The Abattoir!

[Michael Alexander]

I took these snaps of the abattoir for Joco, who recently joined the forum. George worked at the Abattoir in the late 60's... As a few of you know , the abattoir has not been used for the last 17 years or so. One small corner is being used a Braam Van Tonder, who buys in carcases to process a few polonies and sausages.......(Nice stuff).... otherwise the rest of the plant is in ruins.  Braam actually lives down there now.... It was sad to see the lawn dead and dry , with the christmas trees going the same way, there was a tap next to one of them, that still has water, so I quietly turned it on to drip away, in the hope nobody will notice and at least one tree will remain green.

:-\

[Michael Alexander]

and a few more....

[Michael Alexander]

and....

[SandyB]

So  sad to see  the  trees  being  left to  die .. have  they  not  heard  of   plant a tree and save  the  planet ? .. obviously  they/them  in charge have not  one drop  of  bunnyhugging  blood  in  their  veins  ..  further  to  that  trees  beautify  our  surroundings ...   we have  here  in  CT  the tree  taliban  that  just want to  chop  all the  beautiful  trees  down  and  turn  it into  a  wasteland ..   the  arguments  for  and  against  all  have their  merits  .. and  yes  we  should return  to  our  more indigenous  forest  .. but  slowly  ...  so  well  intentioned  but  oh  so misguided  they are ...
I  see  the  smoke  room (  the  one with the  chimney  in  the  pics ) is  it used  by  the  Braam  guy ??

[Michael Alexander]

Hi Sandy, No I don't think so, if I'm not mistaken, Braam does his smoking in a room on the west side of the building. I was in there with him when he was showing me his salami's and smoked meats and it was all hanging in a room on the west. He only occupies about 10 % of the premises...

:)

[bobbysmith]

mike,norman buckley,niall bennet,albert lisser ,anthony haywood, brian ayre and myself used to have over night stays in my pondock at e.23/9th and get up at 4 in the morning at weekends to go to the abatoirs and watch the rituals of the slaughter,as horrendous as it was,it hasnt put me off meat,in fact after watching and sometimes helping,by herding the animals ,we were rewarded with the best biltong and droer worse that ive ever tasted.upon our return to home,us little shits dicovered an out building that housed all [the waiting to be cured biltong and worse,]so a decision was made to help ourselves and bypass the horrors of the abattoir,nothing like a free snack

[Nicky Hodge]

Hi Mike, thanks for taking these pics.They brought back lots of renewed memories for me too. I spent many hours here, as morbid as it may sound, with Richard Gerstner. His Dad Jimmy was the health inspector, so we were always " Helping Out ", and the reward was also Biltong or Smoked Sausage to name a few. It was sad to see the animals being slaughtered, but there was always this driving fascination which would always draw us back. That European guy George was also quite a character. Richard was a good friend of mine during my youth, and I am wondering if anyone knows where he or his Mom Jenny are these days. I have heard that both Gregory and Jimmy have passed away. I was saddened by this news.

[Michael Alexander]

Nicky, Jenny is living with richard in dubai, I think he is in air traffic, she emailed 2 weeks back to add Jimmy's name to the Lost diamonds.... I'll pass on her email if you want!

:)

[Yvette Kroukamp (Biccard)]

Richard Gerstner lived in 13th avenue, correct me if I'm wrong? Somewhere near your house Nicky?  Last I heard about Richard was that he was air traffic controller in Dubai too. Nice guy.  I was very shocked to hear about Gregory, can anyone tell what happened there? 

Yvette

[Michael Alexander]

Mine accident, not to sure if it was a bus or a truck that drove over his works bakkie!  :-\

[Nicky Hodge]

Hi Mike, thanks for that info on Jenny and Richard. I knew that he went to live in in the Middle East somewhere, but that was years ago. I wasn't aware that he was still there. If you could pass Jenny's email on to me, that would be great. Thanks.

You are quite right Yvette, Richard lived virtually across the road from me in 13th avenue. How do you still remember that? That was our first house in O/mund, a very long time ago.

[Michael Alexander]

Ok Nicky will do that 2morrow as it's on my laptop at work.......

;)

[Yvette Kroukamp (Biccard)]

Hi Nicky,

We lived in 26/13th avenue.  Somewhere between your place and ours was Lorna and Freddie Ahrens' place too. Shane Leisegang lived across the road from us and next door to them on the corner were Ruth and Stephen Claasen.  Do you remember Lesley McDonald? she lived at your end of 13th avenue.  We were best friends, now this is going way back.  She was killed by a bakkie when she climbed off the bus in 13th avenue.  She must have been around 6 or 7 years old.  She was an only child.

Yvette

[Clive Symes]

I worked with Angus McDonald in the drawing office & remember the incident. He took to drink & got divorced after his daughter was killed, it realy affected him.

Mike we stayed in 12th Ave during the early 1970's and I will always remember the trucks bringing the animals for slaughter at the abbetoir

[Michael Alexander]

I remember those trucks, I think there were two of them, big green things, horse and trailer, as they drove past you could see and smell the animals.....