The Hubbard family and the funnny car

[SandyB]

While watching a  repeat of Harry Potter  my mind travelled  back to the Hubbard family , one of the sons was Douglas Hubbard .. association to the Harry Potter .. Mr  and Mrs Hubbard were an unusual couple .. he a  small  man with  glasses , she a  big  gregarious woman ,, seem to remember  all the kids wearing glasses ala Harry Potter ... and the assocoiation goes back to the one scene where  Harry and pals  " borrow" the  pals parents ford anglia ( the one that a bird could not shit on the  rear window ) ...
Anyhow story follows .. the Hubbard  family must ahve left O'mund in about 1964 .. cos this follows .. it was about 1965 .. family Buchanan were on holiday in CT and  we all travelled by train to  go to Bothners in Parow to choose a Piano for me ... .. we walking down Voortrekker road after getting off at the station  when we hear this screeching of tyres  and we  see this most odd looking car  screech to a halt do a sudden U turn and  head  back toward us ...  screech to a halt ... who of all people  but Mrs  Hubbard behind the wheel  of this most odd  looking car , left hand drive  looked like and anglia but was not ...  Theres  Mrs Hubbard , big meaty arm  resting on the window ledge , inside the car next to her  dear ,hubby  looking  so small next to her , and  the brood of children in the back , of course the  harry potter glasses  all peering at us .... this picture  is  so clear in my mind , almost a  classical ...  Mrs  Hubbard  .  big  throaty voice .. " Jock  Elanour ... how are you ?? chat  chat " ... it goes on .. traffic  hooting behind .. she did not bother to pull to the side .. she ignores .. gives them the hand ..  so embarresing for  Mom and Dad .. anyhow greetings over , " pop in sometime " she bellows   and  roars  off again in the funny car .. doing another  sudden U turn  to head back in original direction ,, nearly taking out a car or two  in the process..  as they drive off I ask my Dad .. "thats a funny looking car  what is it "   he tells me its a Citroen ... this memory planted in my brain ..
Now and many years later  never really saw  a similar ugly looking car again , or just missed it ... my assumption .. it must have been an Anglia whenever this  memory  floated through my mind  .. da must have been mistaken ...
This Morning .. Im having a memory recall .. Willie Boucher ,, he had  Renault 16 TS in O'mund ,, a classical style , so i do search.. from there I do a bit of citroen search seeing as i drove them for so many years ..  get onto the 2CV site ..  related cars .. and what pops up the  Citroen Ami .. and guess what  yes it has the bird poop proof back window !!!  memory  chip vindicated ...
Now that ive  rambled on this story and the memory  recall .. Does anyone remember the Hubbard family ??

attached a picture of the  funny car ...

[Diana Rudd (Boehme)]

I do remeber the name Sandy...was there not a Peter Hubbard as well?

[Leon Sumter]

What an interesting story Sandy. I really enjoyed this one. The Ami was based upon the 2CV mechanicals (real guttless wonder but could achieve almost 50 mpg ) and were very rare in the RSA. Sounds like the Hubbard family were also very 'rare' indeed.

Yes and I also remember Willie Boucher. He was an auto electrician based at the town garage. An absolute maniac on the road with his 16TS even with his front suspension beginning to 'splay' on the TS. I always had the fear that he would go flying over the Steinkopf pass.
Leon

[Richard Opperman]

Hi sandy,

Yes I remeber the Hubbards, they lived across the road from us and Douglas was a friend of mine. He had two sisters older than him - younger of the two Lynnet and a brother a bit younger than him, not Peter. They lived next to the Oliviers and Mrs Place, the Sydows, next to Mrs Place.

We used to get up to a lot mischief and our gang had super hero names. I remember building dams in his folks back yard, constructing towns down river and then bursting the dam wall and flooding the back yard. Also acting out cowboy movies in the park across the road from us, remember Douglas falling out of a tree after being shot, getting up and doing it all over again.

His father was head of the radio workshop and when they left town the Whitley's moved in. Mr Hubbard was also quite talented with hobby trains. He build Douglas a fantastic set with lights, villages, tunnels and a lot more, the whole set was build on hard board and could be folded away against one of the walls in Douglas's room. I remember most of the time Douglas doing his utmost to crash the trains. Yes his father was a small man and his mother a rather large woman who did knitting and one of the first in Oranjemund to have electric knitting machine.

Douglas on many an afternoon had to operate one of the knitting machines, while his mom was off shopping in her Anglia, you could hear her coming a mile away - reminded me a bit of Cruella De Vil of the 101 Dalmatians.
Many time when his mom got back, Douglas would rush out, only to be followed with a shout across the neighborhood "DOUGLAS" returning sheepishly - his mom standing there holding up a jersey that he had being working on and her looking through a big hole in it. Douglas reminded me a lot of Dennis the Menus with glasses.

