34) The Shaw Family
A house was built on the vacant land behind us and a family moved in. One day when I was collecting the boys from school I saw another mother who was also collecting her children was having car trouble and asked if there was anything I could do to help. That was how I first met Beryl Shaw, who had moved into the house behind us. We all got into my car and I took them home. Often after that we would share the task of dropping off and collecting the children.
At that time Beryl and Mervyn had three children, Karen, Kevin and Gregory, they later had another little boy called Craig. I remember when we first met them Kevin was only in his first year of school, so he would have been five or six at the most but he had the most amazing vocabulary and a wonderful way of speaking. It was Kevin’s policy never to use one word if you could use two or even three. We always said that one day he would be a famous writer. And that he would be featured on “This is Your Life” and that I would be one of those mystery voices from behind the curtain, but he would not remember me because he was too famous by then to remember the friends of so long ago. Once when Craig was about a year old we were all at a braai at Pat and Ken’s house, to celebrate the new pool that Pat and Ken Thompson had just built Kevin had gone over the fence to his house to collect something, when he got back he came up to his dad, Mervyn and tried to tell him something. He tried to talk to Mervyn but was told to wait, as Mervyn was busy talking to someone. He waited a few moments but then tried to interrupt once again but was again told to wait. Eventually Mervyn finished his conversation and turned to Kevin and asked what he wanted. Kevin then started his story. “I went back to the house to get something from my bedroom cupboard and as I was climbing back over the fence I noticed that Craig was in the swimming pool and that he was under the water and he looked as if he was drowning” By the time poor Kev had got to the end of the sentence everyone had realised what the end was going to be and had run to the pool to save the baby. Fortunately the older children had been in the pool with him and although he had had a dunking he had been pulled out straight away.
Beryl could never understand where her sons slow and meticulous way of talking came from, she always spoke and did everything at a hundreds miles an hour. She was, understandably with four children, always busy. She was so full of joy and fun I really wanted to know what her secret was. She told me that it was all due to her faith. She was a Born Again Christian and invited me to come to church with her. She worshipped at the Hatfield Presbyterian Church and so I started to attend too. It was quite an eye opener for me. I had always been a Catholic but had become very lazy about going to church. There were many things that I was not sure of in the Catholic faith and had slipped away from church. At the Presbyterian Church I met the minister David Corder and his wife Shirley and joined a Bible study group where I learnt a lot. The people I met were very friendly and I got involved in church life. Once when Beryl and I were going to some church function together I had hopped over her fence as she was going to give me a lift. I don’t remember what the function was but I remember I had to take a cake. I had my cake in a round cake tin and had put it on a table when I got to her house. She was not quite ready for us to leave and I stood talking to her as she finished what she was doing. Her two youngest children were playing happily, if a little noisily, and we were so busy talking we did not take much notice of them. Once we called all the kids together to get into the car we realised what the little ones had been playing with. They had been rolling my cake tin, complete with sponge cake backward and forwards between them and my sponge was a little the worst for wear. We had to wipe the cream off the inside of the tin and use it to stick the cake together again. It did not look very good but it was edible I suppose.
Jonny always teased the Shaw children that he was going to steal their bicycles, Karen and Kevin knew it was all a joke but maybe Gregory was a little young to understand that. One day he very seriously said to Jonny. “Uncle Jonny, if I say you are a good boy, will you promise not to steal my bike”.
Beryl sang in the choir in church and both she and Mervyn were very involved with the youth group. Their house was always full of teenagers. They were a great bunch of youngsters.
Mervyn was selling insurance when we first met them, I think he had been a fireman before that but later on he got a job with the Messenger of the Court. It was his job to serve people with summonses, writs and notices of execution. Kevin wrote in his news at school that his father executed people. There was quite a lot of paper work involved in his job and Beryl was doing it for him, but she was very busy so he eventually asked me if I would like to take it on. It was the best job I ever had. Every evening Mervyn would bring the work to me and collect the work that I had done that day. I could do it in my own time as long as it was finished for him to collect the following evening. I did not have to leave my home I was there for the kids when they were at home, I did not have to have transport, fancy clothes or anything like that and I even got paid for it. I don’t remember how long I did Mervyn’s work for but I only gave it up when we left Hatfield and moved to the Vumba.
As you can imagine serving writs on people who owed money could often have it’s funny side and Mervyn always had a funny story to tell of his “clients”. I remember once he was required to serve a rite on a man who owned a lion. He had brought the lion from somewhere in Scandinavia, from a zoo or a circus I think. He had felt sorry for the animal and had decided to take the lion, which was called Tommy home to Africa. He wrote a book called “Tommy goes Home”. The poor man had had a great deal of trouble trying to get someone to accept Tommy and give him a home and had travelled right down Africa with his lion. By the time he got to Rhodesia he did not have any money left and had run up bills to pay for Tommy’s food. When Mervyn had tried to serve him with a writ he had threatened to let the lion out. I don’t think he would have but Mervyn wisely did not wait around to find out if it was a bluff or not.
