19) Breaking Ground
Some time in March our housing loan was eventually granted. Just as the manager had predicted the builder had gone bankrupt and a new one was duly appointed to take over. We were very excited and went often to the plot to see if they had started yet. One afternoon while we were there an elderly gentleman who lived on the other side of the cul-de-sac came to speak to us. He told us that he had noticed that the person who lived on the other side of us had encroached into our land. At first we thought he was a little touched but when he showed us what he meant, we had to admit that he was right. The dividing fence between our neighbour’s yard and ours was about six foot further into our yard at the front of the plot than it was at the back. We weren’t at all sure what could be done about it so we telephoned the architect and explained it to him. He promised to look into it. A few days later the builders came on site and began cutting the foundations, some progress at last. We felt sure that all our problems were over now and that we would soon be in our very own house. As the house we were living in was not far from the plot we went often to see how it was coming along. One day we met the builder there and he told us that he was going to have to fill in the foundations that he had cut and start all over again, we were horrified. He explained that he had taken his measurements from the fence and now the architect had pointed out that the fence was in the wrong place so the house would not be 10 feet from the correct boundary but 16 foot from the boundary. Having seen some work started we just could not bear the thought of going backwards and also we had decided where we wanted to position the house more with the view down the open ground in front of it and not in relation to the fence. We asked the builder if it would not be easier and quicker just to get an alteration to the plans than to actually move the house. He agreed to do that for us and so he could carry on with the job.
Having had no response to the adverts for the car that we had placed in the paper about half way through March Jonny went to see what the used car dealers would offer us for our lovely Jaguar. One of the dealers who dealt in that kind of luxury car said that he would not buy it from us but agreed to sell it on commission for us. He had another primrose yellow one just like ours on his stand, except that that one was 1969 model and ours was actually a 1968 model, but ours only had just under 2000 miles on the clock, which was just about the exact mileage from Cape Town to Salisbury, the other one had been driven a lot more. I remember that we were asking £3600 the same as the other one and after about two weeks we got an offer for £3300, which we accepted. The other Jag sat on that used car dealers stand for quite a while so we felt we had made the right decision in accepting that offer. It was sad to see it go, but we had never intended to keep it and we needed the money more than we needed a luxury sports car. Now we could replace the furniture that we needed and return the items that our good friends had so kindly lent us.
While we were living in Mabelreign I saw an advert in the paper for the Salisbury Mothers Club and rang to get more information. The Mothers Club was a wonderful idea; the Chairlady, Shirley Shaw and a committee ran it. The idea was that many young women after leaving work to care for their children were cut off from any adult companionship during the day while their husbands were at work and as more and more families were moving away from their parents and so loosing the support of their extended family young moms could feel very cut off and lonely. The Club helped them to make friends with girls in the same position and have someone to share their problems with. They met together once a week and while the children were cared for by two of the Moms on a rotation basis the others relaxed, made friends and hopefully learnt something new. The first meeting I went to was about an irrigation scheme somewhere in Rhodesia, I don’t remember where but the speaker was good and I really enjoyed it so I decided to join. The next weeks’ meeting was one that made a very big impact on me. It was an elderly gentleman called Col Hickman who knew a great deal about Rhodesian history and had written books on the subject. He talked on “Women in Pioneer Times” He told us about the first European women who came into the country and I was fascinated by what he had to say. I’ll tell you more about them later.
During my years with the club I went heard many interesting talks, and saw many good demonstrations and visited factories of all sorts and it really helped me to make friends and settle into my new home. Besides the weekly meetings we also hosted a monthly morning tea for elderly people who did not have much social life either. We would arrange transport for them, bake and serve them with tea and cakes, hold raffles and they were very appreciative of it. Then once a year, at Christmas time we would hold a huge party for about 800 elderly people. This was a big project and we would raise funds and ask for donations from many businesses and organisations. The party was held in the big tobacco auction floor and everyone worked hard to make it a success. The army kitchens cooked all the chickens for us, the bacon factory gave us lovely tinned hams we but they all had to be cut up and put on plates, there was lots of donated food but each of our club members was encouraged to bake and donate as much as they could. I remember one year I baked among other things some of my favourite biscuits. During the live entertainment one old lady indicated that she was not feeling well so she was helped outside to sit in the fresh air. The St. John’s Ambulance man who was in attendance was called and he advised that she should be taken to the hospital. She was very upset about her handbag and her umbrella that she had left at her seat so I went back to get them for her. As I collected her belongings I noticed that on her plate amongst the other food that she had been eating there was one of my biscuits with one bite taken out of it. As you can imagine I got teased that it was my biscuits that had made the poor old girl sick and when we heard later that the poor lady had died on the way to hospital the teasing just go worst and more macabre.
