WHERE ARE THE MEMORIES AND THE STORYTELLERS ??

SandyB · January 18, 2009, 07:03:43 PM

Maybe its just not enough older people around or lack of interest ... but I have lots of memories to share .. and do regular posting as they come up or the time appropriate ... I mean the story of Pam Touhey.. nobody remember her ,, Richard opperman is one person who decribes in graphical detail pretty much as i do .. come on lets rattle those grey cells .. and yes press our old folks if they still with us for more stories ...

Dalene Steenkamp (Coetzee) · January 19, 2009, 12:07:59 PM

Good idea, Sandy. Let's get some stories from some of the older folk and post them here or even better.... let's get some more older folk online to share their own stories and memories with us....

Carl Zeelie · January 20, 2009, 12:32:45 PM

Hi Dalene, never met you but knew your dad. Way back when 1975 I neede to get a drivers licence to be able to fulfil my duties on the mine. The protocol was that you would go through the normal process as per "normal" and then you would drive one of the policemen around. I remember a certain Monkey Malan who took me for my spin. As you can imagine,with a town the size of Oranjemund then we could not drive very far. monkey said to me: Let us just park somewhere, the old man is in a bad mood today and if we come back too soon he will take you out again himself and garaunteed you will fail!" We came back 30 minutes or so late, he just grumbled something in the line of: Can he drive?, and that was it. I had my drivers license! Strict old bugger he was, but fair!

Bertie Horak · January 20, 2009, 04:24:53 PM

Nice memory Carl, that's what we need! Welcome on the site - be ready to spend many hours in front of the computer, there's a lot of memories hidden in hundreds of pages!

Carl Zeelie · January 20, 2009, 07:05:14 PM

Hi Bertie,
Thanks! We stayed in E8/11, were practically your neighbours. Did your dad not go for a jog with a difference? I seem to recall him on a bicycle pulled by two Staffies every evening!(maybe it was some one else but I always thought it was him)

Diana Rudd (Boehme) · January 20, 2009, 08:11:29 PM

Hi Carl when was it you stayed at E8/11. We were at E5/11 in the 60's and the Steyns stayed at E8/11 then, and were Berties Neighbours(E10/11). The delange's at E9/11 and the Schneiders at E 7/11. Just trying to place you...did you arrive after that time????

Carl Zeelie · January 20, 2009, 08:35:03 PM

Hi there,

Are you family of Stephen Rudd perhaps? We moved into Wikkies house during 1977 from the 5th avenue flats. Kosie Krige was one of my neighbours overthere...

Bertie Horak · January 21, 2009, 04:00:29 AM

@ Carl - Yes, that's right. Good memory. It was indeed my Dad (Bertus). He went for a cycle with the dogs (or rather THEY took HIM for a ride). They were two Bull Terriers, and I will never forget it. Once we went for a cycle, me taking one, my Dad the other. There was this Labrador close to the park in 12th/13th avenue, and when Ounooi saw it, went after it - pulled me straight off my bicycle and there she went (me still attached to the leash!). Dad just yelled "you don't dare let go of the leash!" Well, wish I could see a replay of that moment - my dog pulling me down the street like I was a bag of feathers - I had no skin left on my elbows, but I didn't let go!

Sylvia Brünner · January 21, 2009, 05:21:43 AM

And the Brünnerfamily stayed on E6/11th in the 60's and halfway 70's. I thought it was next to the alley.

Diana Rudd (Boehme) · January 21, 2009, 06:28:46 AM

Quote from: Carl Zeelie on January 20, 2009, 08:35:03 PM
Hi there,

Are you family of Stephen Rudd perhaps? We moved into Wikkies house during 1977 from the 5th avenue flats. Kosie Krige was one of my neighbours overthere...

Yes I'm the wife of a million years..... cowgirl

Cherry (Alcock) · January 21, 2009, 06:59:51 AM

Speaking of Monkey Malan and drivers' licenses, Charlie Huntley and I rocked up in my mom's brown hire Beetle for our tests. Monkey couldn't believe that these two nitwits had arrived driving themselves with just a learners each. He was great though; made me go round a circle, drive up 1st avenue and then to Cora's so that he could buy a coke and then back to write out my licence. Same for Charlie as I recall.

