80) Coming and Going
Things were not going very well with Eastvaal Ford, the company that Jonny was working with. There were rumours that they would have to close down, as they were not making a profit. Of course every one was feeling very unsettled and there were quite a few changes brought in. Jonny was asked if he would move to the workshops to the position of Customer relations. It was something he had never done before but he was good at it. He has always been good with people and making sure that the customers were satisfied with the service they got was exactly what he liked to do. The job was not always easy as the workshop were short of staff and so often could not do the work as quickly or as well as the customer would have liked and of course in his position Jonny bore the brunt of it. He was in the job for a few months but the financial situation with Eastvaal Ford did not improve so they made further changes and cuts to staff and Jonny was one of those asked to leave so he had to find something else to do.
He bought the equipment to mend cracks and chips in car windscreens and we also started buying and selling used car parts. We contacted all the panel beaters in the area and told them that we would get any car body part that they needed. Once we had been asked for a part we would ring all the car breakers in the area and try to source the required part. Finding the correct part was often time consuming and frustrating that was why the panel beaters were willing to pay a little extra for the parts we got for them as not only did we source them, Jonny would then collect them and deliver them to the panel beaters. As Jonny did all the collection and delivery of the parts it was up to me to do most of the telephoning to the car breakers. I quite enjoyed it as I got to ‘make friends’ with the people I telephoned regularly and it was good to feel that I was really helping in the business as well as just keeping the
books. We got to know which firms were reliable and which we had to be wary of. We would be looking for say a 1979 Ford Cortina right front door and we would source it and ask what the condition was. There were some companies that always said that it was ‘Excellent’ but when Jonny went to collect it, it turned out to be full of rust and not worth the price they were asking for it. Other companies were much better to deal with, if they had the part we wanted they would tell us honestly what its condition was. We understood that when buying second hand parts we could not always expect first class condition and the panel beaters knew this too. They could often repair the part; if the car was rather old no new parts would be available so they had to resort to second hand ones. At least if we knew the condition before Jonny went driving all over the countryside we could make a decision about if it would be profitable or not.
Dave Bright, one of the men that Jonny had worked with at Eastvaal Ford, had a computer that he said was useless. It was a Spectrum ZX81. He gave it to Jonathan and Dominic he said ‘to play with’. I was amazed just how much they managed to do with it. They had no training but Jonathan managed to work out how to make lists of clients that could be brought up on the screen, either by name or address or by the car that they wanted. We did not realise it then but this was the beginning of a career as a computer programmer for Jonathan. I have no idea how he managed it, it was hardly in the genes. The only person in our family who had anything to do with computers was his Uncle Alan, my sister Dulcie’s husband but of course Jonathan and Alan did not share any genes. One evening I was in the kitchen getting the supper ready and the boys were watching the television. They shouted “Quick, quick Mom come and look” I rush into the lounge to see my brother-in-law on the television. It was a programme about the computerised mouse competition that Alan entered every year. The aim of the competition was to programme a ‘mouse’ that would be able to work its way through a random maze. The mouse that did it the fastest was the winner. Alan won the United Kingdom section a number of times and went on to Holland to compete in the European section in which if I remember rightly he got a second place. He was later to become the Head of Robotics in England for his company IBM. I was amazed that we should see him on TV like that. It was not as if we were expecting to see the programme and had been looking out for it. We did not know that Alan had ever been interviewed for the television. We did not watch a lot of television and it was just chance that the boys were watching the TV at the time. In fact our television set was mostly used as a monitor for the Spectrum ZX81 computer. Jonathan has told me that when he tells fellow computer workers that his first computer was a Spectrum they look at him as if he must have come out of the ark.
When we had left Zimbabwe we had not brought our television set with us. Zimbabwe did not have colour television at that time. Our TV was an old black and white set so we had decided to sell it there and buy another in South Africa. Up until that time we had had no real desire to get a set but everywhere we went people thought we should have TV. They were amazed that we did not have a set. We kept telling them that we were quite happy without one but they refused to believe us. Jonny’s brother Don feeling so sorry for us in our poor television less state leant us his small black and white portable set. It was very kind of him and it did enable the boys to use the computer from Dave.
