pondocks

[barb (Fry)]

Lionel was in my class.

[bobbysmith]

you just mite be rite barbara,kay is of the opinion that a lot of the materials came from rumbelows discarded materials,as sandy mentioned in one of his replys,their yard was near the paint/carpenters yard,we used it as a shortcut from school,we used to go to the yard to get wood to make our swords and shields to fight the boere,i ,and a few others were hauld up in assembly one monday morning by doc.fenter,because he found out that the third boer war kicked off at the quarry.michael langford was our leader,lione trollop was in charge of the boers,let it be said,no real harm came to any one of us,but as kids,we were determined in mind that it was war,naughty little shits we certainly were,going back to pondoks babara,i remember gathering the agates and tiger eyes for youre dad to polish,he put them in a drum with paste and slowly turned them for days,remember also getting them out and washing them,how they shone,amazing,who was the person that set all those stones in rings and broaches,ive still got one of those stones.

[barb (Fry)]

Bobby,
I need Help with this reply.  Give me a few days, to sleep on it or seek consultation.  I think you are right and there was a jewel maker of  sorts amongst the old timers.
It was hell sleeping with the tumbler tumbling outside the bedroom window as I remember, it would require days of processing -

[Nicky Hodge]

Hey Barbara, I seem to recall Gerald Hodgson used to tumble stones and maybe even make jewellery from them. I think there were quite a few people over the years that had a go at this. You have also jogged my memory on Lionel Gilbey. I can specifically recall them packing up their house and preparing to leave. Can't remember where they went to though.
I got my first Pondok when we moved to 76 - 2 ND AVE. It was every teenagers dream to have their own bit of privacy and space. Mine was originally built by Samma Schreuder when he had occupied the house. It was of breeze block construction ( just as well, as the constant loud music emanating from it would have blown it apart ), and had two sets of windows and a partition that separated the bed from the " lounge". I can remember I had it done out with posters, carpet, disco lights, chairs, desk, TV, and a " you beaut stereo system". I remember one occasion when the bracket supporting the speaker had become loose due to the vibrations from all the noise, and both came crashing down to earth. I apologise to all ex neighbours that might be reading this.LOL. The best part about it was that you could get home in the wee hours of the morning, and your folks would be none the wiser. Needless to say, a lot of "sleep overs" occurred. If only those walls could talk ........ 
Did any of you know that the Indonesians also call a shed or outhouse detached from the main house a Pondok? Is this perhaps where it stems from? They also call a banana a Pisang, (Like Piesang in Afrikaans). Must have been the Dutch influence.

[Michael Alexander]

Now that's a memory I have recovered, Thats right The carpenter shop by the mine store had that cement hokkie, where you could scavange all the off cuts, and there was some good pices to be found there at times...

The Boer Wars were awesome, in first avenue where the water "tower" pipe was used to fill up the water trucks, there was an awesome supply of clay to be found, so Clay lats where used in our warfare...hell... that stuff stung like crazy.....we also used the leftocer braai ash from the weekends braai, placed in a cheap plastic bag and then hurled over the fence at the dutchmen, made quite an impact, dust everywhere, I do remember at once stage, we had to take brooms and sweep the entire e section of 1st avenue, due to it looking like an alpine snow village.......

To this day, I'm still not sure who won those Boer wars....  ::)

[barb (Fry)]

I think the answer would be differant depending on who answered it.
It was one of those things that just happened and I think eventually we all became mutually respectful and civil to one another and left the war tactics to the younger generation.  Like a rite of passage to being a teenager.

[Leon Sumter]

Did'nt one of the prominent foremen in town get fired because he had built a super pondock with company materials????
Leon