61) A Great Holiday
Our holiday in Umdloti was a great success. Living in land locked Zimbabwe we really appreciated the sea and loved the beach. We were amazed at the variety of goods in the shops. Zimbabwe had nothing like that. At home we could get three or maybe four different types of ice cream, in South Africa there seemed to be hundreds. I remember the freezer that contained the frozen fish was enormous, with types we had not seem for ages or in some cases never heard of before. The sweets and chocolate shelves were full of old friends and some new ones too. At that time “Fizz Pops” were the in thing with the kids and anyone who went to South Africa would bring back bags of them to distribute to all the children.
We went into a large store called “Game” and could not decide what to buy because there was so much. I ended up with a lot of new things for my kitchen and was very pleased with my purchases. While we had been in Pretoria our nephew Donny had lent us his new Minolta camera to bring with us and use for our holiday. We were enjoying it so much we decided to buy one just like it for ourselves. They did not have one in stock so arranged to have one there in a few days time for us.
Our friends Ian and Norma McLaren arrived with their children and we spent a bit of time with them. We also phoned Pat and Ken Thompson who had lived next door to us in Hatfield. They were living just outside Durban with their sons Buddy and Kevin and they came to meet us at Umdloti and we had a wonderful afternoon with them. The boys all went off together and we sat in the hotel lounge and had an afternoon of memories and laughing. Ken told us once again how Dominic had caught him red handed “bumping off” Buddy and Kevin’s chickens and had threatened to squeal on him. Ken loved that story.
The one black spot of the holiday happened on the afternoon that we spent with Pat and Ken. I had my handbag and a large beach bag with me. When we went out to their car to see Pat and Ken and the boys off I forgot to pick up my beach bag in which I had Donny’s camera, Jonny’s watch and some other stuff. I did not even think about it until the following morning and by then it had gone. So when we went back to collect the camera we had ordered for ourselves we had to order another one as we had to replace Donny’s one. We decided not to replace Jonny’s watch until we could see how our money was holding out. On our way home we stopped at the last town in South Africa, Louis Triechart, and used the last of our South African currency to buy another watch for him.
On April 30th we left Umdloti and headed for Parys in the Free State. This was where Jonny’s Dad and step Mom were living at the time and their son Devilliers was to be married from there on May 1st. It is a long trip from Umdloti to Parys. I remember that we stopped for lunch in a town called Harrismith but after that I said that we should not have anything else to eat before arriving at Daddy and Dalene’s house. From experience I knew that when we got there, there would be a huge meal waiting for us and if we had anything else to eat we would not be able to finish it and we might offend Dalene. So by the time we got there we were pretty hungry and ready for the huge meal my mother-in-law always served. Well with the wedding the next day and so much going on I suppose Dalene had not had time to think about what she would feed us or maybe she just remembered that every other time we had been to visit her we had not done justice to the meals she had put before us. Like most Afrikaans families they were very hospitable and usually served up far more food than was needed. But that night was different and she only served a small snack and we all went to bed a little hungry. Of course we made up for it the next morning as Dalene served her usual large breakfast. But did I get it in the neck from my family.
We went into a large store called “Game” and could not decide what to buy because there was so much. I ended up with a lot of new things for my kitchen and was very pleased with my purchases. While we had been in Pretoria our nephew Donny had lent us his new Minolta camera to bring with us and use for our holiday. We were enjoying it so much we decided to buy one just like it for ourselves. They did not have one in stock so arranged to have one there in a few days time for us.
Our friends Ian and Norma McLaren arrived with their children and we spent a bit of time with them. We also phoned Pat and Ken Thompson who had lived next door to us in Hatfield. They were living just outside Durban with their sons Buddy and Kevin and they came to meet us at Umdloti and we had a wonderful afternoon with them. The boys all went off together and we sat in the hotel lounge and had an afternoon of memories and laughing. Ken told us once again how Dominic had caught him red handed “bumping off” Buddy and Kevin’s chickens and had threatened to squeal on him. Ken loved that story.
The one black spot of the holiday happened on the afternoon that we spent with Pat and Ken. I had my handbag and a large beach bag with me. When we went out to their car to see Pat and Ken and the boys off I forgot to pick up my beach bag in which I had Donny’s camera, Jonny’s watch and some other stuff. I did not even think about it until the following morning and by then it had gone. So when we went back to collect the camera we had ordered for ourselves we had to order another one as we had to replace Donny’s one. We decided not to replace Jonny’s watch until we could see how our money was holding out. On our way home we stopped at the last town in South Africa, Louis Triechart, and used the last of our South African currency to buy another watch for him.
