The Old Oranjemund CDm Stores!

[SandyB]

I took the picture ... saved  it  blew it up  changed contrast etc ... still see no  newspaper .. Yes  Mike   did throw it on the floor ...  but then  my  time placing pretty accurate ... not  bad for  memoryrecall  of a little tyke   of  3-4 yrs old ...   My memory is the store   was in the section  that when I left housed the post office .. the buthchery  and then the ladies hairderesser  , then the magistrates offices on the corner ..

[Michael Alexander]

Hehehehe! I just wanted to see who was still interested in these topics.... there were 19 hits on the photo and that shot up to 33..... so I reckon a lot of folk were viewing the photo, I do not think the Argus was in town in those years..... Bob?

[Bertie Horak]

Hoaxster!   

[mavis(smith)]

       Hello1 In those days we did not get newspaper.

[Michael Alexander]

   Awww! Com'on guys, admit that you had 5 minutes of fun zooming into the snap and peering around, did you guys see the mp3 player on the right hand side of the counter?

[Bertie Horak]

Yes, I saw it.  It's right next to the DSTv decoder!

[Bob Molloy]

Re newspapers: I arrived in January '53 and was able to order newspapers up from the Cape on a weekly basis. Most people did. The papers arrived on a Friday, which meant that some editions were up to a week out of date. Incidentally the most responsive was the Burger. The only other source of news was the state-controlled SABC which gave twice daily bulletins. There was no telly, and FM was unheard of.
The station of choice in the workshops was LM Radio which operated out of Mozambique with David Davies as the DJ. It fed us a steady diet of pop rock and trained a whole host of DJs who went on to become household names both in SA and Britain.
In those days the Oranjemund correspondent for the newspapers the SABC was Pat Honeyborne who was also the liaison person for new arrivals.
Pat was a very friendly, helpful character who met every family on arrival, escorted them to their houses which he had first ensured were fully furnished and also had the makings of at least three meals - and basic crockery, pots, pans, cutlery, bed linen etc - to allow the newcomers time to find their feet (and the store of course).
He was a former policeman who once rode a camel around the Namib chasing diamond thieves. Mike has a copy of a newsletter with his life story and a few pictures of him. He passed his correspondent's job on to me when he left. It changed my life, I suddenly discovered I'd found my real career.
He also wrote a book on his life and times in the Namib and Oranjemund, still available from Clarkes Bookshop in Long Street, Cape Town. Ask for Honeyborne (P.) GATEWAY TO ADVENTURE, 233pp., illus., maps, paperback, Windhoek, 2003. R185. Autobiography of Pat Honeyborne, soldier, policeman and journalist in SWA from 1925.

[Michael Alexander]

Thanks Bob, never knew that there was such a book....... will make plans to obtain....

[toonfandangl]

Bob !! your memories are amazing, and I can remember the music being piped through the Central Fields workshop, and of our transport to and from the township.

They were an articulated kind of coach and every one knew who's seat was who's and dare anyone else to sit there the Afrikaner's would sit more to the back of the bus, and all others up the front I suppose it was safety in numbers.

Yes I think many as I did had a look to see the date......................good one Michael you little scallywag. cuqui

[Ken Maclennan-Smith]

This is a photo of my Mom, Peggy Smith ( nee Maclennan, then married to Basil Smith) taken at the general store, probably between 1940/50. Ken Maclennan-Smith