The first avenue bushes

[SandyB]

To  Anne  ..  re : Barry  Solomon  yes  could  not  get  rid  of  that  voice in my head  that  keeps  on repeating itself  ,, I  suppose  because  my  Mom  was  fond  of  her   as  she  was    just  that  bit  different    and  slightly  more  laid  back  than   other  folk  , she  nurtured  the creative  spirit  no  matter  how stunted  or  good  in the  children  under  her care ( remember  the smocks  we had to  wear  for  art  class )  In  being  diferent she  from  what I  can  gather  from Robs  comment  from iscatterling  was  that  she  helped  an ovambo  artist   to  grow ( check  the  story  with  Rob )   and yes  in  those  days  that was  being  different ..

[Michael Alexander]

As stated earlier, not much remains of the 1st Avenue bushes, cleared ground with houses going up...

[Ann Gander (nee Greenway)]

How sad!

[Ann Gander (nee Greenway)]

To Sandy - Yes, I too remember as a lovely, calm person who nurtured those with talent and "did her best" i.e. me, with those of no talent.  I remember as always thinking of her as very exotic.

[Bev Coates (Now Walker)]

yes thats meeeeee, i sent the other pics ive been telling you i had mike so hopeyou got them ok........did you get to take any pics of my old house on 2nd ave yet?

[Michael Alexander]

Just remembered those long removable metal water pipes, with the sprayers mounted on them, that ran along the footpaths in the mighty first avenue jungles, on a hot day they were cool to play in and during a battle against the boertjies they made good cool awesome waterguns......!

:)

[SandyB]

The  water  pipes .. Mike  an  extract  from  something  I sent to  Robert ( wisely  saved )

The  sprinkler system  ..   school  fields  cricket  fields  soccer  field
> ...apart  from  the school   the  whole town  had  sprinkler systems  ..
dad
> always  used  to say  that  in  O'm  they  grew  grass  on money ...   the
> amount  of  work   and  time  put  into  it  ...   fertilising .. top
> dressing .. spiking .. scarrifying ...  always  something on  the go  with
> all  the  green  lawns  we  had  in  the  town ........  by  1980  the
town
> was  very green ...  like I  said  a  jewel in  the  desert ... as  you
hit
> the  entrance  to  the  town .. there  was  the slight  hill  that  we
used
> to  launch  ourselves  down  on  our  skateboards  ..    the cause of many
> falls ,scars  and  painful  scabs ...   you  would  travel  through
desert
> scrub   and  suddenly  the eruption of  trees  and  lawn with  well  kept
> flower  beds   as  you  entered  town .. invariably  somewhere the pipes
> laid  down and  the sprinkler  heads   going  Chih! Chih! Chih! dispensing
> the  life  giving  water   that  we  could  draw  in abundance  from  the
> river  ...
> We  sometimes  used  to  play  ,, talking  down  the pipes  .. our
version
> of  long  distance   communication  ..    we  would  even " borrow  " them
> to  use  as  part  of  the  roofing   support  for  our  underground  dens
> ( lightweight  and  strong ) Another  method  of communication ... in  the
> trees .. from one tree to  the  next ...  the  string with   the  tins
with
> the  holes  drilled in  ?? ... pull  string  taut  hold  tin  to  mouth
and
> the  other   person   in other  tree  hold  tin  to  ear ..  basic
> communication ..   Over  and  out .. swop  position  of  tin ..  I  tried
to
> devise a  multi user  system  with  more  than one  tin  tied  to  string
..
> it  appears  the  knots  interfered  and  all  " users" had to  try  keep
> their  string  taut .. this   sucked  out  or  interfered  with
> transmission  of sound ..

[Sharon]

Talking about the bushes, who remembers the big rope swing just behind our house (Fields) at first avenue and the huge tree house, I remember I MADE Wendly Lujeko jump from that swing, please forgive me Wendy......Who has her email add.

[SandyB]

The  first  avenue  trees ..  our  forest .. our jungle .... Me  the  dreamer  at  one stage  thought  that  I  could  build  an  aeroplane  and  fly  .. imagination  has  no  boundaries  for  a  child  but  reality  always  brought  us  back to  earth  .. I used  to  dream  about  this  plane  I  made  out of  a  cardboard  box   with  wings  and  the propeller   driven  by  hand ..  well I made  my  wright brother  cardboard  plane  ..   first reality  check , it  would not  take  off  .. so imagination  said  it  needed  to  be launched , so  Robin Holland  and I went  into  the  trees  climbed  nice  and high in a tree  balanced  sid  craft  on  some  branches .. I  climbed  in  got  the  propeller  spinning  and  asked  Robin to  launch  me on  maiden  flight ..   The obvious  happened , me  making  straight  drop  to  waiting  ground  below , me  scrunched  into  this  box  landed  with a  thud   thankfully  upright , only  problem  was  I  was severely   winded  from  the impact ..  It  must have  been a picture  to see  me  gasping  and wheezing in the box  and Robin  trying  to  prise  me out ...   That we  as kids  did  not   get  killed  by falling out of trees  etc  was a  miracle ...

[barb (Fry)]

Yea, falling out of the top of the trees, we climbed high and lay in the hammocks of ivy growing on the top.  With the usual consequences.
Sprinklers, you could redirect the spray,  and we spend afternoons, dodging the sprayers that where on automatic, tick,tick tick, if you timed it right you could run right through without getting wet.
Also remember the rocks seen in a picture somewhere forgotten until then.
What about the spiky plants at the enterance to town, the tips could be removed and grafitti type messages where scratched into the leaves of the plant.

[Michael Alexander]

What about writing on the tar roads  with those white rocks you could find down at the gun club..... move aside Michaelangelo, the Oranjemund kids are here....  ;D

[Michael Alexander]

A bit late , but here's a snap of an "Ovambo toilet"..they were scattered all over town and especially down the first ave bushes...this one in particular is the one behind the squash courts....

[Delia]

those white rocks were amazing - we used them to draw our hop scotch squares on the road.

barbara, i also used to love seeing if i could make it thru those sprinklers without getting wet - ducking and diving as they came around.  backwards and forwards i'd go just to prove to myself it can be done. 

i have a faint memory of that high swing in the 1st ave bushes being taken down 'cos someone fell and a stick went into their ear and pierced their eardrum or something??  management thought it too dangerous and took it down.........not that that ever stopped us kids from just putting up another one  ;D 

thanks guys for so many beautiful memories which have lain dormant within me only to be resurrected on reading about them - mike, all thanks to you for starting this brilliant site - it's brought back so many happy, happy memories of the best childhood anyone could ask for...........just shows, even tho' we're generations apart, we all basically got up to the same s...t. 

[Dalene Steenkamp (Coetzee)]

Don't remember who the guy was that had his ear pierced way back then, but I remember I was there that day - I think Hugo van Rooyen was there too - and as our house was the nearest  (63 1st ave) we went there to call someone for help. The piece of branch, about as thick as a pencil, pierced the poor guy's ear and we still had to brake him free from the main branch so he could get up from the spot where he was "pinned" down.   My dad cut down our ropes.  ( Lucky for the guy his eardrum was'nt damaged but I suppose he was a kind of trendsetter.  All the kids nowadays put studs in their ears from top to bottom. )  We later had two ropes up the tree and that led to a few mid-air crashes, but I don't think anyone ever klikked about an injury again for fear of my dad cutting down the ropes again.  What my dad never knew, and we never told him till the day he died, was that we "stole" one of those ropes from his tool-pondok!

[Bev Coates (Now Walker)]

Heres me up a tree in our garden on 2nd ave, the love of climbing trees never left me and i still cant resist the challenge...at 50.