When I wanted a bike licence, he just wrote one out and voila, licenced to side a bike! Should have asked him for every licence available - I could have been a bus driver on Cape Town roads - scare the bedevil out of all the morons on the roads! Ah, nice dream!

Carl Zeelie · January 21, 2009, 07:58:44 AM

I remember Karl Gerhke being a neighbour...think he married Wendy Bester but might be wrong...... Barbara stayed on the corner. I recall giving Trygva two tickets to the movies once that I got from somewhere but he was

about something and all I got was a :Thanks, but no thanks! Where is he these days I wonder? I worked with him at No ! Plant.

We played a prank on him once:

Let me first give the background. When you are a miner, you do blasting which involves handling Gelignite(those days, now they use emulsion). The nitroglycerin that weeps through the sticks gives you one heck of a headache. All that helped was a ice water and a couple of Syndols. So the first action of the miner when he comes back to the offices would be to get the necessary medication and then sit down with the water at the Foreman's desk. Only now is he ready to report. The Metallurgical Foreman would drift in and listen, make comments, discuss the technical details of the effect of the ROM on the plant...and sometimes just be a general nuisance and tease.(ME!)

On that day Trygva came in, filled his glass with ice and water, sat down and then suddenly decide he wanted to go to the toilet first. He came back, popped the pills and took a a long drink of water with a piece of ice ending up in his mouth...quite normal thus far... The next moment he spat the block of ice into his hand, began retching dryly and swearing as he ran outside.

Background two: We had a miner (Mining Supervisor as they were called) who had lost the first part on his finger in an accident with a

chain...I forget his name. He put it into resin at the time and polished it. It looked like a piece of glass with a bloody torn off finger frozen in ice. Thats right, somebody placed it in Trygva's glass when he went to the toilet.

I still smile when I think of his reaction that day. Hugo had his hands full to stop a fight whilst laughing uncontrollably himself!

Diana I remember Stephen, not so sure if he can say the same though. I think we moved in a different circle of friends....

Dalene Steenkamp (Coetzee) · January 21, 2009, 08:26:32 AM

Hi Carl - can't remember you as well, but yes - via memories of my old man, many people come up with bits here and there about him and it just warms my heart. True, if he was in a bad mood you did not 'sukkel' with Big Dirk!

Remember Monkey Malan as well... he is still very much alive and well and is living in Windhoek. My brother still sees him at times and about 4 years ago I also saw him in some or other shop in Windhoek when we were visiting again.

I (thank the good Lord for that) did not have to do my drivers lisence via my dad - he would have failed me for sure - not 'cos of bad driving, just for the heck of it! A big fella that came to O/Mund in those days - Daan something - took me. Drove about 500m when he asked me how long have I been driving... true to my big mouth I spilled the beans: for as long as I can remember.... He just said - don't waste my time then, turn around so I can go issue the licence! Whoopi - that was on the day of my 18th birthday! Best of all - my dad sent me to his office all on my own - knowing well that I only have a learners - (Eugene Barnes can stand in for that one as well - they were to busy to take me - also said they wanted to see if ou Daan realises the fact that no one accompanied me -

). After issuing the lisence and just before I walked out Daan asked me : so, who drove with you when you came here? ........

Eugene Barnes · January 21, 2009, 11:58:41 AM

Yes that were the good old days. We were the only Police station that was responsible for the issuing of drivers licences. I know Dalene as well as a lot of other people, driving around in town without licences.

Dirk and I went to Springbok one day, shortly after receiving the SWA/Namibian Police uniforms. In one of the stores, the salesman ran to the back of the store. We could here him saying to the manager, there is two strange looking men in the store, wearing strange uniforms and I am sure that the big person got a bomb with him, as I could hear it ticking. The bomb was Dirk's metal heart valve. The manager appologize to Dirk, but we had enjoyed it.

Hi Carl, good to see you here but I think you are glad that you are no longer here in Musina, as it look like small Zimbabwe.

Richard Opperman · January 21, 2009, 01:55:07 PM

Hi Carl,

Welcome to the Oranjemund Online!

Did you not work at 4 plant metallurgy in the late 70s with Vlooi Jacobs, Gert Prins, Tuis Smit and Richard Hyde as a single man?

I worked at 4 plant A1 and 100G section from 1975 till 1977 and 4 plant Recovery from 1977 till 1979 when I left Oranjemund for Cape Town and have been here for the past 30 years.

Keep well.