Before we got the TV we got into the habit of going to visit Cecilia and Derrick every Saturday evening to watch the Saturday sport and then there was usually a film on. We would have supper together and the men would play snooker on the full size table that Derrick had in the family room. Cecilia and I would take it in turns to supply the supper and we continued this practice just about every Saturday until Derrick and Ces left Witbank a few years later. We particularly liked to go there during the rugby season as we all enjoyed the rugby. We all had our favourite teams. Jonny and Cecilia liked the Pretoria team, The Blue Bulls; Cecilia had a very soft spot for the Captain of The Bulls, Naas Botha. Derrick was a Western Province supporter but he always cheered for the team that was winning so he would often change sides a number of times throughout the game and argue that he had always known that they were going to win when the final whistle had gone. Because I have always felt sorry for the underdog I tended to support poor little Natal that had never even got into a championship final in all its history. In 1990 when we were living in Natal they had their 100th anniversary as a rugby club and celebrated it by winning the Curry Cup but that was still a number of years away.
One Saturday evening when I was sitting in Cecilia’s kitchen reading the local free newspaper “The Witbank News” It must have been in late October because there was an article in the paper to publicise Child Welfare week which was the first week in November. The article told of the terrible abuse of children that was going on. I read the article in horror. I had heard of Battered Babies, children who’s mothers in a fit of frustration with a child that they could not stop crying had shaken them so hard that they had actually hurt them. But this article was not about these mothers it was about people who deliberately and knowingly set out to hurt their children. I read of children who’s parents had put out their cigarettes on the little ones arms and legs, who had put a little child’s hand on to a hot stove plate to “teach them” something, who had beaten and starved them, who had tied them up and watched as they were abused by others. One poor child had had its neck pierced with a safety pin. I felt physically sick as I read the terrible article, not wanting to read any more but unable to put it down. For the sake of those unhappy children I felt the least I could do was to read to the end and cry for them in my heart. I must have looked a bit strange as Cecilia looked up at me and asked “Are you alright Marina, you don’t look well?” I knew how the story would upset Cecilia who had a much softer heart than I did, so I said “I’m fine” I sat on the newspaper and took it home with me, hoping that Cecilia would never read it. The article was an eye opener for me and I could not get it out of my mind.
He bought the equipment to mend cracks and chips in car windscreens and we also started buying and selling used car parts. We contacted all the panel beaters in the area and told them that we would get any car body part that they needed. Once we had been asked for a part we would ring all the car breakers in the area and try to source the required part. Finding the correct part was often time consuming and frustrating that was why the panel beaters were willing to pay a little extra for the parts we got for them as not only did we source them, Jonny would then collect them and deliver them to the panel beaters. As Jonny did all the collection and delivery of the parts it was up to me to do most of the telephoning to the car breakers. I quite enjoyed it as I got to ‘make friends’ with the people I telephoned regularly and it was good to feel that I was really helping in the business as well as just keeping the
books. We got to know which firms were reliable and which we had to be wary of. We would be looking for say a 1979 Ford Cortina right front door and we would source it and ask what the condition was. There were some companies that always said that it was ‘Excellent’ but when Jonny went to collect it, it turned out to be full of rust and not worth the price they were asking for it. Other companies were much better to deal with, if they had the part we wanted they would tell us honestly what its condition was. We understood that when buying second hand parts we could not always expect first class condition and the panel beaters knew this too. They could often repair the part; if the car was rather old no new parts would be available so they had to resort to second hand ones. At least if we knew the condition before Jonny went driving all over the countryside we could make a decision about if it would be profitable or not.
