With many happy returns,
Ray

A Bland family portrait

A Bland family portrait
Doreen, Derek, Ray & Janet

Jul 30, 2012

Chapter 11 - Canada

The move to Canada was
the same year as the
centennial celebration
For the first week of our residence in Canada the company paid for the four of us to be housed in a motel on Highway #2 in the village of Pickering with an attached restaurant that provided our meals. One of the HR guys and also the safety officer for the plant lived in Pickering and picked me up in his car daily for work until I could make arrangements to buy a vehicle for the family. I purchased a 1960 Chevy Biscayne 1960 which served us well for just over a year and then we moved on to a 1967 Pontiac Parisienne, as the cash flow problem eased up somewhat. 


A political cartoon featuring
Harold Wilson
The problem arose from the fact that the house we left in Marske had not yet been sold and by the time it was and the cash deposited into our account for transfer to the newly opened Canadian account the British Labour government under the leadership of Harold Wilson had decided to de-value the British pound. My bank manager in the UK informed me that they had been delaying transfers of cash by holding them back which, sadly cost us around six hundred pounds making life more difficult to get established in a new country. This did not endear me towards either the Labour Party or Mr. Harold Wilson whose name was not mentioned in kindness after that, which was about the same as it had always been come to think of it.


8 Iroquois Avenue, the first house in Oshawa    
Waiting for the funds to arrive made it necessary to rent a house in Whitby for a couple of months. Eventually, all became well and we bought a new back split home on Iroquois Avenue in Oshawa. We lived there for five years. The real estate agent, Darwin Vickers, another limey became family friends and in fact is still in touch today through the magic of the Internet and Skype.  

1077 Sycamore Cres, Oshawa 
In 1973 we moved to another new home still in Oshawa and less than a mile away from the present location. The new home was another back-split design but much larger and had a double car garage, a fourth bedroom or office on the lower level with a nice family room with a fireplace and two-piece washroom on the same level. This was quite an improvement from three bedrooms, a carport and only one washroom. So we now resided on Sycamore Crescent in Oshawa were we remained for another five years interval until I got itchy feet again and we looked at a new development in the town of Newcastle. 


R.R.2 Newcastle
This was out in the country really, each home had almost an acre of land and had no houses across the road and an impressive view from the back over nothing but farmland. I also learned the joys of living with a well and septic tank. We only stayed there for one year because it was too isolated especially for Doreen who spent the whole day alone with myself and Derek out at work all day, then Derek out at night with his wife to be Rosemarie.

674 Adelaide East, Oshawa 
Front View
674 Adelaide East, Oshawa 
Rear View

So as things worked out we came back to Oshawa and bought the home on Adelaide Avenue from out good friends, Jim and Dianne Muir. It was Dianne’s parents who ran Parkview where we stayed originally in South Rhodesia. This was one great example of “It’s a Small World”. Adelaide Avenue was ideal, back among friends and family and we broke a record by living in the same place for fifteen years until retirement changed things once again. Previous record length of time living in any one residence was five years and that was in seven different abodes on 3 different continents. 

Many years later one of our neighbours from Pritchett Road in Ormesby said to me, “When you got out of the Navy you should have brought home an anchor it would have helped you stay in one place longer.




7121 Ridgewood Crescent, Niagara Falls
The most recent address in Niagara Falls has been the same for an amazing 22 years so the previous record is well and truly broken, and surely can never be beaten. It looks like maybe the anchor is working now?







The Gang from Fort Myers
Retirement has to be the most enjoyable period of one’s lifetime and we have been fortunate enough to spend 11 consecutive winters in the warm sunshine of Fort Myers, Florida for periods ranging from 3 to 5 months and more recently, 10 consecutive winters at the Beach House in Destin Florida, for January, February and until March 15th of each year.
A Beach House Crab Night
Ray, Jytte, Janet, Doreen, David



A famous Florida cook-out
Good friends Norm & Jeanne
visiting from England




Ray, Rachael & Doreen
On the porch outside our unit in the 'Beach House' where we
spent ten consecutive winter vacations from Jan 1st until Mar 15th each year.



The old saying is very true “all good things must come to an end” and so must this account of our life stories so it can be put into print whilst there are still enough people around who are able to read and understand it. This will never become a best seller because the copies will not be for sale.


Squire Bland at home
(with two sheds in the background!)

Thank-you so much to Rachael, as she will mention- the only granddaughter- for designing and administrating this blog for friends and family from near and far to see.

And to a vote of thanks to Paul for his contribution of compiling the pictures, arranging the printing, and putting the book all together. That is your reward Paul for coercing me to enter into this project!

