While watching a repeat of Harry Potter my mind travelled back to the Hubbard family , one of the sons was Douglas Hubbard .. association to the Harry Potter .. Mr and Mrs Hubbard were an unusual couple .. he a small man with glasses , she a big gregarious woman ,, seem to remember all the kids wearing glasses ala Harry Potter ... and the assocoiation goes back to the one scene where Harry and pals " borrow" the pals parents ford anglia ( the one that a bird could not shit on the rear window ) ...
Anyhow story follows .. the Hubbard family must ahve left O'mund in about 1964 .. cos this follows .. it was about 1965 .. family Buchanan were on holiday in CT and we all travelled by train to go to Bothners in Parow to choose a Piano for me ... .. we walking down Voortrekker road after getting off at the station when we hear this screeching of tyres and we see this most odd looking car screech to a halt do a sudden U turn and head back toward us ... screech to a halt ... who of all people but Mrs Hubbard behind the wheel of this most odd looking car , left hand drive looked like and anglia but was not ... Theres Mrs Hubbard , big meaty arm resting on the window ledge , inside the car next to her dear ,hubby looking so small next to her , and the brood of children in the back , of course the harry potter glasses all peering at us .... this picture is so clear in my mind , almost a classical ... Mrs Hubbard . big throaty voice .. " Jock Elanour ... how are you ?? chat chat " ... it goes on .. traffic hooting behind .. she did not bother to pull to the side .. she ignores .. gives them the hand .. so embarresing for Mom and Dad .. anyhow greetings over , " pop in sometime " she bellows and roars off again in the funny car .. doing another sudden U turn to head back in original direction ,, nearly taking out a car or two in the process.. as they drive off I ask my Dad .. "thats a funny looking car what is it " he tells me its a Citroen ... this memory planted in my brain ..
Now and many years later never really saw a similar ugly looking car again , or just missed it ... my assumption .. it must have been an Anglia whenever this memory floated through my mind .. da must have been mistaken ...
This Morning .. Im having a memory recall .. Willie Boucher ,, he had Renault 16 TS in O'mund ,, a classical style , so i do search.. from there I do a bit of citroen search seeing as i drove them for so many years .. get onto the 2CV site .. related cars .. and what pops up the Citroen Ami .. and guess what yes it has the bird poop proof back window !!! memory chip vindicated ...
Now that ive rambled on this story and the memory recall .. Does anyone remember the Hubbard family ??
attached a picture of the funny car ...
I do remeber the name Sandy...was there not a Peter Hubbard as well?
What an interesting story Sandy. I really enjoyed this one. The Ami was based upon the 2CV mechanicals (real guttless wonder but could achieve almost 50 mpg ) and were very rare in the RSA. Sounds like the Hubbard family were also very 'rare' indeed.
Yes and I also remember Willie Boucher. He was an auto electrician based at the town garage. An absolute maniac on the road with his 16TS even with his front suspension beginning to 'splay' on the TS. I always had the fear that he would go flying over the Steinkopf pass.
Leon
Hi sandy,
Yes I remeber the Hubbards, they lived across the road from us and Douglas was a friend of mine. He had two sisters older than him - younger of the two Lynnet and a brother a bit younger than him, not Peter. They lived next to the Oliviers and Mrs Place, the Sydows, next to Mrs Place.
We used to get up to a lot mischief and our gang had super hero names. I remember building dams in his folks back yard, constructing towns down river and then bursting the dam wall and flooding the back yard. Also acting out cowboy movies in the park across the road from us, remember Douglas falling out of a tree after being shot, getting up and doing it all over again.
His father was head of the radio workshop and when they left town the Whitley's moved in. Mr Hubbard was also quite talented with hobby trains. He build Douglas a fantastic set with lights, villages, tunnels and a lot more, the whole set was build on hard board and could be folded away against one of the walls in Douglas's room. I remember most of the time Douglas doing his utmost to crash the trains. Yes his father was a small man and his mother a rather large woman who did knitting and one of the first in Oranjemund to have electric knitting machine.
Douglas on many an afternoon had to operate one of the knitting machines, while his mom was off shopping in her Anglia, you could hear her coming a mile away - reminded me a bit of Cruella De Vil of the 101 Dalmatians.
Many time when his mom got back, Douglas would rush out, only to be followed with a shout across the neighborhood "DOUGLAS" returning sheepishly - his mom standing there holding up a jersey that he had being working on and her looking through a big hole in it. Douglas reminded me a lot of Dennis the Menus with glasses.
I remember going around to his house on a Sunday - entering his lounge and seeing a Sunday Times sitting on a chair - his father being a smallish man used to sit cross legged on the chair - so it looked like a seated newspaper. They were a family of characters of the 60s Oranjemund.
I remember after they left Oranjemund a story of his younger brother falling out of their moving car while driving down Voortrekker Road - his mom only noticing a few kilos down that he was no longer in the vehicle - turning around - finding him - giving him the third degree and carrying on with the journey.