I remember going around to his house on a Sunday - entering his lounge and seeing a Sunday Times sitting on a chair - his father being a smallish man used to sit cross legged on the chair - so it looked like a seated newspaper. They were a family of characters of the 60s Oranjemund.

I remember after they left Oranjemund a story of his younger brother falling out of their moving car while driving down Voortrekker Road - his mom only noticing a few kilos down that he was no longer in the vehicle - turning around  - finding him - giving him the third degree and carrying on with the journey.

The last time I spoke to Douglas was in the early 70s and Andre van der Westhuizen going for an interview at the Cape Town City Council - Mr Hubbard did the interview.
     

[Delia]

I've heard Lance mention Andrew Hubbard over the years..........

[SandyB]

Richard  .. thanks   so  much  for  putting the  icing  and the  cherry  on top of my story  about this  one of many  " character "  families    of  O'mund  that we all have  fond  recollections of ..   

[Richard Opperman]

Hi Delia,

You are right , Andrew was his younger brother.

[Leon Sumter]

Richard wrote: "I remember after they left Oranjemund a story of his younger brother falling out of their moving car while driving down Voortrekker Road - his mom only noticing a few kilos down that he was no longer in the vehicle - turning around  - finding him - giving him the third degree and carrying on with the journey"

Leon ponders: "Obviously the Citroen Ami did not have childproof locks."

[SandyB]

You  bet ..  no  child locks in those days ..... but then the  Hubbard  kids were prone to misadventure ...  like  said fond memories of this  character family ...  its like the one  jersey she gave my mom to give to me ... it  was  awful pea green .. she  thrust it into my moms hands and said   it will look  good on your boy !!   I was forced to wear it  on the odd occasion ... I mean  .. blue eyes and  green  jersey ???  other  nice thing  i  remember about  Ma  Hubbard  apart  from her huge  throaty voice was her huge beaming  smile , but  dont get on the wrong  side  of her ... you were  hunted ...   ask  Richard !!

[Leon Sumter]

I see quite a few Hubbards in the CT telephone directory.....wonder if these are relatives or the actual family?

[Michael Alexander]

Way before my time, but Gee! I really enjoyed reading this tale....   

[SandyB]

Yes  Mike ,, welcome  back .. we  had  some  characters in the  60's   

[John Creedy]

Nice to hear of the Hubbards again.  I did my apprenticeship in the radioshop and he was the head honcho.  I recall him to be quite the electronics guru and designed and built a monitoring system to monitor the amount of fuel at  Central Fields "Tank Farm'.  An oil tanker would come to the coast every few months and anchor off shore and pump the diesel and fuel to shore into huge tanks.  Ray Hubbard was involved in all that.  It was the days of valves and transistors were in vogue.  Oom Piet Petersen was the expert on transistor technology.  Op Amps were around too....
Ray had a very big thirst for tea and every few hours would shout "tea" and the whole shop would close down once more for tea.  We had a shop helper to cater for the tea needs of the shop.  Later on, De Beers got wise - someone did - and we got tea times at 10 am and 3 pm.
Anyone know if Ray is around?  I visited the radioshop a few months ago.  He's left.....  The memories linger on though.

[Pat Heiser]

I remember the Hubbards    Shirley was the eldest daughter and we were in the same standard in primary school.    We were also very good friends.
They did leave in 1964 and moved to CT and lived in an area called Boston.    Shirley was with me at Rhenish Girls High in Stellenbosch until std 9 and then she changed schools.    I heard from her for a while and what was quite amusing was that both she and her mother were pregnant at the same time Shirley's mom giving birth to a son (think called him Edward) a week before Shirley had her baby.   I then lost contact with her as she move to some isolated place somewhere in SA.    I later heard that Mrs Hubbard had died and that Mr Hubbard had remarried.    Do u remember that Mrs Hubbard also used to work the night shift at the Telephone exchange in Oranjemund.

[SandyB]

Mmm  Pat  .. my memory good hey .. 1964  they left ...  Yes  mrs Hubbard  was indeed an enterprising woman .. the knitting  .. the working night shift  at the exchange ..  one of those  larger than life  "  salt of the earth people "   a  can do and make it work character ...
Paul has an  adopted Aunt  who reminds me of  Mrs Hubbard ..  Ma Maud  or Auntie Maud  whichever takes you fancy ...  she too is a  large woman   with  a huge throaty  voice  ,  a  very much smaller than her husband , a  platoon of  kids  she has raised , and yes to this day "adoptive mother" to many kids,, during  most holidays her home is full of  relatives kids  and their friends and while they stay there they have freedom but good old fashioned limits .. and she  tackles  any  job with  aplomb .. painting the house ,, anything ... as said a can do .. and yes  she even  sports a  tattoo or two .. just for fun she says .. and thats  knocking 60 ??  sadly so  it appears   health failing  she shrinking  .. not saying anything ...  just dismisses it as  a bad  moment in life ...