What a coincidence this morning down at the beach with Shadow.... I got there 3 hours later than normal, due to the rugby..... there was a car with a Northern Cape number plate parked at the top parking.... and a chap down at the river side on the sandbar fishing.....
Shadow jumped out.... saw the chap. and made a beeline towards him.....with me in tow....
I get to the chap, noticed that he must be in his 50's somewhere and a stranger at that.....
Making apologies about my well trained dog's behaviour, we start to chat..... he was asking about the fishing... to which I replied I was not into fishing so could not help him.... he then replied.... wait for it...wait for it...... "I was last fishing at this spot in 1957........" , "Sorry? When?", I stammered......
"1957, as a laaitjie..", he replied..... "You used to live here?", I enquired.... " Yes! " came his answer.... 'Wow!", I thought to myself.... "of all the people to bash into at the Orange river mouth"..... a deserted river mouth... not a sole in sight.....
In a nutshell, we made introductions..... His name is.... *&^% Bergstrom , (I forgot his name..), but his dad was called Otto Bergstrom and they were here back in 57..... onwards.... Kolmanskuppe , Elizabeth bay people originally ...
Names of people he recalls, The worth family, The Meads, The Hockneys..... even the Bruce family rang a bell.....It was the time of Devlin......
He now resides in Port Nolloth, but works in Sierra Leone... and was in for the day to do a spot of nostalgic fishing....
he is computer literate and will Google Oranjemund when he gets back online.... Reckons he has photo's.....
Off Course this made my day.....
Great another story from Oldies coming up
Just a tip to all of you that meet ex oranjemunders on the street and wish to tell them about this site.... Unless they write it down, rather tell them to go to Google and just type in Oranjemund.... the first and second result returned will be this site..... People remember Google before oranjemundonline.com
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just checked on Google Earth, couldnt see you on the beach.....LOL
It's a big beach! image071
Was it Kevin Bergstrom. There were two brothers. One was an academic and ended as a proff. We were in class together funny enough. They lived in one of the corner houses near the abattoir.
John, for the life of me, I was so interested in the chaps history, that his first name escapes me.... however, he knows local resident, Tom Parkhill, so I will ask Tom his name.....
This chaps father, Otto, had something to do with building the DMS on some plant back in the day....
I remember an Ingrid Bergstrom from them days...................
I seem to recall the name Anthony. Any takers?
I spoke to ol' Tom Parkhill yesterday..... he burst out laughing, Ja, he remembered the guy, but only met him once at a guesthouse in Port Nolloth, they were four strangers, and he reckins it was one helluva night, he recalss the drinks were flowing well into the wee hours of the morn..... remembered the guys surname, but forgot his first..... Tom did remember that the guy knew the diamond industry very well, hence him working in Sierra Leone.......
I guess I will have to look the name Bergstrom up in the phonebook and phone to find out.....
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I forgot to post the pics from the beach that morning.... for those who might be interested..... the mist on the river just blew me away......
Wish i had my present equipment in my days in OMD
Nice pics
I telephoned Wicus at Port Nolloth Spar to enquire the name of Mr.Bergstrom....
His name is Hector Bergstrom...
Ring a bell with anyone.....?
Thats the name. We were in the same class together. In fact there were more than two of us.... There were two brothers that I can recall. Couldn't remember his name it was a little used name. The other Hector from CDM days was Hector Salzwedle - nickname Bats short for Batman no doubt.
John , do you want me to pass your email address onto the manager at Port Nolloth SPar to hand to Hector when he shops there again?
Please Mike. Is he around in the area I wonder. It would be interesting to ciontact him, not that I can recall much from those days. It was 20 years ago today...
Thought I had answered that one. Yes please. I would like to hear from him.
Thanks
Sadly, there is closure to this tale....
Our latest member, Ingrid emailed the following....
"My name is Ingrid van Veen ( nee Bergstrom)
I was born in Oranjemund in March, 1953. My dads name is Otto Bergstrom and my brother's names are Hector, Kevin and Anton.
I found an email where you talking about meeting Hector on a fishing trip where he first went fishing as a "lightie" in 1957.
Hector died about 3 months ago in Sierre Leone which was an incredible shock to all of us. My daddy is 93 years old this September and he first worked for CDM many many years ago.
Would love to hear from you.
Regards
Ingrid"
Really sad to hear this, those tales and characters are moving on....
I will email Ingrid 2morrow!
Sorry to hear about Hector. I wonder if Ingrid will ask Kevin to contact me? Can someone help?
Thanks
John
Oi! There Canadian Welsh people..... I have sent thee an electronic email......
Thanks - I got it and did send a note to Ingrid. My younger twin brother Mike remembers them as well and hope I can make contact with Vic. It would be very interesting to hear stories on all these old timers to see where they lived all these years. My brother is in Turkey and heading to SA at the end of the month. ENough turkeys here at the moment...
J