60) An Employment Change
With the coming of peace and the end of the terrorist war many more people were able to work in the pine and gum plantations, as it was no longer dangerous. Timber had been fetching a premium at the sawmills but it slowly started to come down in price. With the lower prices being paid and the loss of his truck Craig could no longer afford to keep Jonny on so he had to look for something else. Jonny spoke to Mike Harris who told him that he was having trouble getting good clean second hand cars for his used car business in Salisbury and asked him if he would be prepared to look for cars in the Umtali area and bring them to Salisbury for him. Jonny often recalls how he felt at that time. He did not know anyone in Umtali and did not have any idea where to look for cars but as there was nothing else for him to do he had no choice. He made a great success of it, partly because Mike Harris was paying Salisbury prices in Umtali and partly because Jonny had almost a blank cheque to buy what ever he thought would sell. And on top of all that was the fact that he put a lot of time and effort into it. People soon got to know him and came looking for him if they had a car they wanted to sell. Often he would have half a dozen cars that had to be delivered to Salisbury and he employed drivers to take them there. They would all drive down in a convoy. Jonathan had passed his test by then and sometimes he would take one of the cars for his dad. One of the drivers we employed was a man called Peter Mabvira, he was to stay with us for quite a while and turn his had to many different things.
Jonny’s half brother Divilliers was going to be married on 1st May 1981 and we were invited to the wedding. We had been thinking of going on holiday to South Africa for a while and this made us make up our minds. It would be good to take a few weeks off and to be able to celebrate Divilliers wedding with him, so we started to make plans. I got leaflets from the South African Tourist board and we scoured through them to find a place to stay. We had three criteria when looking for a place, it had to be on the eastern side of the continent (the water is colder on the western side) it must not be too far south (cold water there too) it had to have good fishing and it must not be too expensive. By a process of elimination we picked a place called Umdloti. Neither of us knew South Africa well so we knew we were taking a chance but were happy enough. I remember telling my neighbour Cecilia Manson that we had booked for Umdloti and she was puzzled. She was a South African and had never heard of a place called Umdloti. I tried to explain were it was. On the Natal coast a bit further north than Durban but still she could not recall it so I got out my map to show her and she laughed at me. Umdloti is a Zulu word and d is pronounced more like a “sh” so the name should be said Um-sh-lo-ti but I had never heard it said only seen it written so I did not know any better. At least Cecilia was able to confirm that it was a good place to holiday.
Working in the car trade Jonny was meeting a lot of people and one man he met was Ian Mclaren. Ian was also involved in the car trade; he bought and sold cars too. He told us that he and his family were also going on leave at about the same time as us. A few days before we were due to leave Jonny thought to ask Ian where he was going and was amazed to discover that they were going to Umdloti too (but they knew how to pronounce it properly) and they would be staying in the same hotel as us. What a coincidence!
We left Umtali on the Thursday before Easter. Mike Harris lent us a Peugeot 504 station wagon to go away in. It was a fairly new car and a model that had not been seen much in Zimbabwe. It was spacious and comfortable so we were very grateful to him. We planned to spend the Easter weekend with Jonny’s brother Don in Pretoria before going on to the coast and coming back for Devilliers’ wedding in May. We thought that we had left early enough to avoid some of the heavy Easter traffic but we did not realise that every year at Easter a black Zionist Church have a huge gathering near Pietersburg and by the time we got to that part of the road they had started congregating for their annual event. Coming from sleepy little Zimbabwe we had never seen so much traffic on the road. It seemed as if there were as many caravans being towed, as there were cars in the whole of our country. The boys had never seen such a lot of traffic and started counting the strings of vehicles that we passed going the other way. If there was a short break in the cars they had to stop and start counting again with the first vehicle in the next string of cars. They were trying to see what the record was, I don’t remember what number they got up to but I think the average was about 20 cars then a break of a few seconds and then it would start again. The road was only a single lane each way so overtaking was just about impossible. But of course there is always some one who will try it and we were very nearly in a collision with a car towing a caravan because the driver was impatient and tried to overtake when the road was not clear ahead of him. Fortunately Jonny is a good driver and his reactions and nerves were good.
After a journey that seemed more like a motor race we arrived safely at the service station that Jonny’s brother Don was managing at that time. His son Donny was working there with him too. Don and Vicky were divorced by then and he was remarried to Wendy. They were living on a plot on the outskirts of Pretoria; we had never been there so we had to follow Don to find our way there. That was even more like a motor race, Don always drove very fast. The house on the plot was old and small but Don and Wendy made us very welcome and we had a wonderful weekend there. Don had invited all the family to a braai (barbeque) on Easter Sunday and there was the biggest gathering of the Crowther clan for many years. Jonny’s Dad, Jonathan Crowther Snr was there with all his children, Don, Jonny, Cecilia and Sally from his first marriage and Devilliers from his second marriage. It was a big party and we all did a lot of catching up. The old man was pleased to have all his children around him and some of his grandchildren too. There was Raymond and his wife Ina, Donny, Jonathan and Dominic.