A lot of the people that Mervyn dealt with were scoundrels that just ran up debts and had no intention of paying them but there were quite a number that had been tempted into getting into debt beyond their means by slick salesmen who just wanted to make a sale and did not care about the consequences. I remember that Mervyn used to try very hard to help this kind of person and to give them as much advice as he could.
At that time Beryl and Mervyn had three children, Karen, Kevin and Gregory, they later had another little boy called Craig. I remember when we first met them Kevin was only in his first year of school, so he would have been five or six at the most but he had the most amazing vocabulary and a wonderful way of speaking. It was Kevin’s policy never to use one word if you could use two or even three. We always said that one day he would be a famous writer. And that he would be featured on “This is Your Life” and that I would be one of those mystery voices from behind the curtain, but he would not remember me because he was too famous by then to remember the friends of so long ago. Once when Craig was about a year old we were all at a braai at Pat and Ken’s house, to celebrate the new pool that Pat and Ken Thompson had just built Kevin had gone over the fence to his house to collect something, when he got back he came up to his dad, Mervyn and tried to tell him something. He tried to talk to Mervyn but was told to wait, as Mervyn was busy talking to someone. He waited a few moments but then tried to interrupt once again but was again told to wait. Eventually Mervyn finished his conversation and turned to Kevin and asked what he wanted. Kevin then started his story. “I went back to the house to get something from my bedroom cupboard and as I was climbing back over the fence I noticed that Craig was in the swimming pool and that he was under the water and he looked as if he was drowning” By the time poor Kev had got to the end of the sentence everyone had realised what the end was going to be and had run to the pool to save the baby. Fortunately the older children had been in the pool with him and although he had had a dunking he had been pulled out straight away.
Beryl could never understand where her sons slow and meticulous way of talking came from, she always spoke and did everything at a hundreds miles an hour. She was, understandably with four children, always busy. She was so full of joy and fun I really wanted to know what her secret was. She told me that it was all due to her faith. She was a Born Again Christian and invited me to come to church with her. She worshipped at the Hatfield Presbyterian Church and so I started to attend too. It was quite an eye opener for me. I had always been a Catholic but had become very lazy about going to church. There were many things that I was not sure of in the Catholic faith and had slipped away from church. At the Presbyterian Church I met the minister David Corder and his wife Shirley and joined a Bible study group where I learnt a lot. The people I met were very friendly and I got involved in church life. Once when Beryl and I were going to some church function together I had hopped over her fence as she was going to give me a lift. I don’t remember what the function was but I remember I had to take a cake. I had my cake in a round cake tin and had put it on a table when I got to her house. She was not quite ready for us to leave and I stood talking to her as she finished what she was doing. Her two youngest children were playing happily, if a little noisily, and we were so busy talking we did not take much notice of them. Once we called all the kids together to get into the car we realised what the little ones had been playing with. They had been rolling my cake tin, complete with sponge cake backward and forwards between them and my sponge was a little the worst for wear. We had to wipe the cream off the inside of the tin and use it to stick the cake together again. It did not look very good but it was edible I suppose.
Jonny always teased the Shaw children that he was going to steal their bicycles, Karen and Kevin knew it was all a joke but maybe Gregory was a little young to understand that. One day he very seriously said to Jonny. “Uncle Jonny, if I say you are a good boy, will you promise not to steal my bike”.
Beryl sang in the choir in church and both she and Mervyn were very involved with the youth group. Their house was always full of teenagers. They were a great bunch of youngsters.
Mervyn was selling insurance when we first met them, I think he had been a fireman before that but later on he got a job with the Messenger of the Court. It was his job to serve people with summonses, writs and notices of execution. Kevin wrote in his news at school that his father executed people. There was quite a lot of paper work involved in his job and Beryl was doing it for him, but she was very busy so he eventually asked me if I would like to take it on. It was the best job I ever had. Every evening Mervyn would bring the work to me and collect the work that I had done that day. I could do it in my own time as long as it was finished for him to collect the following evening. I did not have to leave my home I was there for the kids when they were at home, I did not have to have transport, fancy clothes or anything like that and I even got paid for it. I don’t remember how long I did Mervyn’s work for but I only gave it up when we left Hatfield and moved to the Vumba.
As you can imagine serving writs on people who owed money could often have it’s funny side and Mervyn always had a funny story to tell of his “clients”. I remember once he was required to serve a rite on a man who owned a lion. He had brought the lion from somewhere in Scandinavia, from a zoo or a circus I think. He had felt sorry for the animal and had decided to take the lion, which was called Tommy home to Africa. He wrote a book called “Tommy goes Home”. The poor man had had a great deal of trouble trying to get someone to accept Tommy and give him a home and had travelled right down Africa with his lion. By the time he got to Rhodesia he did not have any money left and had run up bills to pay for Tommy’s food. When Mervyn had tried to serve him with a writ he had threatened to let the lion out. I don’t think he would have but Mervyn wisely did not wait around to find out if it was a bluff or not.
A lot of the people that Mervyn dealt with were scoundrels that just ran up debts and had no intention of paying them but there were quite a number that had been tempted into getting into debt beyond their means by slick salesmen who just wanted to make a sale and did not care about the consequences. I remember that Mervyn used to try very hard to help this kind of person and to give them as much advice as he could.
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