The bad news is he is now talking about book number two...


Ray Bland





Jul 28, 2012

Chapter 10 - Return To England



As the plan to return to England progressed we concentrated on saving as much as possible and with John Weston’s help started looking for a house to be built in readiness for our homecoming set to be July/August 1960. John found a small site being developed by the owner of the land at the top of Ormesby bank in the village of Nunthorpe. It was an ideal spot high above the spewing soot and smoke of Dorman Long and others that could be seen below and about 5 miles away. The site would hold about 20 dwellings; mostly bungalows and we were able to choose a plan that fitted the bill after making some changes to the interior layout. John got the wheels turning with Building society, Solicitors, etc. and the only hang-up was that the home was not ready on time, which was common occurrence with builders in England. So we had to spend some extra time with Doreen’s brother John, his wife Eileen and their daughter Lynda who was about a year younger than Janet and of course Derek. The kids all got along fine and as we had a car, had some great days out in the countryside and the seaside.

We traveled from Redcliff to Bulawayo by car with George and Sheena Kerr our good friends for all the time spent in Rhodesia and were to board the train to Capetown the next day. One of the places to see in Bulawayo was Matopos that is where the body of Cecil John Rhodes was buried. The area was called World’s View and was high above the city, with a magnificent view all around.

The worlds view close to Cecil Rhodes grave

Table Mountain
The train journey was three long days and two nights sleeping in the carriage before reaching the outskirts of Capetown and the winding descent down through the wine growing hillsides of the city that was spectacular to see. We had arranged to spend 4 days on board the ship moored alongside the wharf and using it as a hotel before it was due to sail back to Southampton. This time was spent touring the area with a girl who had lived in the same street as Doreen in Grangetown and had married a South African boy who worked for Berkley Scale Corporation. She had two children as had we and we spent each day with her and the kids seeing all the sights. The most memorable of which was the cable ride to the top of Table Mountain and its view of where the Indian Ocean meets with the Atlantic. It was a lovely city back then which was 50 years ago and one felt very safe and secure. I can remember going into a second hand jewelers shop and buying a diamond and ruby ring for Doreen as a memento of the visit. The girl’s name was Mary Lupton and one of the days there were some fishermen drawing a cart with fish for sale. 

Snoek is a well-loved braai fish by South Africans
Mary suggested we might like to try some “Snoek” obviously a South African name, which was a very large version of the English Mackerel. So that is what we had for dinner that day and it was indeed good eating as we both love fish. It reminds me of some of the fish available from the store in Rhodesian which we had weekly. 

Two of the names were Kingklip and 74. I do not know where they or their names came from but the fish themselves were very good. I never heard of a fish called by a number before, I bet there is an interesting story behind that!



We do have some pictures of the visit all colour slides which were popular at the time but do not stand the test of time very well. I have had some success scanning slides and converting them into pictures on the computer many of them of the grandchildren growing up in Oshawa and Niagara Falls, Canada. All too soon it was time to board the Edinburgh Castle one of the ships of the Union Castle line sailing out of Southampton on the south coast of England. The line had many ships all named after castles built in the British Isles and some were more tonnage than the KGV that was 35,000 tons. I think on the postcard we have of the Edinburgh Castle it is listed as 28,000 tons. We also have the ships passenger list, which has every passengers name and profession in print and whether or not they were first class passengers. 

Oh those Brits and their class distinction rules. 


This might be a good time to insert the origin of the word “POSH” which is an acronym meaning, Port Outbound Starboard Home. The word was coined in the days of British rule in India when they had thousands of troops stationed in the country in various cities like Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, and of course the huge Naval base at Trincomalee on the island of Ceylon as it was then. The army officers whose wives would visit them in India to escape the British winter would book a cabin on the port side of the ship on the outward journey and a cabin on the starboard side for the homeward journey. There was no air conditioning system at that time; Mr. Carrier had not invented it yet. So by doing that they avoided the heat of the day from the sun, which made them feel more comfortable for the trip. There was of course an added cost applied for this change and the wealthier people, like officers in the British Army, who could afford to pay this were called POSH people, and the word was added to the English language. 