Dave Bright, one of the men that Jonny had worked with at Eastvaal Ford, had a computer that he said was useless. It was a Spectrum ZX81. He gave it to Jonathan and Dominic he said ‘to play with’. I was amazed just how much they managed to do with it. They had no training but Jonathan managed to work out how to make lists of clients that could be brought up on the screen, either by name or address or by the car that they wanted. We did not realise it then but this was the beginning of a career as a computer programmer for Jonathan. I have no idea how he managed it, it was hardly in the genes. The only person in our family who had anything to do with computers was his Uncle Alan, my sister Dulcie’s husband but of course Jonathan and Alan did not share any genes. One evening I was in the kitchen getting the supper ready and the boys were watching the television. They shouted “Quick, quick Mom come and look” I rush into the lounge to see my brother-in-law on the television. It was a programme about the computerised mouse competition that Alan entered every year. The aim of the competition was to programme a ‘mouse’ that would be able to work its way through a random maze. The mouse that did it the fastest was the winner. Alan won the United Kingdom section a number of times and went on to Holland to compete in the European section in which if I remember rightly he got a second place. He was later to become the Head of Robotics in England for his company IBM. I was amazed that we should see him on TV like that. It was not as if we were expecting to see the programme and had been looking out for it. We did not know that Alan had ever been interviewed for the television. We did not watch a lot of television and it was just chance that the boys were watching the TV at the time. In fact our television set was mostly used as a monitor for the Spectrum ZX81 computer. Jonathan has told me that when he tells fellow computer workers that his first computer was a Spectrum they look at him as if he must have come out of the ark.
When we had left Zimbabwe we had not brought our television set with us. Zimbabwe did not have colour television at that time. Our TV was an old black and white set so we had decided to sell it there and buy another in South Africa. Up until that time we had had no real desire to get a set but everywhere we went people thought we should have TV. They were amazed that we did not have a set. We kept telling them that we were quite happy without one but they refused to believe us. Jonny’s brother Don feeling so sorry for us in our poor television less state leant us his small black and white portable set. It was very kind of him and it did enable the boys to use the computer from Dave.
Before we got the TV we got into the habit of going to visit Cecilia and Derrick every Saturday evening to watch the Saturday sport and then there was usually a film on. We would have supper together and the men would play snooker on the full size table that Derrick had in the family room. Cecilia and I would take it in turns to supply the supper and we continued this practice just about every Saturday until Derrick and Ces left Witbank a few years later. We particularly liked to go there during the rugby season as we all enjoyed the rugby. We all had our favourite teams. Jonny and Cecilia liked the Pretoria team, The Blue Bulls; Cecilia had a very soft spot for the Captain of The Bulls, Naas Botha. Derrick was a Western Province supporter but he always cheered for the team that was winning so he would often change sides a number of times throughout the game and argue that he had always known that they were going to win when the final whistle had gone. Because I have always felt sorry for the underdog I tended to support poor little Natal that had never even got into a championship final in all its history. In 1990 when we were living in Natal they had their 100th anniversary as a rugby club and celebrated it by winning the Curry Cup but that was still a number of years away.
One Saturday evening when I was sitting in Cecilia’s kitchen reading the local free newspaper “The Witbank News” It must have been in late October because there was an article in the paper to publicise Child Welfare week which was the first week in November. The article told of the terrible abuse of children that was going on. I read the article in horror. I had heard of Battered Babies, children who’s mothers in a fit of frustration with a child that they could not stop crying had shaken them so hard that they had actually hurt them. But this article was not about these mothers it was about people who deliberately and knowingly set out to hurt their children. I read of children who’s parents had put out their cigarettes on the little ones arms and legs, who had put a little child’s hand on to a hot stove plate to “teach them” something, who had beaten and starved them, who had tied them up and watched as they were abused by others. One poor child had had its neck pierced with a safety pin. I felt physically sick as I read the terrible article, not wanting to read any more but unable to put it down. For the sake of those unhappy children I felt the least I could do was to read to the end and cry for them in my heart. I must have looked a bit strange as Cecilia looked up at me and asked “Are you alright Marina, you don’t look well?” I knew how the story would upset Cecilia who had a much softer heart than I did, so I said “I’m fine” I sat on the newspaper and took it home with me, hoping that Cecilia would never read it. The article was an eye opener for me and I could not get it out of my mind.
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