We all remember the Dumps behind the town, a genuine gem, all the stuff you could find.
But does anyone remember when these were set on fire ?? Or who did it.
I remember seeing oil drums exploding & shooting up into the air.
I can only remember when someone tried to blow the petrol station up, think it was during the school holidays whilst I was in High School so would've been between 1988-1993. Could be wrong on the date, seem to have lost track of the time over the years!
Hi Michelle, there was a bomb planted between the Petrol dispensers at Jowells, round about 1988-89. It went off killing the person planting it.
My brother John was working for security at the time & was one of the security chaps that had to stand guard over the body until the forensics team & other security force members arrived to investigate.
Even know if you know where to look you can see stains on the walls under the paint.
I was remembering that in the late 50's early 60's there was a tar pit & old oil stored in the dumps & these went up in flames with a number of oil drums exploding as kids we rushed out onto the back road and watshed the display.
hi clive,please correct me if im wrong,can you rember david pieterson,he was involved in a big accident with uncle jimmy okwells landrover at the juction of 5th or 6th ave,resulting in david nearly looseing his leg,as i remember all you boys with bikes were the talk of the town,david with his twin yamaha,red in colour,you with youre black honda,ian buchannon ,god rest his soul,with his honda,the freemantle boys,tony and peter ,with their yammies,the town was suddenly awash with you teenagers and bikes,i used to lay in bed and knew each and every bike that went by the house,just by the noise it made,happy memories bud.ps,can you remember my dog called sandy,little twat used to chase parked cars,i often saw you and ian on youre bikes trying to skop my dog.ha ha ,take good care bud,bobby
I remember somebody setting fire to all those black tyres in the dumps in the late 70's. The wind was blowing from the south as usual and this huge Iraq style black cloud hung over the town for the entire day....
As for the Petrol station bomber, I found out last year who actually drove that bomber to the petrol station and got to hear " The Other" side of the story......
:-[
Bobby I remember Dave very well, still visited him in Hospital in Cape Town, he was badly Hurt.
Mike I also remember the tyres going up & the smoke from that lot.
The dumps were always a resource to us kids, its amazing what was dumped.
Mike, anything you can divulge or does it need to be offline ??
hmmmm now I still have photos of the actual bomber .... after the event!!!
Lets start hearing some bids :)
mmmmh! So do I .......
You are a tease, aren't you both of you.....
spill the whole story came on. We're family remember.
Barbara I couldnt possibly send the photos to Mike ... they are extremely graphic and hey I say remember ..... someone loved him and maybe still does!
stay well
Bev, are you talking about the bomber or me? ;D
Definately the bomber!! I don't think I remember you.... I know I bumped into ... a Mrs Fry recently at Blue Route... but it was quite embarrassing cause I heard her talking and recognised her voice... went up to her and said "you are from Oranjemund"... I couldnt mistake the voice..... but never got her name!! We chatted for about an hour about the old days but I still don't know who I was talking to ...she was short with white hair ... can you help me with a name?
Bev, thanks, I remember the photos well.
Barbara, beleive Bev when she saya they are graphic, it was not a pleasant site, ( Part of Oranjemunds history now)
Bev, if you are ever at the Petrol station & know where to look, some of the stains were still visable through the paint years & years later. ( and may still be)
Why would you have pictures of the bomber AFTER the event?!?!?! ???
Its weird though how interesting we all find that, even knowing that they are graphic, i'd still like to see them!
S
Aaagh! well ! give a piece here, give a piece there..... ;)
Bev - that would be my mom, she lives in Kirstenhof, and still has her beautiful scots accent after 50 years.
Her name is Flora, and an hour of chatting - you got off lightly........
Barbara,I last saw your mom at my dads funeral in March this year.Still looks and sounds the same as when she worked in the habedashery(sp)dept.in the mid 70's
Hi Barbara... thanks ... yeah it was her broad accent that I recognised... just couldnt put a name to her... it was really good hearing all her news and I actually could have sat for another hour listening to her but I had to dash.
stay well
I'll pass on your greetings and best wishes
she and Sheila dip onto site occasionally but fly under the radar.
I always thought that the radar was set a wee bit to high! ;)
too high, well for some people maybe......
Yes I know how set fire to the dump in the late 70" We were 3 people and it was a accident we were trying to get hony out of a drum HA HA. Believe me we did'nt laugh then.
So, eventually the secret is out! Who were the other two arsonists involved, or is that going to take another 5 months to get that from you?
Maybe the other two don't know about the forum? lets wait and see
Hey Charles, I was an appie with you in Kimberley, remember how we took your bakkie through to Taba Nchu for the weekends, for a bit of dobbel?
???
How are you Charles? What a surprise.
Thanks for the email Charles, will catch up soon. Listen, you were a real little devil, why not tell us all the stout things you were responsible for???? :36_2_35:
Charles, who was who broke into the moths as schoolkids?
:looser1:
Ok Mike, how about things you got up to!!??
I still live here, so I don't want to incriminate myself :emot19:
I remember one fine morning, blue skies, no wind and school holidays. We wanted to go to the desert, or should I say dumps. Great playground at that age.
Passing through the trees we saw black hose standing upright in front of us. At a height of maybe 50 or 100 meters it had a bend to the right in a vertical way. Getting closer we realised somebody had set a big pile of tires on fire. This was surely alike the experiences in the movie called "Quiet Earth".
I don't think any fire-engine came around. I don't remember ever seeing a fire-engine in om
Myself (Herman Steyn Jnr).,Pieter Wolfaardt and "Bossie" Bosman set the dumps on the southern side of town beyond the trees alight somewhere in Std 3 or 4 circa 1966 / 67.
There was an old Rumbles truck complete with half a tank to diesel that was emptied by puncturing the tank with steel rods that were lying around and draining it into some discarded empty paint and other available containers.
The barrel shaped fuel tanks on those "Scamel "type trucks with the small rakish front windows were all positioned on the outside behind the drivers door.
We duly lit a fire with heaps of old wood that littered the place underneath a steel structure that was shaped in the form of an angular funnell - with a broad base and narrow top rather tall with a very handy form of a ladder enabling you to climb to the top and empty your bucket of diesel on the now raging fire beneath resulting in a spectacular fire flare each time the fire was doused with diesel..After some time it became too bloody hot to get to the top so we resorted to feeding the fire from the bottom with very much the same effect.By this time we were expecting the fire brigade to come racing through the desert - but were fortunately "dissappointed"- as was often the case everyone in town thought that someone else was engaged in some authorised legal activity - in this case they thought none of it and were strengthened in their belief that it was legit purely due to the volume of black smoke belching form the dumps driven towards town by the raging southerly wind.Fridges stoves bicycles beds - you name it- was strewn all over the place who could resist ! - we had the pick of the bunch .Yea we were a brazen bunch of hooligans - but what fun !!