One of the old ladies that came to our weekly meetings and to our Christmas party was a very large lady named Rose. She had a heart of gold but unfortunately did not smell very rose like. (A rose by any other name?) She always brought some food contributions, usually hard boiled eggs or sausage rolls, that we in the kitchen avoided, just passing them on to the poor unsuspecting old dears, I don’t think anyone died from eating them (unlike my biscuits). It was our chairlady’s task to arrange the transport each month for our guests and she did it well. One month she was sick and one of the committee members took over the task. The driver who usually collected Mrs. Rose was not available that month so someone else was nominated. The only problem was that the new driver owned a little Mini and when she went to pick up her passenger Mrs. Rose could not get into the car. She, a bit like the sisters in Cinderella, tried very hard to squeeze herself into the seat of the Mini but she just would not fit and got stuck in the doorjamb. Then she tried very hard to squeeze herself out of the car again but she was firmly stuck. Eventually someone went round to the other side of the car opened the door and gave the poor trapped Mrs. Rose a great push, it worked and she was finally set free. Another driver with a larger car was dispatched and the plucky lady arrived at the tea party, with her bowl of hard boiled eggs a little late but none the worse for her experience. The story was of course related to all the helpers and we all expressed our shock and then laughed ourselves silly.
We all took turns in baby sitting duty. It wasn’t popular, none of us wanted to miss the meeting but we accepted that without baby sitters we would not be able to relax and enjoy our meeting each week so it just had to be done. I remember once when I was on baby sitting duty one little girl came and told me “My Mummy had brandy to drink and fell down the stairs”. I knew the mother and it really did not sound a bit like her so I could not resist telling her what her daughter had said when she came to collect her. The Mom laughed and explained, she was pretty heavily pregnant and had the evening before twisted her ankle and fallen down a small flight of steps between the lounge and the dining room. Her husband had picked her up put her in a chair and to calm her down had poured her a small brandy. It just goes to show that one can tell the truth and give completely the wrong impression if you tell things in the wrong order.
Before I joined the Salisbury Mother’s club I had thought that committees were made up of the most popular people. That the rank and file voted for the people they liked and that was how they got to be there. I soon learnt that committees are made up of people that are prepared to do things and others vote them on if they are not prepared to do the jobs themselves. I was asked to join the committee of the club the following year and had a wonderful time helping with the organization.
As March drew to a close we could plainly see that there was no way that we were going to be in our own house by the end of April so we had to set about looking for somewhere else to live. I don’t know why rental properties were so hard to come by at that time but we had to start the early morning telephone calls again to find somewhere to live. We thought we would take just about anything but one of the houses that for some reason Jonny looked at by himself was such a mess that he refused to even consider it. I was feeling pretty desperate and was concerned that he had made a mistake but he was very addiment that he would not pay the asking rent to live in a hovel. Most places we never even saw as they were gone by the time the paper came out in the morning. We had hoped to stay on the west side of town to be near our own house so that we could watch the progress but we eventually managed to find a place across on the east side of town in a suburb called Braeside. 9 St. Dunstan’s Close was a little double story terraced house and I seem to recall that the owner was quite relaxed about the fact that we only wanted to stay four months but that as we had already been waiting six months for our house that had been promised to us within four months we were not too sure when we would actually be moving out.
I knew that I was gong to miss the Mothers Club but only having the one car I did not think I would be able to attend very often, as Jonny would need the car to get to work and I would not have it very often. Shirley said that she would see if there was anyone from over that side of town who could give me a lift. She then introduced me to Maureen Arnold who was to become my dearest friend. She and her husband Roy and her children David and Janet were to become and still are a very special part of our lives.
Having had no response to the adverts for the car that we had placed in the paper about half way through March Jonny went to see what the used car dealers would offer us for our lovely Jaguar. One of the dealers who dealt in that kind of luxury car said that he would not buy it from us but agreed to sell it on commission for us. He had another primrose yellow one just like ours on his stand, except that that one was 1969 model and ours was actually a 1968 model, but ours only had just under 2000 miles on the clock, which was just about the exact mileage from Cape Town to Salisbury, the other one had been driven a lot more. I remember that we were asking £3600 the same as the other one and after about two weeks we got an offer for £3300, which we accepted. The other Jag sat on that used car dealers stand for quite a while so we felt we had made the right decision in accepting that offer. It was sad to see it go, but we had never intended to keep it and we needed the money more than we needed a luxury sports car. Now we could replace the furniture that we needed and return the items that our good friends had so kindly lent us.
While we were living in Mabelreign I saw an advert in the paper for the Salisbury Mothers Club and rang to get more information. The Mothers Club was a wonderful idea; the Chairlady, Shirley Shaw and a committee ran it. The idea was that many young women after leaving work to care for their children were cut off from any adult companionship during the day while their husbands were at work and as more and more families were moving away from their parents and so loosing the support of their extended family young moms could feel very cut off and lonely. The Club helped them to make friends with girls in the same position and have someone to share their problems with. They met together once a week and while the children were cared for by two of the Moms on a rotation basis the others relaxed, made friends and hopefully learnt something new. The first meeting I went to was about an irrigation scheme somewhere in Rhodesia, I don’t remember where but the speaker was good and I really enjoyed it so I decided to join. The next weeks’ meeting was one that made a very big impact on me. It was an elderly gentleman called Col Hickman who knew a great deal about Rhodesian history and had written books on the subject. He talked on “Women in Pioneer Times” He told us about the first European women who came into the country and I was fascinated by what he had to say. I’ll tell you more about them later.
