25) Friends Come to Visit

We had quite a few visitors from Zambia come and stay with us while we were in Haig Park. Jonny’s sister Cecilia, with Derrick and their daughter Bernice came once and so did Derricks brother David pay us a visit, but the strangest visit we had was from old friends Bob and Gina Mills. They had lived across the road from us when we were in 13th Street in Chingola. We got a call one Sunday morning to tell us that they were in Salisbury and could they pop round to see us before they went back home to Chingola. We were, of course very pleased to see them. They and their two little girls spent the day with us and we had a good time catching up on all the news. Bob was due back at work during the week so they planned to leave Rhodesia early the next morning and head for the border post at Chirundu. We received another phone call from them on Monday afternoon to say they were stranded. They had motored to the border and gone through the Rhodesian border post but when they got to the Zambian border their car was searched and Bob’s golf clubs were found in the boot and they were refused permission to enter the country. At that time some British professional golfers had played in a tournament in Rhodesia and were supposed to be heading for Zambia for another tournament there. This had angered the Zambian government and they were told that they would not be welcomed into Zambia. The immigration officials would not believe that Bob, who held a British passport although he had permanent residence in Zambia was not by any means a professional golfer, in fact he had not even managed to have a single game during his holiday and had only brought the clubs in case an opportunity for a game presented itself. Nothing Bob said could change their minds so Bob, Gina and the girls had to head back to Rhodesia. They asked if they could come and stay with us until the problem was sorted out and we were thankful that we could help them. Bob rang his employers in Chingola, Anglo American Corporation who telephoned the Immigration Department and told them that Bob was not a visiting British golfer but one of their staff. The immigration department said that they would arrange for them to get through the border post and so a few days later they set off again. Gina was nervous about going through the same border post so they took the road through Kariba and crossed over into Zambia at that point. We received a call from them later to say that all had gone smoothly and that they were safe and sound at home again.

Another old friend of Jonny’s, Harvey Macmillan came too; he had been a very good boxer in his day and had held the Northern Rhodesian Heavyweight Championship tittle. Harvey wanted to stay in Rhodesia and was looking for a job there. Every morning he would read the “Situations Vacant” column in the newspaper to see if there was anything that suited him. Many of the adverts stated “No chancers” and that used to amuse Harvey. One morning he rang one of the employment agents and told the girl that answered that he was a “qualified chancer” and did she have any jobs on her books that would suit him. I think she must have been very young and inexperienced as she did not see the joke but took Harvey’s name and promised to call him if anything came up.

Once when Dave Van Leeve came to visit he came in his own small plane. Once while he was with us he had to go to the airport to do something in connection with his plane and he took Dominic with him. (Jonathan was at school by then) The plane had to be moved and Dave let Dominic put his hands on to the dual controls as he moved it. Dominic was thrilled, he told us how he had driven the plane. Dave must be a bit like a cat with nine lives as he has had two flying accidents and lived to tell the tale. Once he was working for a transport company in the Solwezi district of Zambia and he had to take one of their African mechanics out to repair a truck. The plane started loosing power and dropped height. Dave thought it was a fuel problem so he circled round and attempted to land on the Solwezi road. As the plane touched down what ever had been causing the fuel blockage suddenly unblocked and the plane shot off into the bush and landed on its nose. The poor mechanic, who was not used to flying and was nervous to begin with politely said “Thank you Sir” stepped out of the plane walked off down the road and was never seen at work again. I always imagine that he must have though that if these Europeans were mad enough to fall out of the sky like that he did not want anything to do with them.

As I have just mentioned Jonathan started school at Haig Park Infant School in January 1971. I remember I had taught him to write his name before he went to school but I had shown him in capital letters and at school he was shown how to write in lower case. The teacher said something about my having confused him and I was always a bit concerned after that when teaching them anything in case I got it wrong again. On his first day at school he went happily to his class without a tear. I had a lump in my throat but he was quite happy. People told me that it was good sign, a sign of a well adjusted child but I would have like a little hesitation and a bit of a backward glance to show that he was going to miss me a little bit.