a right and then another short right to walk past numbers 1 and 3 to reach number 5 Kafue Street. The year was almost over, so I skipped what was left of Standard 1 and joined the Allanridge Primary School to start Standard 2 at the beginning of 1958. In 1961 I returned to Grey College as a border and matriculated in 1965. Those five years were the longest period of consecutive years that I spent at the same school. I guess I was lucky that it was my High School years. I had a great time at Boarding School.
So while the diatribe has been about my schooling and the "Groot Trek", the intention is to acknowledge my mother, who made it all so painless. Also for making it possible to for me to attend Grey College again, in order to complete my high school years.
In order to get that right, my mother was very frugal and above all else, endlessly hard working. While she may have complained about my Dad, she never ever complained about the work. She ran a Dry Cleaning Depot from the Commercial Center (Building), cycling to and fro on her bicycle. When the depot closed, she ran the business from our home. She did sewing repairs, and sewed leather patches onto the elbows of jackets. She also very successfuly ran a Mine Trading Store located in the middle of nowhere between Lorraine Gold Mine's Shafts 1 and 2. When my dad stopped drinking, he ran a small herd of cows on a plot, and my mother sold the milk.
She was also saving, and when my Dad retired, they were able to purchase their own home in Welkom, and their first ever new car. Their stay on their own was not long, as the elder of my two younger sisters who was already suffering from Rheumatoid Arthritis, got divorced and return to her parents home with her baby. The caring started all over, and never really stopped until her live-in grand daughter was at university.
When my farther passed away, Edith and I were able to start supporting my Mom, my Sister and her daughter. We and our son, Bruce, did the best that we could at the time. So did my other sister and her family.
Ultimately I guess there are more ways of eating a couple of raisins,
than by first cutting them in half!!!
Some pics of Allanridge lifted from Google Earth.
To view a larger image, click on a thumb-nail. To remove an enlargement, click on it.
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Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy a bicycle.
Some Links
If you are pushing seventy,
and you cycle,
buy an ebike
If you have any comments, corrections, suggestions or plain criticism, I would appreciate it if you would communicate the same to me.
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[email protected] | www.robdempster.com |
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