On April 30th we left Umdloti and headed for Parys in the Free State. This was where Jonny’s Dad and step Mom were living at the time and their son Devilliers was to be married from there on May 1st. It is a long trip from Umdloti to Parys. I remember that we stopped for lunch in a town called Harrismith but after that I said that we should not have anything else to eat before arriving at Daddy and Dalene’s house. From experience I knew that when we got there, there would be a huge meal waiting for us and if we had anything else to eat we would not be able to finish it and we might offend Dalene. So by the time we got there we were pretty hungry and ready for the huge meal my mother-in-law always served. Well with the wedding the next day and so much going on I suppose Dalene had not had time to think about what she would feed us or maybe she just remembered that every other time we had been to visit her we had not done justice to the meals she had put before us. Like most Afrikaans families they were very hospitable and usually served up far more food than was needed. But that night was different and she only served a small snack and we all went to bed a little hungry. Of course we made up for it the next morning as Dalene served her usual large breakfast. But did I get it in the neck from my family.
Jonny’s Dad, Dalene, Devilliers, Helene and Helene’s mother.
As often happens neither Devilliers’ family or the family of his bride Helene were particularly pleased with their child’s choice of partner and the reception got off to a very grim start. I remember both sets of parents sitting at the top table looking like thunderclouds. The speeches were saying all the right words about how happy they all were to be there but the body language was giving out a very different message. The reception was held in the church hall and so no alcohol was served. I know that some of the guest on the Crowther side of the family had anticipated this and brought their own secret stock that was added to the soft drinks that were served and I suspect that some of Helene’s guests did the same as after a little while people relaxed and enjoyed what turned out to be a happy occasion.
As time went by both families accepted the marriage and learnt to get on with their son and daughter’s partner. I know how terribly upset my father-in-law was when Helene died of an asthma attack in about 1993. She had suffered from asthma for a long time and she was working in the office of a farm at the time. She was not feeling well one morning but as everyone else was out she just held on until one of the men came back to the office. Then she asked him to please take her to the hospital, as she was feeling very sick by then. He got her into the van and speed as fast as he could along the dirt road into town. I think that the dust churned up by the speeding vehicle must have made matters worse for her. She arrived at the hospital but did not live long enough for Devilliers to get to her though they called him from work immediately. They had one little girl called Dalemarie who is now married herself to a young man called Pieter whom she met while she was at university studying genetics.
Helene worked as a teller in a building society when I first met her and I remember once her telling me of her most terrible experience at work. A customer had come in to draw out some cash; he had given her a list that said something like
10 x R10 = R100
10 x R 5 = R50
10 x R 2 = R20
10 x R 1 = R10
So she started counting out the money and the manger came across to talk to the customer who was well known to all the staff and Helene had joined in the conversation. They had both seen the customer put the notes into his brief case and the manager had walked to the door with him and said a friendly “Good bye”. When Helene cashed up at the end of the day she was missing R1000. The only customer with a large withdrawal that day had been the man she and the manager had chatted to. She still had his note and when she looked at it she realised that she had given him 10 x R100, 10 x R50, 10 x R20, and 10 x R10 rand notes giving him R1800 instead of R180, it was a great deal of money in those days. She knew that if she could not get the money returned she would be expected to pay it back and she would be in debt to the company for years to come. She rang the customer as quickly as she could and asked him if there had been any mistake in the money she had given him that morning. He said he did not know, he had not even opened his brief case, he would go and get it from the car and count it. Poor Helene must have been bighting her nails until he came back on the line and said, “Yes there is a mistake you have given me too much” By then the manager had been informed of the problem and said that he would go round straight away and collect the extra money as they could not lock up for the night without it. She counted herself a very lucky girl that day. The three of them had watched the money being counted out and put into the case but none of them had noticed the mistake. It would have been Helene who would have lost out if the customer had decided to deny that she had given him the extra money and there would have been nothing she could have done about it.
I also remember that little Dalemarie did not like to walk and always wanted Helene to carry her but as she got bigger and heavier Helene was not so keen to do so. So she would say to Daley “jy het bene” which meant, “You have legs” After a while whenever Daley wanted to be carried she would say “Mama, ek het nie bene nie” (Mummy, I don’t have any legs).