The two-week experience on shipboard was only interrupted by a brief stop at the island of Madeira, (under Portuguese rule); we anchored in the harbour and were ferried ashore by boats for shopping and sightseeing for about 5 hours. One of the welcoming events were native kids in small fishing boats which would pull alongside the ship and then dive for coins thrown by passengers on the liner into the ocean for them to retrieve. It was soon apparent that they could immediately distinguish silver coins from the common copper English penny and they would ignore the small value coins in favour of the half crowns and florins. I mistakenly thought that the coins being of heavy metal would sink like a stone to the bottom but they flattened out and gently moved from side to side on their way to the bottom in an arcing motion, which making it fairly easy for them to capture and put into their bags tied around their waists. The young boys put on quite an entertaining show such as grasping the coins with their teeth instead of fingers and pretending to miss the coin and then swim further down and make a second but successful attempt at getting it. The stores ashore were well stocked and of course one of the favourite items for sale was bottles of Madeira wine or sherry. Upon entering each shop one was offered a tray with glasses of sherry (one for each member of your party) including the children who were 6 ½ and 3 ½ years old at the time, an interesting custom. They would encourage you to drink what the kids did not have. I think that the softening up was supposed to make it easier to get into your wallet or purse and encourage you to buy more stuff. The island itself was beautiful with flowering trees and park like settings everywhere. We took a Mercedes taxi for a round the island tour and of course the weather was perfect.

The cabin was spacious and had it’s own window, well porthole, that was located next to the same deck as the dining room, which was ideal as the children had to eat earlier than the rest of the passengers for the evening meal so it was convenient for us to check on them during that time. For the other meals we were all at the same table. It seemed very odd looking around the dining room for the first time it was half empty and as the days went by a few more faces would appear in attendance until by the end of the voyage the seats would all be filled. The waiter explained that it was normal as about half of the passengers would suffer from imaginary seasickness and could not face food for the first few days of the voyage. There was a program of daily events such as ring toss; shuffleboard, dances, movies, ping-pong and a form of lottery where you had to guess how many miles the ship would travel in the twenty-four hour period. The nearest to the actual received the cash prizes, so there was always something going on for amusement and the rest of the time was used up trying to keep Derek out of mischief.

R.M.S. EDINBURGH CASTLE
From CapeTown, 8th July, 1906

The trip had one incident on about the third day out of Capetown we had finished supper and called to have an evening drink in the bar and there was one hell of bang as all the bottles and glasses on the bar top went sliding off the end and smashed onto the deck. The people at second sitting were all wearing the food in their laps and again lots of dishes ended up on the deck broken. For a couple of days after that the tables had fold up flaps in place to prevent another mess but everything was okay. It was caused by what they called Cape Rollers, extra large waves, which are common in that area of the ocean. I had to dash down to the cabin to check that the kids were all right and hadn’t been thrown out of the bunks. It was the only scare we had and the infamous Bay of Biscay, which can be rough, was just like a mill pond the days we passed through it and on into the English Channel and then the port of Southampton without any trouble. 


Middlesbrough Railway Station

Then it was on the train to London and a transfer to Kings Cross station and the frozen north of Yorkshire. Actually, it was the middle of summer and the weather was quite pleasant. All of the Weston family gathered at the Middlesbrough station to meet us. After all the hellos, Janet said who was now almost 7 years old, asked why her Gran was speaking Scottish? Of course she had not seen Gran Weston for over 4 years and the dialect must have sounded strange at first. 



Sarah Jane Bland (Mum), Sister Enid, Brother George, 
 Aunty Winn, Shirley Bland, Brother John  
We all had to stay with John & Eileen at first which was as arranged but ended up being longer than expected as the new bungalow was not ready for occupation, typical of builders schedule in the UK. However, we eventually moved in to 3 Hillcrest Drive in the village of Nunthorpe at the top of Ormesby bank, to begin life back in England. I went back to the same Steelworks which I had worked at previously but in a new mill which had been taken from Germany as spoils of war and as I knew most of the fellow tradesmen we just fitted right in and it was a good shop to work in. I do recall going in to work on the 2 till 10 shift one November day in the ever present cold drizzle which had persisted for 5 days or more and thinking to myself, “What the heck am I doing back in this climate,” but the answer to that had already been decided. Having left the employ of Dorman Long I was now considered a new employee upon my return and was subjected to a Trade Union agreement which provided a pay bonus for workers with 5 years and 10 years of continuous service who received 10 shillings weekly for 5 years and one pound per week for 10 years. My now having no years of service on record this did not exactly endear me again to Trade Unions who negotiated these raises especially when it became apparent that working on any piece of equipment a roll used in the mill which had a series of grooves to be machined into it, one end was defined as the finishing end and the other was defined as the roughing!  I found myself always being scheduled to work on the finishing end and receiving one pound less per week than some other guy who had been working there many years before I had left in the first place, but who were ill prepared to do the quality of work anyway. I can see how such an agreement was negotiated as most all of the Union officials were of advanced years of age and immediately eligible to benefit and it was also in the employers best interest to encourage trained tradesmen not to leave their employ.
  