During my years with the club I went heard many interesting talks, and saw many good demonstrations and visited factories of all sorts and it really helped me to make friends and settle into my new home. Besides the weekly meetings we also hosted a monthly morning tea for elderly people who did not have much social life either. We would arrange transport for them, bake and serve them with tea and cakes, hold raffles and they were very appreciative of it. Then once a year, at Christmas time we would hold a huge party for about 800 elderly people. This was a big project and we would raise funds and ask for donations from many businesses and organisations. The party was held in the big tobacco auction floor and everyone worked hard to make it a success. The army kitchens cooked all the chickens for us, the bacon factory gave us lovely tinned hams we but they all had to be cut up and put on plates, there was lots of donated food but each of our club members was encouraged to bake and donate as much as they could. I remember one year I baked among other things some of my favourite biscuits. During the live entertainment one old lady indicated that she was not feeling well so she was helped outside to sit in the fresh air. The St. John’s Ambulance man who was in attendance was called and he advised that she should be taken to the hospital. She was very upset about her handbag and her umbrella that she had left at her seat so I went back to get them for her. As I collected her belongings I noticed that on her plate amongst the other food that she had been eating there was one of my biscuits with one bite taken out of it. As you can imagine I got teased that it was my biscuits that had made the poor old girl sick and when we heard later that the poor lady had died on the way to hospital the teasing just go worst and more macabre.
One of the old ladies that came to our weekly meetings and to our Christmas party was a very large lady named Rose. She had a heart of gold but unfortunately did not smell very rose like. (A rose by any other name?) She always brought some food contributions, usually hard boiled eggs or sausage rolls, that we in the kitchen avoided, just passing them on to the poor unsuspecting old dears, I don’t think anyone died from eating them (unlike my biscuits). It was our chairlady’s task to arrange the transport each month for our guests and she did it well. One month she was sick and one of the committee members took over the task. The driver who usually collected Mrs. Rose was not available that month so someone else was nominated. The only problem was that the new driver owned a little Mini and when she went to pick up her passenger Mrs. Rose could not get into the car. She, a bit like the sisters in Cinderella, tried very hard to squeeze herself into the seat of the Mini but she just would not fit and got stuck in the doorjamb. Then she tried very hard to squeeze herself out of the car again but she was firmly stuck. Eventually someone went round to the other side of the car opened the door and gave the poor trapped Mrs. Rose a great push, it worked and she was finally set free. Another driver with a larger car was dispatched and the plucky lady arrived at the tea party, with her bowl of hard boiled eggs a little late but none the worse for her experience. The story was of course related to all the helpers and we all expressed our shock and then laughed ourselves silly.
We all took turns in baby sitting duty. It wasn’t popular, none of us wanted to miss the meeting but we accepted that without baby sitters we would not be able to relax and enjoy our meeting each week so it just had to be done. I remember once when I was on baby sitting duty one little girl came and told me “My Mummy had brandy to drink and fell down the stairs”. I knew the mother and it really did not sound a bit like her so I could not resist telling her what her daughter had said when she came to collect her. The Mom laughed and explained, she was pretty heavily pregnant and had the evening before twisted her ankle and fallen down a small flight of steps between the lounge and the dining room. Her husband had picked her up put her in a chair and to calm her down had poured her a small brandy. It just goes to show that one can tell the truth and give completely the wrong impression if you tell things in the wrong order.
Before I joined the Salisbury Mother’s club I had thought that committees were made up of the most popular people. That the rank and file voted for the people they liked and that was how they got to be there. I soon learnt that committees are made up of people that are prepared to do things and others vote them on if they are not prepared to do the jobs themselves. I was asked to join the committee of the club the following year and had a wonderful time helping with the organization.
As March drew to a close we could plainly see that there was no way that we were going to be in our own house by the end of April so we had to set about looking for somewhere else to live. I don’t know why rental properties were so hard to come by at that time but we had to start the early morning telephone calls again to find somewhere to live. We thought we would take just about anything but one of the houses that for some reason Jonny looked at by himself was such a mess that he refused to even consider it. I was feeling pretty desperate and was concerned that he had made a mistake but he was very addiment that he would not pay the asking rent to live in a hovel. Most places we never even saw as they were gone by the time the paper came out in the morning. We had hoped to stay on the west side of town to be near our own house so that we could watch the progress but we eventually managed to find a place across on the east side of town in a suburb called Braeside. 9 St. Dunstan’s Close was a little double story terraced house and I seem to recall that the owner was quite relaxed about the fact that we only wanted to stay four months but that as we had already been waiting six months for our house that had been promised to us within four months we were not too sure when we would actually be moving out.
I knew that I was gong to miss the Mothers Club but only having the one car I did not think I would be able to attend very often, as Jonny would need the car to get to work and I would not have it very often. Shirley said that she would see if there was anyone from over that side of town who could give me a lift. She then introduced me to Maureen Arnold who was to become my dearest friend. She and her husband Roy and her children David and Janet were to become and still are a very special part of our lives.
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