Nostalgia Sauerstown
Sauerstown
Today I received a number of photo's from a
friend, I'm not sure what the politically correct term would be but back
in the day we called them "Pen-Pals" so I guess "Blog_Pal" would be the
accepted term, I shall simply refer to him as my friend Ron. Anyway the
photo's are of one of the old neighbourhoods that I used to live in -
Sauerstown.
Sauerstown is north east of Kenilworth and
Rowena in Bulawayo and west of Queens Park. I lived there between the
age of nine and fourteen. My grandparents on my mothers side lived in
Kenilworth on Irene Ave. Oupa Dan and Granny Phoebie's was the first
house built in the area, long before the siding and the shops, oh how I
loved that old house with the stable kitchen door, Oupa's sheds under
the Syringa Tree. I can still smell the dank musky smell of dust, mud,
linseed oil and rust that assailed one's nostrils upon entering those
dark cavernous sheds. The promise of mystery since they were always
locked up tight and it was a rare occasion to accompany Oupa into one of
those dark and slightly eerie sheds.
I remember the old black car ramp which would
become the "Star Ship Enterprise" when all of us cousins got together.
We were always trying to move the exceptionally heavy steel channels so
that the "Star Ship" was just the way we liked it. Funny I don't recall
ever fighting over who was to be Capt. Kirk, Cousin Gary was the oldest
and so it was a foregone conclusion that he would play that part. What
imaginations we had.
I have mentioned Sauerstown and one of the
tragedies in a previous blog, the loss of my best friend Mitchell so
I'll not go into that again. Whilst living at 28 (I think) Marula Ave,
diagonally opposite "Skippers Garage" we had a few tragedies or rather I
had a few tragedies but I also had some awesome times there.
A little about Skippers Garage, it was blue
and white (a "Caltex" servo with the flying pegasus symbol) and the
Pumps were stood in little blue and white ship like platforms with
portholes, ropes and anchor's at either end. There was a duck pond and a
wishing well on the northern side. We would often make wishes at the
well while feeding the ducks. Old Skip loved to give kids those little
flattened cardboard garages that would pop up by sliding the top and
bottom parts in different directions. I got my first Yoyo from Old Skip
too, never did become the whiz I believed that I would be with that
thing but I did manage to master "Walking the Dog".
On the opposite side of the street (Sauerstown
Road) and the other end of the block was "Thackewray's (Sp) Garage" (a
Shell Servo I think) I think Mr Thackewray had three daughters but I do
know that I had my first almighty crush on one of the beauties when I
was thirteen, of course I didn't stand a chance since I know that I
wasn't the only kid feeling that way. I have three wonderful brothers -
Oh! young innocent love.
On the topic of brothers, my second youngest
brother Shane had a friend who lived in the rather stylish and up market
two story house on the corner of Jacaranda Ave and Sauerstown Road, John
was his name, sadly deceased far too early. This friendship would see
remarkable chapters written into our family and all of our lives but
especially Shane's. John at about age 16 was abducted by terrorists and
held for over a year in one of Robert Gabriel Mugabe's ("Uncle Bob")
camp's in Mozambique ... but that is another book and not for me to
write either.
I am a western movie nut and have always been
this way, my Mom said I was born in the wrong era and I tend to agree.
Well it's not cool for a senior school child to play Cowboys and
Indian's which is exactly what I was doing at age thirteen and hoping
not to be seen by my class mates who would rag the heck out of me if
they saw me. I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed since we lived on the
corner of Sauerstown Road (Main Street) with the yard visible to all and
sundry.
Anyway one fateful day, probably a weekend as
Dad was home, it was getting late around 17h00 (5pm) when there was an
almighty loud bang, that sounded like an explosion to my left, I got
such a fright I froze to the spot for what seemed like an eternity, as
(what appeared to be) an angel fell from the sky to land about two
meters in front of me. No sooner had this thought shot through my mind
when a great big dark object smashed down upon her, bounced off and
rolled over... it was a Morris 500 SideValve with a box backie. I
realised a moment later that this was no angel, but a very pretty young
oriental lady dressed in white, she looked so clean and peaceful with
only a little trickle of scarlet running from her left ear. Suddenly!
Dad was shaking me..... "Run up to the police station and tell them to
come quick with an ambulance - hurry Peter!"
I shot off as though my tail were on fire up
to the BSAP Station opposite our Junior School "Hugh Beadle" a block
south of us. I told the police that there had been a terrible accident
at our home and they called for ambulance and fire brigade.
On my arrival back at the house my mother had
covered the lovely lady with a blanket, she was deceased. Mom and Dad
were trying to help a young man who was unconscious in the other
vehicle, a pale blue Ford Customline if memory serves me correctly. It
amazed me that after hitting that Morris so hard that it became
airborne, the Ford had taken out our telephone pole, a safety bar over a
culvert, our (New) corner fencepost and had only been stopped by a huge
Jacaranda tree. What a mess!
My classmates found out that I had been
playing cowboys and indians and yes they did rag the heck out of me.
They were and still are a great bunch of Northlean's, would'nt mind a
bit of that ragging right now :) Eddie in particular had been my
personal bully ever since (my) arriving in the neighbourhood, little
bugger had even shot me once, .... and no it wasn't an accident, he had
missed three times as I tried to outrun him ... but that's a story for
another time.
I'll leave you with a few recent photo's, the
ravages of time and a lack of maintenance may leave you a little
heartbroken too.