After being back only a little over one year there became a vacancy for the job of lead hand, which I applied for and got. Then after a similar amount of time the Shop Foreman sadly suffered a heart attack and died, so I was offered Foreman’s job, which was a staff salaried position. This released me from being a Union member forever, which I was not at all unhappy about.

All the family settled into the new home and lifestyle back in England. We had a small car, a Morris Minor, affectionately called Wum, from the letters on the license plate. Derek liked the sound wum wum as being like a car revving the engine. Doreen became involved with Eileen with dressmaking and alterations and they had a room rented from Pilly, AKA, Mrs. Pilgrim who was the local newsagent living on Ormesby Bank and within walking distance for each of them to get to. We joined a country club in Marton and regularly attended dances on Saturday evenings with John & Eileen for a couple of drinks and a quick trip into Middlesboro, to the local Chinese Restaurant.

I had never owned a car or driven in England, so I was advised before leaving Rhodesia to apply for a visitor to Great Britain driver’s license, which was valid for one year. During which time I could drive without a licensed driver accompanying me and not be required to display the “L” plates on front and rear bumpers as all learner drivers were made to do. This made it very convenient to get around without waiting about at bus stops. This part I found quite amusing. I applied to have a driver’s test to obtain a regular license to drive in England. So I drove myself to the examination office to take the test without a licensed driver with me and with no “L” plates, signifying learner. The amusing part was if I had failed the test I would have been able to get back in the car and drive off because the visitor to Britain license was still valid, however that embarrassing moment did not happen thank goodness, quite an ironic situation though.
   
We took a holiday in London for a week and visited all the places of interest in the city plus a trip to Windsor Castle and Hampton Court the palace of Henry the eighth. We stayed at a nice B&B guesthouse and since we were out all day, bought our lunches. For dinner we had lot of real English fish and chip.      

I was advised to remove the rotor arm from the distributor cap each evening when we parked the car in the street in front of the house, so I did just that and kept it in my pocket until we went off again the next morning. We all enjoyed the visit to the Capital and one of the theatres had the “Sound of Music” playing on the stage at that time which was another treat to be enjoyed. 

The steel industry was beginning to slow down and a feeling of uneasiness crept into everyone’s mind once again. There was some internal conflict of personality between the foreman and his assistant in #6 mill. The assistant foreman was the son of one of the board of directors of the company and got the job for exactly that reason. However, they were just not getting along so the Roll shops manager came up with his solution to the matter. He transferred me laterally to #6 mill as shop foreman and made the then foreman step down to my assistant. I thought this was an unfair, underhanded move and a cowardly way to handle the matter.  After all, he had been my foreman when I had left to go to Rhodesia some 9 years or more previously, and was more than well qualified in his job. These kind of political tactics make me cringe.  The director’s son he transferred to #9 mill and promoted my assistant to shop foreman to make room for him. The only small amount of satisfaction I got came some 18 months later when I left to come to Canada and pulled up the anchor once again. It must have been an embarrassment for the manager to have to take a man from the shop floor and make him into the shop foreman thus playing leap frog over the assistant foreman whom I have nothing but good to say about and treated me just fine through our time together. The sweetest part was the guy he chose from the shop floor was one of my best friends so he got a nice easy ride into retirement, which was great since he was not in the best of health having suffered with Diabetes for many years.

Ship's Inn,  Marske 
Early in the year of 1966 we moved house from Nunthorpe to the seaside village of Marske. This was partly because financially it was beneficial and freed up some cash flow and also because we were had good friends living directly across the street whom I got to know from work as Bert was the foreman in the locomotive shop and we had lunches together along with a number of other foremen from various other departments in the steel plant. Bert's wife Amy and Doreen also hit it off together, so we had many happy times together mostly at the local, Ship Inn, and another favourite place, the Ellerby Hotel a few miles down the Whitby Road in the village of Ellerby. On occasions we would pile five people in each of our cars making up a party of ten for a night out. Marske was a friendly little village and we got to know many other people through Bert and Amy, I also had two cousins who also lived in Marske and both worked at, yes you guessed it. The move was also convenient for Bert and I to car pool to work on alternate weeks both being on the same hours.

