The first avenue bushes

[Clint Ebstein]

Nothing was better than the first avenue bushes. Dense bushes where we made dens and played for hours,it was also a great place to find earthworms for fishing..........the good old days

[Robert Bruce]

The trees! The bamboo. Great place to play Robin Hood. Also learnt hoew to fall our of those fir trees.
Great fun.  ;)

[Michael Alexander]

And the dens we built, the traps on the pathways and the Ovambo toilets.....

Oh and the fire's we made now and again , that almost burned our bushes away...

hehehehe!

Oh and don't forget the dumps behind town garage!

;D

[Robert Bruce]

I liked the dens we built in the sand. Also the forts from the fencing! Those things got pretty sophisticated in their designs.

[Ann Gander (nee Greenway)]

My memory was definitely of the "Trees" in the 60's.  Forbidden, of course, for play but all the more exciting for it!  I understood they were grown as a windbreak but now you say they have gone?

[Michael Alexander]

Anne, a chap called Keith Ager, who worked for Parks & Gardens had them cut down in the early 80's as they were a security and fire hazard. They have been replaced by new tree's that look like sticks and do not grow, I will put a photo up in here in the next few days....

:o

[Warren Weidemann]

The first avenue bushes?
That's where I received my first bee sting. Aaah the memories...
If I remember correctly it was at Paul's 10th birthday party (or some such thing) and somebody decided that it wouldn't be such a bad thing to go and throw rocks at a massive beehive in the bushes. It turned out that I was slower than most during the frantic get-away dash through the undergrowth and the bees made me pay. Boy did they make me pay...

These days they have jumping castles at birthday parties.

[Sandy Buchanan]

Keith Ager ? was he  not  a fitter  at  one  time?  .. name  is familiar ...   anyhow  I find the  idea  that  the  trees  were  a  fire  and  security hazard  quite crazy ...   never knew  of  any real  big  fires   in all my  time  of 24 years   ...   as  a  windbreak they were  damm  good .. as  a  magical  jungle  for  us kids   to  play  in  they  were  fantastic ...   As Rob said .. the bamboo   facing the  desert and the wind , then  the  port  jackson  type  trees  and  the  conifers  and then  a  mixed  bag  of  trees  fronting  1st Ave ..  In  the  middle  were  the irigation  channels  and in  a  couple of  places   there  were  small  dams .about 2-3 M wide ..   these  were  our  little  lakes ..   we  made  foofie  slides  with  bloudraad   spanned  between  two  trees  and  20mm  conduit ..  your  drop  off  before  you  smashed into  the  next tree  was a pile  of  leaves .. sometimes a  newcomer  would  freeze  and not  let  go . ending  up   flat  into  the  next  tree ...  the  tree  dens  . the  underground  dens   and  the  splitpole  forts .. they  were all  god  healthy  active   fun  for us  as  kids ...

[Ann Gander (nee Greenway)]

Foofy slides!  Now that's a word I haven't heard for ages.  They were great wherever you had them set up.

[Sandy Buchanan]

Anne ..  question  I wanted  to  ask ..   tried  to  send to  your email  but it  bombed ... you  mentioned Miss Hattingh  the  art teacher  ... I  recall  her  Nickname  being Barry  which was  strange  for a woman ..  But  her  Surname  when  she  got married  .. I'm damm  sure  it  became   Solomon  ,  he  was  in  security .. maybe I'm way  off track  but I can  hear my  Moms  voice saying  the  name  ...   kind  of  imprinted in  my  head ..     help ??

[Nada Ulbrich (Rall)(RIP)]

Sandy< I seem to recall that name.  Barry was most probably short for Barendina or something.  Who remembers the foofy slide at the beach?  It was later built on Lovers Hill(north east end of town), now known to the young, reckless, drinking, partying teenagers (we were never like that! ::)) as the quarry. Yes, the first avenue bushes is but a memory.  I remember the fights that the Boere had against the Souties, trying to find their dens and destroying it. There used to be talk at times of baboons and monkeys but we never saw any and I cannot remember ever hearing of any child that was bitten by a spider, scorpion or a snake.  They must have been there but it did not bother us. My children don't believe me when I tell them of these things.

[Ann Gander (nee Greenway)]

Sandy - I'll check the married name of Miss Hattingh.  Munro sprang immediately to my mind but I can check with the family

[Ann Gander (nee Greenway)]

Sandy, you're right! It was Mrs Solomon (Mrs Munro was my art teacher in Kimberley!).  Also, I do recall her being called Barry but never knew why.

[Michael Alexander]

Thanks to Robert who sent in this picture of the Foofie slide... I'll post this pic on the main site later.

[Robert Bruce]

Mike,

You better thank Bev for the photo. I just used some magic to extract it and to trim it into shape.

The photo is Bev's and I think it is Bev hanging onto the foofie while coming in for a bumpy landing!

Strange that over the past few months I have seen two foofies here in UK. One was setup at our local village fair. The other was at a large event. Must be some SAFFERS on the Entertainment committees!