Devilliers, Helene and Dalemarie always spoke Afrikaans in their home but both Devilliers and Helene were completely bilingual and also spoke perfect English. I loved the story of an early English lesson that Helene told me about. She said that her teacher had asked her about her weekend and she had told her about going to the Mall and buying an ice cream. She was doing very well and then explained that her “ice cream had walked down her chin”. The word for walk in Afrikaans is “loop” the same as the word for “run”. So what she had meant to say was that the ice cream had run down her chin, a perfectly reasonable English phrase but using the other meaning of the word “loop” made nonsense of it. Whenever I see a child with ice cream on its face I always think that it has “walked all over its face”.
As time went by both families accepted the marriage and learnt to get on with their son and daughter’s partner. I know how terribly upset my father-in-law was when Helene died of an asthma attack in about 1993. She had suffered from asthma for a long time and she was working in the office of a farm at the time. She was not feeling well one morning but as everyone else was out she just held on until one of the men came back to the office. Then she asked him to please take her to the hospital, as she was feeling very sick by then. He got her into the van and speed as fast as he could along the dirt road into town. I think that the dust churned up by the speeding vehicle must have made matters worse for her. She arrived at the hospital but did not live long enough for Devilliers to get to her though they called him from work immediately. They had one little girl called Dalemarie who is now married herself to a young man called Pieter whom she met while she was at university studying genetics.
Helene worked as a teller in a building society when I first met her and I remember once her telling me of her most terrible experience at work. A customer had come in to draw out some cash; he had given her a list that said something like
10 x R10 = R100
10 x R 5 = R50
10 x R 2 = R20
10 x R 1 = R10
So she started counting out the money and the manger came across to talk to the customer who was well known to all the staff and Helene had joined in the conversation. They had both seen the customer put the notes into his brief case and the manager had walked to the door with him and said a friendly “Good bye”. When Helene cashed up at the end of the day she was missing R1000. The only customer with a large withdrawal that day had been the man she and the manager had chatted to. She still had his note and when she looked at it she realised that she had given him 10 x R100, 10 x R50, 10 x R20, and 10 x R10 rand notes giving him R1800 instead of R180, it was a great deal of money in those days. She knew that if she could not get the money returned she would be expected to pay it back and she would be in debt to the company for years to come. She rang the customer as quickly as she could and asked him if there had been any mistake in the money she had given him that morning. He said he did not know, he had not even opened his brief case, he would go and get it from the car and count it. Poor Helene must have been bighting her nails until he came back on the line and said, “Yes there is a mistake you have given me too much” By then the manager had been informed of the problem and said that he would go round straight away and collect the extra money as they could not lock up for the night without it. She counted herself a very lucky girl that day. The three of them had watched the money being counted out and put into the case but none of them had noticed the mistake. It would have been Helene who would have lost out if the customer had decided to deny that she had given him the extra money and there would have been nothing she could have done about it.
I also remember that little Dalemarie did not like to walk and always wanted Helene to carry her but as she got bigger and heavier Helene was not so keen to do so. So she would say to Daley “jy het bene” which meant, “You have legs” After a while whenever Daley wanted to be carried she would say “Mama, ek het nie bene nie” (Mummy, I don’t have any legs).
Devilliers, Helene and Dalemarie always spoke Afrikaans in their home but both Devilliers and Helene were completely bilingual and also spoke perfect English. I loved the story of an early English lesson that Helene told me about. She said that her teacher had asked her about her weekend and she had told her about going to the Mall and buying an ice cream. She was doing very well and then explained that her “ice cream had walked down her chin”. The word for walk in Afrikaans is “loop” the same as the word for “run”. So what she had meant to say was that the ice cream had run down her chin, a perfectly reasonable English phrase but using the other meaning of the word “loop” made nonsense of it. Whenever I see a child with ice cream on its face I always think that it has “walked all over its face”.
My Brother-in-law Don, Dalene, Devilliers, his new bride Helene, Jonny, my father-in-law and myself, with Dominic and Jonathan in front of us and my nephew Donny behind.
After a short stay with the family in Parys we headed for home once more. We drove across the border into Zimbabwe and immediately felt the difference in the atmosphere. The men and women who worked in the petrol stations, the cafes and shops were so much friendlier, happier and more helpful than their counterparts in South Africa. It was a pleasure to be back although we had enjoyed our holiday.
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