The house being bungalow style with one huge bedroom upstairs was much larger than the one we moved from at Nunthorpe. Even though it was a semi detached it was more convenient for a growing family and also had a detached brick garage plus a large garden area that backed onto farmland with places for the rabbits and Janet's dog, Ricky "AKA" (little brown alligator). Sadly though the location became a problem for Doreen who on many occasions completely lost her voice because of the proximity of the North Sea and when the fog came rolling in off the ocean it took her voice with it. After consulting medical advice, the only solution offered became, "you will have to move inland a few miles." The cliffs were only about three hundred yards from the garden gate and of course in the winter the problem was much more severe. Derek really liked the area and spent many hours down on the beach chatting to the fishermen and was always happy to go when the tide was in to buy a couple of crabs or a codfish from them. Fish and crabs were also usually available for purchase in the Ship Inn from the fishermen. As fortune would have it we did not have to move inland at all because of another job opportunity appeared in the local gazette to which I immediately responded and received a prompt reply.  


Jul 27, 2012

Chapter 9 - Rhodesia, Africa

16 Townsend Crescent, Redcliff, Rhodesia

The steel business was going downhill again and my personal view of the uncertainty of it after the war was because of the fact that under labour government, Steel as well as other businesses such as Railways and Coalmines became nationalized and then under the conservative government it was de-nationalized. This caused the owners to stop investing their money into the companies because when an election was held the company was taken over again by government. Therefore no planning was done for the future and no money spent on upgrading or building new plants. This caused the British steel facilities to fall behind foreign competition. That coupled with the fact that iron ore deposits in the Cleveland area were becoming depleted also making it necessary to import the ore from Sweden, which of course added to the cost of the product.




The name Riscom meant Rhodesian Iron and Steel Commission and was government owned and operated. As the country was landlocked and all the imported goods had to pass through several other countries the costs became prohibitive the government decided to buy up some obsolete steel producing equipment from places like Sheffield England and then recruit tradesmen from all over the globe to operate it. The reason Redcliff was the place to build was that as the name suggests it was literally a huge mountain of iron ore, which they just had to scrape off the top, then it was like an iceberg because there was two thirds more underground. At the time we were there it was estimated at the going rate of production it would be over a hundred years before the ore would be depleted. Also within 150 miles by rail was an immense supply of coal necessary for steelmaking and also limestone was available in abundance much closer than the coal deposits. Water was made available by a dam on the Sebakwe river about 8 miles away and in a country where it only rained for four months in the year there was always a plentiful supply of water for the industry and the township.

Accommodations were at a newly built Parkview Hotel managed by Ernie Martin and his wife Daisy plus a housekeeper named Mattie. Some of you who know Diane Muir now living in Oshawa and married to Jim Muir who is South African born in Durban, well Diane is the daughter of Ernie and Daisy who also escaped from England and spent many years living in both Rhodesia and Johannesburg in the catering/ hotel managing business. The rest of the staff; cooks and kitchen boys were all native Rhodesians although many of them were actually from Nyasaland now called Malawi who came south looking for work. The hotel belonged to the company, Riscom, as did the club complete with tennis courts and a large swimming pool. There was also a golf course without greens instead they were made out of sand because of the climate and lack of rainfall year round would have been very expensive to maintain and a soccer pitch also lacking in grass. The clubhouse had a men’s bar and a huge concert hall and upstairs there was a billiard hall, four tables, plus darts.

On Sundays it was common for young families like us to take the kids along to the club for pre-Sunday dinner drinks and it became a social event to meet everyone. The kids had lemonade although Derek would run up to the table and by mistake down his mother’s drink of Ginger Square that was Ginger brandy with ginger ale mixed. 


The township of homes, also owned by the company, were provided on a rental basis to the employees. Each house was on a full acre lot with garage, (no doors), in the back next to the servants quarters. Next to the club was a liquor store, and inside the works were gas pumps (they called it petrol) were you could fill up the car at work sign the chit and it came off the paycheck, as did whatever you bought from the liquor store. Same thing with the house rent so what was left was direct deposited into your bank account was spending or saving money.


When Doreen arrived with Janet we were temporarily in an apartment on the ground floor, the single guys were on the upper second level and the dining room which served all the residents was at the end of the building also ground floor. Meals were included with the rent at Parkview. After six weeks or so we were allocated a house at 16 Townsend Crescent and moved in happily. The previous tenant had been the president of the gardening club in Redcliff and had means of getting loads of good topsoil and thus had a nice veggie garden. We had a cauliflower farm something like a hundred planted in rows which had deep ridges to enable the hosepipe to be put in at one end and the whole ridge flooded as in irrigation, The trench also provided shade from the sun in the heat of day for the cauliflower crop. We also went into the chicken business and kept laying hens plus cockbirds for the dinner table. Doreen had not been very long in Rhodesia when she said to me that if we were going to stay there to live it would be nice for Janet to have a brother or sister and not be alone in the country if anything happened to us. I thought that was great idea and happily obliged to make that come true. That is how Derek came to be and even though it did not become the place we would have been happy to live in forever because of the political situation we planned to stay for a certain period which turned out to be four and one half years before we returned to England in the summer of 1960. One of our friends from across the street in Ormesby quipped that when I was demobbed from the Navy I should have brought home an anchor to help me settle down. 


