November 1979
Alexbay Airport my departure
A Hand full of good friends are with me on that sad day
L to R
Helga Machts
Jenny Lotte
Gudrun Corvenus ( + see death announcement)
Günther Machts
Info, this is also an example of slide conversion to digital
Chris Lotte
Wow, Alexander Bay Airport.... that photo just brought me a rush of memories ...... have'nt been there in years... maybe even decades.... Oranjemund now uses the revamped CDM (Oranjemund) airport these days.... nightlights , cafeteria the whole hog.... is that Gunter in the yellow?
at mike i added the names now
Thanks Georg, I'm thinking about all the days we spent there for the School flights back to boarding school... quite a sad place on departure... and a helluva party place on arriving.....
See how relative young they are, thats now almost 30 years ago
Dug it out my archives
hahaha, wish for those years back..... I was only a pukkie in those days..... now thats a word I have not used in 30 years......
Geez I wish I could turn back the hands of time ... can't help thinking what a lucky bunch we were iknow Thanks for that photo Georg e154
July 1981........had to get up before sunrise to call to the Alexanders house for the final hug before we drove out of the town heading to Durban and then onto Ireland - tight hugs; tears and snotty noses - last laughs and a couple of rand handed over to buy smurfs. Aunty Vi and my mom Bernadette McManus cried their eyes out. Uncle Jock and my dad Peter McM were the tough guys, shaking hands and then - group photo, final hug more tears and off we went........ :emot78:
:emot78: .... where's me blerrie smurf?
idontknow
Don't remember leaving OM as we still stayed in Windhoek for a couple of days. So leaving meant living Africa for good. Mixed feelings is what I remember.
We left Windhoek aitport on a hot and humed evening. The airport seemed obandend. We got to Frankfurt in the early morning. 4°C, fog, wet and GREY. I thought everything was white in winter.
I don't know where your smurf is, but my one is on top of the mirror in my bathroom - still looks good after almost 30 years...... e154
Smurf??
A little blue man with a white hat Boy Georg. There's a whole family of them.
All males except for Smufette..............lucky her!!!
Whats a Smufette
bighug I love it - remember collecting them from the BP petrol stations
The smurf thing began on that trip to Durbs...... you're right... at every petrol station you could get a smurf....
99 cent each - between adding to the smurf collection and trying to sort out that bloody rubix cube - and then on the trip home, stopping off at some place or other for a bag of marbles.......wasn't there a camel at one of the stops?
On the way to Karasburg.... when you cross the Orange at Noordoewer... there be a camel... Oooh! Aaaar!
bling1
Come to think of it.... I never officially departed from Oranjemund. I just left to start my life as a working adult in June '83. Went back to go visit the parents (each time saying I'm going home), then my dad got transferred to Luderitz. Never again did it feel right to use the term "going home" when I went to visit them after they had departed from Oranjemund. Went to Alexanderbay the last time in 2006 - still felt like I was going home once on the way from Port Nolloth to Alex Bay.
Okay, now I know. Smurf is called Schluempfe here.
In French we call then schtroumphs ... what's the name in Afrikaans?
By the way. They've just turned fifty these days.
n Blou bulletjie? laughpoint
Very cute Michael. :36_2_35:
Remember the guy that hated the smurfs - his name was Gargamell - my question is, can you name his cat? and no looking it up on the nett........
I wouldn't know how to do that, I have smurf movies (a granny you know). I canalso tell you all about the gummi bears.
Oh yes the cat........Azrael
Hey the Gummi bears...one of my favourites..... bouncing here and everywhere
dON'T GET ME STARTED ON THE GUMMI BEARS MICHAEL YOU MAY JUST REGRET IT. a WHOLE OTHER TOPIC.
....er....uhm...... because......?????
idontknow
'cos I like them.
Gummi Bears - are they related to the Care Bears?
Me tooo...... Gummi Berry Juice all round...I'm paying!
yougogirl
LOVE the Gummie bears - okey dokey dukey!
S...........T..........I.........C.........K TO THE TOPIC!!
We never stick to the topic - must be an O'mund thing...... idontknow
ooooh Rhona you in twouble, don't mess with our Richard,his like the mafia
what was the topic richard ???? i can see gummi bears ....and smurfs......none of those 2 were ever my kind of thing.......i remember the day i left O/M, i was excited to be going home to but also sad to be leaving all my friends and especially nicolene....she came over to say bye to me and gave me a bible as a leaving gift which i still have to this day..and how we cried....i think we both knew we would never ever see each other again....and then 40 years later we did.......gosh my eyes are stinging while im writing that lol.....just thinking how emotional it will be walking bakc down that very same street with her 42 years later :emot78:
Bev, How old were you when you left?
I don't have vivid memories of our departure from Oranjemund coz we first moved to Cape Town (where we stayed for a little over a year) before moving back to France. Felt like we weren't going too far, so it wasn't 'goodbye', but rather 'au revoir'. But the day we left SA, that's when it hit me that I wouldn't be going back to Oranjemund. I remember the drive to Cape Town airport. We had a convoy of several cars with friends who were there to say goodbye. I was in a car with Raymond Gonzales (the son) and all I remember is staring out the window and bawling my eyes out with Pink Floyd's 'Another brick in the wall' in the background. Now I can't listen to that song without getting all teary eyed :emot78:
Then, in November 2004, there I was flying into Oranjemund airport 20 years later, and it just felt like I was back home again! The best felling in the world!
And I wonder what I would feel like traveling to OM
Somehow, I don't think I ever really left Oranjemund . . . it is still so very fresh in my mind!!
Did "go" a few times . . . 1972 to the army, then during the great university years from 1973 to 1976, I used to only come back once or twice a year . . . finally "left" in 1976 . . . only to return as a De Beers employee for a weeks course (from Kimberley) in 1986 . . . was a trip down memory lane!!
I miss my friends, I miss the lost "loves", I miss the lazy pondok days at the Lissers, I miss the braais at the beach . . . ahhhhh $#!t!!
That Canadian Guy,
Keith.
My departure was very sad actually, after my 3rd extension to stay on from the then GM, Keith Whitelock, I had to pack up and leave. My Dad, having retired a year and half before. So loaded my few belongings, some old duck and her canary in a huge cage that took up half the backseat. Bless her, she kept me awake, chatting. Cant remember who she was. Set off in my red golf, with black bonnet(why?). Began my trek away from Omund, probably one of the saddest times of my life.
regards,
You can come back now...it's safe Paula has gone.... :emot19:
Quote from: Michael Alexander on May 31, 2008, 06:24:23 PM
You can come back now...it's safe Paula has gone.... :emot19:
Ja Mike, but they all know that you are still there!!
:culo1: :buffo9:
I believe that this airport is no longer in use.... just lying out there on the vlaktes these days.... Meanwhile our little Oranjemund International Airport is booming....
woo_hoo