The last time I spoke to Douglas was in the early 70s and Andre van der Westhuizen going for an interview at the Cape Town City Council - Mr Hubbard did the interview.
I've heard Lance mention Andrew Hubbard over the years..........
Richard .. thanks so much for putting the icing and the cherry on top of my story about this one of many " character " families of O'mund that we all have fond recollections of .. cat3
Hi Delia,
You are right , Andrew was his younger brother.
Richard wrote: "I remember after they left Oranjemund a story of his younger brother falling out of their moving car while driving down Voortrekker Road - his mom only noticing a few kilos down that he was no longer in the vehicle - turning around - finding him - giving him the third degree and carrying on with the journey"
Leon ponders: "Obviously the Citroen Ami did not have childproof locks."
You bet .. no child locks in those days ..... but then the Hubbard kids were prone to misadventure ... like said fond memories of this character family ... its like the one jersey she gave my mom to give to me ... it was awful pea green .. she thrust it into my moms hands and said it will look good on your boy !! I was forced to wear it on the odd occasion ... I mean .. blue eyes and green jersey ??? other nice thing i remember about Ma Hubbard apart from her huge throaty voice was her huge beaming smile , but dont get on the wrong side of her ... you were hunted ... ask Richard !!
I see quite a few Hubbards in the CT telephone directory.....wonder if these are relatives or the actual family?
Way before my time, but Gee! I really enjoyed reading this tale.... allgood
Yes Mike ,, welcome back .. we had some characters in the 60's
Nice to hear of the Hubbards again. I did my apprenticeship in the radioshop and he was the head honcho. I recall him to be quite the electronics guru and designed and built a monitoring system to monitor the amount of fuel at Central Fields "Tank Farm'. An oil tanker would come to the coast every few months and anchor off shore and pump the diesel and fuel to shore into huge tanks. Ray Hubbard was involved in all that. It was the days of valves and transistors were in vogue. Oom Piet Petersen was the expert on transistor technology. Op Amps were around too....
Ray had a very big thirst for tea and every few hours would shout "tea" and the whole shop would close down once more for tea. We had a shop helper to cater for the tea needs of the shop. Later on, De Beers got wise - someone did - and we got tea times at 10 am and 3 pm.
Anyone know if Ray is around? I visited the radioshop a few months ago. He's left..... The memories linger on though.
I remember the Hubbards Shirley was the eldest daughter and we were in the same standard in primary school. We were also very good friends.
They did leave in 1964 and moved to CT and lived in an area called Boston. Shirley was with me at Rhenish Girls High in Stellenbosch until std 9 and then she changed schools. I heard from her for a while and what was quite amusing was that both she and her mother were pregnant at the same time Shirley's mom giving birth to a son (think called him Edward) a week before Shirley had her baby. I then lost contact with her as she move to some isolated place somewhere in SA. I later heard that Mrs Hubbard had died and that Mr Hubbard had remarried. Do u remember that Mrs Hubbard also used to work the night shift at the Telephone exchange in Oranjemund.
Mmm Pat .. my memory good hey .. 1964 they left ... Yes mrs Hubbard was indeed an enterprising woman .. the knitting .. the working night shift at the exchange .. one of those larger than life " salt of the earth people " a can do and make it work character ...
Paul has an adopted Aunt who reminds me of Mrs Hubbard .. Ma Maud or Auntie Maud whichever takes you fancy ... she too is a large woman with a huge throaty voice , a very much smaller than her husband , a platoon of kids she has raised , and yes to this day "adoptive mother" to many kids,, during most holidays her home is full of relatives kids and their friends and while they stay there they have freedom but good old fashioned limits .. and she tackles any job with aplomb .. painting the house ,, anything ... as said a can do .. and yes she even sports a tattoo or two .. just for fun she says .. and thats knocking 60 ?? sadly so it appears health failing she shrinking .. not saying anything ... just dismisses it as a bad moment in life ...
Hi There
I am Lynette of the Hubbard family. 1956 -1966. Both my Mother and Father have passed away but all 5 children are alive and well. Some of the facts of these postings are slightly incorrect.
Shirley was the oldest then there is me and then came Douglas, then Andrew and finally Kenneth.
Shirley has retired to Mossel Bay with her husband of 43 years. I am living in Cape Town, alive and well, doing accounting. Douglas, was the real character and he lives up in Bonaero Park in Gauteng. Andrew (the one who fell on his head on a tourist run around Simonstown, showing his grandmother around the sights, he opened the window to wide and fell out, to this day he swears he was pushed. Andrew has had a long and illustrious career spanning two continents, 3 wives and 5 children. Kenneth the youngest was born in Cape Town, is a Pilot for Emirates in Dubai.
Will give further updates soon.
Proudly Lynette Hubbard
OPS 1958 to 1966 smiley-hug008.gif
Hi Lynette , hope you enjoyed the fond and funny recollections of your family , as said part of the fabric of our dear town ...
Yes, I also remember the Hubbard family. My father and Mr. Hubbard worked together. They looked after and maintained all the company's radio equipment.