A Rhodesian passenger train


Another reason for leaving Rhodesia was that the government put a restriction on the amount of money one could take with them upon deciding to leave the country and any in excess of that amount could be transferred on an annual basis. So that even though it did not affect us at the time could have become a problem for the future, and who knows how those rules could have further changed over the years so we decided not to stick around to find out.


We enjoyed living in Rhodesia and the almost perfect weather and do not regret the wonderful experience. It was situated on a plateau 4,000 ft above sea level and described as sub tropical, and it was often said that it had the climate California advertised. On my second day at the plant one of the machinists in the shop sidled up to me and said, “ I think that I am the only friend you have in this department. All the others said you were not fit to associate with pigs but I took your side and told them I thought that you were.” I guess he was just trying to help me settle in. He had a huge Fu Manchu type of moustache that made him look pretty fierce and went by the nickname of Shag. He turned out to be a good friend in disguise. There were only two other Roll Turners beside myself both Scots. One who had been there for many years and was about 40 years old. The other was a retired guy from Glengarnock steelworks near Glasgow and was some relative of the shop foreman and signed on for the three years and intended to go back there when the three year contract was up then go back to the town of Largs on the West coast of Scotland where he lived. It was just south of the city of Ayr and a pleasant fishing village which I remember passing through on one of our Scout camps visits to the land of the heather. He was one for giving advice especially when adapting to life in a new country far from home. One of his wisdoms that I recall was, “When living in a place like this you should keep your bowels open and your purse tightly closed.” Another one was, “If anything bothers you cut it off.”

The company had a scheme, which applied to apprentices employed in the various trade groups, and it was that on completion of the apprenticeship the apprentice was fired not to be re-hired until after a one-year period. This was designed to be able to weed out the poor craftsmen and not re-employ them. This did not apply to Roll Turners as there were no apprentices because if they followed that rule it would mean that they would have to go to another country as Riscom was the only steel company in Rhodesia therefore they imported all Roll Turners on a contract basis to get around that problem.


Ray Bland, Allan Forrest, Wullie Pirrit, John Ferguson    

During our time there some four other men whom I knew and worked with in England that came over on the three year contract deal and all returned home within three to four years. Life was enjoyable, and one of the highlights was the trip to Livingstone to see Victoria Falls, when Derek was only two months old. I took the front seat out of the Austin 16 (1948 vintage) and put the pram into the car so that Doreen could sit in the back seat with Janet and keep a close watch on the baby in his pram. We stayed overnight in Bulawayo and went on the next morning to Victoria Falls. 

A Rhodesian strip road

It was rainy season and the journey was quite an adventure. Main roads between the major cities were fully paved with a lane in each direction. On the other minor routes the road consisted of two strips of pavement about two feet wide and spaced apart what was decided to be the average distance of wheel centres on most cars.  Between the strips and the area outside the strips was simply gravel and soil mixed. This was okay except for when the rain came down in torrents and washed out the material between and outside the strips leaving some dangerous potholes many inches below the height of the strips. The problem arose when another vehicle was coming from the opposite direction you had to vacate one strip of road and ride with two wheels in the dirt leaving the other car to do the same as you passed each other and then you could occupy both strips again. This was very hazardous often causing stones to fly up into the air for you to run into and break your windshield or puncture a hole in the gas tank.


Neither of these conditions was desirable especially the gas tank hole. In those days the windshield would simply craze (that was state of the art safety glass) and the only cause of action would be to wrap your fist in a towel and punch through an area to enable you to see to drive. Fortunately for us we never had to suffer those misfortunes although many of the folks we knew had to deal with it. The hole in the gas tank problem you probably would be unaware of until the car stopped. It was always wise to check for leaks underneath after passing another vehicle as soon as it was safe to do so.

A tourist brochure for Victoria Falls circa 1950

To get back to the story, we did however once during some foul weather of pouring rain; spin off the strips about an hour after leaving Bulawayo ending up facing the wrong direction. There was no other car in sight and no people to be seen, anyway within what only seemed to be a few seconds some group of natives appeared from out of the bush and proceeded to break branches off nearby trees to place under the back wheels and push the car back onto the road facing the right way. I did not want to open any doors so I reached into my pocket and threw all the loose change out of my window and proceeded slowly away as the group grabbed up the offering gladly. After that we went at a more moderate speed because the rain was coming down in buckets. The ramshackle bridges over the rivers swooped downwards close to water level and one had to be especially careful when crossing the rivers. We learned that during the four days we were in Livingstone, yes it was named after him, that most of the bridges were closed to traffic as they became under water and impassable.