Jonny’s half brother Divilliers was going to be married on 1st May 1981 and we were invited to the wedding. We had been thinking of going on holiday to South Africa for a while and this made us make up our minds. It would be good to take a few weeks off and to be able to celebrate Divilliers wedding with him, so we started to make plans. I got leaflets from the South African Tourist board and we scoured through them to find a place to stay. We had three criteria when looking for a place, it had to be on the eastern side of the continent (the water is colder on the western side) it must not be too far south (cold water there too) it had to have good fishing and it must not be too expensive. By a process of elimination we picked a place called Umdloti. Neither of us knew South Africa well so we knew we were taking a chance but were happy enough. I remember telling my neighbour Cecilia Manson that we had booked for Umdloti and she was puzzled. She was a South African and had never heard of a place called Umdloti. I tried to explain were it was. On the Natal coast a bit further north than Durban but still she could not recall it so I got out my map to show her and she laughed at me. Umdloti is a Zulu word and d is pronounced more like a “sh” so the name should be said Um-sh-lo-ti but I had never heard it said only seen it written so I did not know any better. At least Cecilia was able to confirm that it was a good place to holiday.
Working in the car trade Jonny was meeting a lot of people and one man he met was Ian Mclaren. Ian was also involved in the car trade; he bought and sold cars too. He told us that he and his family were also going on leave at about the same time as us. A few days before we were due to leave Jonny thought to ask Ian where he was going and was amazed to discover that they were going to Umdloti too (but they knew how to pronounce it properly) and they would be staying in the same hotel as us. What a coincidence!
We left Umtali on the Thursday before Easter. Mike Harris lent us a Peugeot 504 station wagon to go away in. It was a fairly new car and a model that had not been seen much in Zimbabwe. It was spacious and comfortable so we were very grateful to him. We planned to spend the Easter weekend with Jonny’s brother Don in Pretoria before going on to the coast and coming back for Devilliers’ wedding in May. We thought that we had left early enough to avoid some of the heavy Easter traffic but we did not realise that every year at Easter a black Zionist Church have a huge gathering near Pietersburg and by the time we got to that part of the road they had started congregating for their annual event. Coming from sleepy little Zimbabwe we had never seen so much traffic on the road. It seemed as if there were as many caravans being towed, as there were cars in the whole of our country. The boys had never seen such a lot of traffic and started counting the strings of vehicles that we passed going the other way. If there was a short break in the cars they had to stop and start counting again with the first vehicle in the next string of cars. They were trying to see what the record was, I don’t remember what number they got up to but I think the average was about 20 cars then a break of a few seconds and then it would start again. The road was only a single lane each way so overtaking was just about impossible. But of course there is always some one who will try it and we were very nearly in a collision with a car towing a caravan because the driver was impatient and tried to overtake when the road was not clear ahead of him. Fortunately Jonny is a good driver and his reactions and nerves were good.
After a journey that seemed more like a motor race we arrived safely at the service station that Jonny’s brother Don was managing at that time. His son Donny was working there with him too. Don and Vicky were divorced by then and he was remarried to Wendy. They were living on a plot on the outskirts of Pretoria; we had never been there so we had to follow Don to find our way there. That was even more like a motor race, Don always drove very fast. The house on the plot was old and small but Don and Wendy made us very welcome and we had a wonderful weekend there. Don had invited all the family to a braai (barbeque) on Easter Sunday and there was the biggest gathering of the Crowther clan for many years. Jonny’s Dad, Jonathan Crowther Snr was there with all his children, Don, Jonny, Cecilia and Sally from his first marriage and Devilliers from his second marriage. It was a big party and we all did a lot of catching up. The old man was pleased to have all his children around him and some of his grandchildren too. There was Raymond and his wife Ina, Donny, Jonathan and Dominic.
Too many Crowther??? Do you think we should start culling them??
Donny, my son Jonathan, Raymond, my Father-in-law, Raymond’s wife Ina, Divilliers standing behind my son Dominic, Jonny’s sister Cecilia and Don’s wife Wendy, then Jonny standing behind his sister Sally and lastly Jonny’s brother Don.
After a good weekend, we left for Umdloti on the day after Easter expecting the roads to be quiet by then but they were still much busier than anything we were used to. We had to go through both Pretoria and Johannesburg to get on to the main road to Natal where we were heading. We managed Pretoria without too much trouble but got horribly mixed up in Johannesburg. We had to stop and ask for directions and the man that we asked was so kind. He told us to follow him and he went way out of his way to show us how to get on to the road we wanted. We were very grateful, it never ceases to amaze us how kind some people are to complete strangers. He told us that the next town would be Heidelberg and I was very impressed. I had seen “The Student Prince” and was sure it was a wonderful place to stop for a meal. I remember being very disappointed that it had no resemblance to the lovely little town in the film. (No Mario Lanza either)
It was a long journey to Natal and it was getting dark by the time we reached Pietermaritsburg. I remember that there was a big road-widening project on the go and it was pretty difficult trying to negotiate through a town you don’t know that is being dug up all over the place as it is getting dark. By the time we checked into our hotel it was completely dark and we had no idea what the country around us was like. It was nice to wake in the morning and look out of the window at the sea just across the road from our hotel.
Ready to catch our lunch on the beach at Umdloti
Lunch on the beach at Umdloti
posted by JC at
12:40 am
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