Aerial View of Victoria Falls




On the return journey we had no problems so the timing was good. The rainfall swelled the Zambezi River leading to Victoria Falls and we had a more spectacular view of the falls than usual. We stayed in a government controlled camping area, which was high roofed straw and mud huts, had two or three beds, running water, a table and chairs, and cupboards for clothing and food storage. It was all within walking distance from the falls area where the railway bridge crossed the river. Within the compound there was a general store where you could buy any necessary things for everyday living so trips to town were not on a daily necessity. It must have been out of season, as I don’t remember many other huts being occupied and very few people around to talk to. The return trip to Bulawayo was without incident. I recall seeing many signs at the roadside reading, “Beware of Elephants”, but none came into sight. Maybe they had signs on their side reading, “Beware of cars and humans”, however we didn’t get out to look.


British army personnel laid out the major two cities many years previously to our being there. Street width was determined by how much space was needed to make a “U” turn with a team of eight oxen pulling a wagon. So therefore in the days of the automobile the streets were wide enough to accommodate angle parking at each side, two lanes of traffic in both directions and double angle parking in between the traffic lanes in the centre of the roadway. At intersections when one was crossing the street as a pedestrian you had to be pretty nimble to get across at only one light change otherwise you had to wait in the centre for the next green light and then continue to the other side.

The buildings were mostly stores, restaurants and offices and built with huge cut stone blocks and most certainly built to last. There were also park areas for picnics and every weekend after dark they had horse drawn food wagons on wheels where you could buy German sausage on a bun, Sauerkraut, hot dishes of soups, beans and other good authentic foods. The park areas were lit with coloured fairy lights and of course the weather was always perfect. All the department stores were lovely inside with beautiful wooden doors staircases and countertop fittings. 



The poor old Austin 16 was riding low and I discovered that one of the rear leaf springs was broken so after getting that fixed and some weeks later the other one went also. It really needed new shock absorbers to help the springs do their job but they would have to be ordered from England and cost as much as the car was worth so I had the blacksmith put thicker leaves in the repaired springs and tried never to drive on the strip roads and only at very slow MPH. The car lasted out our time in Rhodesia and the young apprentice mechanic at the one and only garage in Redcliff wanted to buy it. The garage owner would not give him cash in lieu of future wages to pay for it but he allowed us to choose merchandise from his attached store to the full value so we ended up with some ornaments and cutlery sets and other useless stuff when it was sold at the end of our term. The kid cut the top off the car with an acetylene torch and welded up the doors and made a hot rod out of it. He and his buddies had to take a running leap to get into the thing.

Brenda Forrest, Doreen, Joan Clark, Sheena Kerr
There were not many places to go to for recreation, but on days which were a public holiday we used to go off in numbers out into the bush for picnics sometimes as many as six car loads of parents with kids. Some sailing enthusiasts made a Marina in Que Que on the Sebakwe River and had small sailboats to indulge their pastime. Slides or transparencies were popular around that time and I have some pictures of it that look pretty pathetic looking back at them now. The rivers and lakes really were not fit to swim in unless it was fast running water as they harboured a little snail creature which entered the body, (I won’t describe how), and caused a serious disease called Bilharzia. It was not worth risking for the sake of a swim when we had a full sized pool back at the clubhouse and available all year round.

One of the risks of driving in the country was breaking down miles from anywhere and having to abandon the vehicle and thumb a ride either to the nearest town or back home returning later to retrieve it. Too often you heard stories of the owners returning to pick up their cars only to find that it had no wheels or battery. The natives were adept at removing these items, which could be sold on the black market, (sorry about the pun). I also remember being told by one guy that he had stopped to change a flat tire when somebody pulled up ahead of him and with a jack and wheel wrench in his hands was starting to jack up the other end of his car. He said I shouted to the guy and said, “What do you think you are doing?” His reply was, “If you can have a wheel so can I.” That describes the situation as it was in South Rhodesia in the 1950’s. Of course there were no gas stations/garages except in the towns, no tow trucks and certainly no roadside telephone booths. There was a fortune to be made by inventing the cell phone and there was no TV service until many years after we had left the country and then there was only one channel to watch, take it or leave it.

There was a cinema in Que Que, which they called the Bioscope and not a cinema, so we could get to see recent releases from Hollywood and of course the radio was state of the art. Other features of entertainment were a travelling first division soccer team would tour cities throughout South Africa and Rhodesia during the off season in England playing exhibition matches with the best players they could muster up from the local leagues.

Also, on an annual basis they would take down one of the snooker tables from upstairs and erect it in the main hall (which was also used for concerts, dances and weddings) and a group of professionals from Europe, mainly England, would put on a show of their mastery on the green baize. They played some strange games in the bar. Mostly between some of the single guys who had more money than sense they played dice with Ace, King, Queen, etc. on the six sides of the dice, which were thrown to determine the winner. The loser had to choose a drink like Rum which was put into a glass on the bar top. This went on and on, the loser choosing a different drink, which was added to the glass until it was full of the cocktail concoction whereupon the loser of the last throw had to drink the glass empty and another game was started. I can only imagine that the loser of two consecutive games would be feeling pretty groggy and unable to play in the third round. Such was the result of boredom and having too much money and nothing to do with it, a sad state of existence.  


The only way of communicating with family back in U.K. was by letter that of course took some time even by airmail using the flimsy blue paper things designed for the job. None of the families were particularly thrilled about writing letters and they would often not write on the back page which of course you could do so as it folded inside, but it must have taken some of the sting out of the chore to leave that page blank.


There was a saying in Rhodesia which reads “if you have not lost a snake, don’t go looking for one.” It was fairly common that walking about the township you could encounter one of these creatures so it was much safer to drive and people would run over a snake and then to make sure back up the car over it again. I do not recall hearing about anyone being bitten by a snake during our time there, but the natives were terrified of them and upon sighting one they would run like the wind in the other direction. I recall one such incident at work when we had to go outside to the storage area to bring in one of the rolls to be worked on in the lathe. There was a trolley arrangement, which ran on rails all by manpower, and we would have to take three or four 3 or 4 labourers to handle the job. A large snake came creeping through the grass and one of the natives turned ashen grey in colour and ran off into the distance eventually out of sight. He did not come back to work until the next day. It took a lot of convincing to get the others to stay on the job and bring in the piece of equipment to be worked on into the shop. All in a days work as the saying goes. 

Ray at work in Riscom







The average African was not very reliable to show up for work on regular basis so the timekeeper devised a simple but effective system of keeping track of each one’s attendance record. Consisting of a book of 30 tickets and each day he presented himself for work the foreman of his department would tear out one of the tickets, sign it and send it to the pay office. When the paymaster had 30 tickets the labourer was eligible to be paid even though it might have taken 45 or more days for him to show up for 30 days of work. Before he received a pay packet he had to present himself to the first aid station on site for a medical examination. This was to determine if the man had VD and then he would be treated for the disease. Even if he tested positive he would receive his pay but now he was on record and it became a good method to control the spread of the disease, which apparently was widespread among the native population. It was also a law that anyone employing an African that part of his wages would be paid in food and clothing because they had learned that by paying it all in cash a lot of it ended up in the beer hall and on gambling. Even at the steel plant every day there was a communal meal served at which all the workers attended and at a given interval each worker would receive a new pair of boots and a coverall boiler suit which in most cases was all that they wore. They normally had no socks, underwear or tee shirt. I don’t think they were called T Shirts in those days, I recall them being called a singlet or vest. The natives were very pleased to receive used clothing of any kind given to them, which could clothe one of their kids or wife or even himself. In fact when they called door-to-door selling wooden carvings or anything else they would only take used clothing as payment for the goods.


Sun-kissed children, Derek and Janet

One of their real needs was a bike and they would form a group of four or five of them and proceed as follows. The scheme was that they would each give to one of them their whole monthly pay and the receiver would now have enough cash to buy a new bike, this was determined by drawing lots to see who got to be first, second, third, etc. to receive the whole bunch of money, a very trusting arrangement indeed. The fact that they received food daily and clothing as part of the paycheck allowed this arrangement to work as they could get by with little or no cash from month to month until they all ended up with a new bike hopefully? Obviously the white storeowners would not grant credit to them so they came up with their own ingenious credit union plan. The method of paying wages also applied to ourselves who could employ a houseboy, for cleaning, a cook or Nanny and a garden boy. Some of the families had all of these. Doreen decided that she did not need a cook and would prefer to look after our children herself.  I helped with the housework and the garden boy was used for any heavy-duty housework in my absence at the steel plant. We had to provide meat, and mealy meal which was ground up corn which they mixed with water to make a kind of bread paste which could be toasted or eaten as is on a weekly basis much the same as the company did for all their employed people.