A Place Called Umtali By Dave White
Eddy Norris
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A Place Called Umtali When we in Zim get beyond the mid 60s we haven’t great pensions thus we still have to work; so White is still teaching! A week ago I’d finished marking my 6th Form students’ essays; I’d read your latest Umtali news, and my mind went back to, I think it was Cynthia Crapper, who wrote some wonderfully interesting lines on her school days and how she remembered them. Having some idle moments on hand, I sat down with pen and paper and had a rather lengthy brainstorm, scribbling notes on both my school days and then on Umtali. I wanted to write the Umtali section even more after I visited our home town a few weeks ago when passing through, having taken the 6th Form to the Chimanimanis … and boy has the place changed: new buildings all over the place, old familiar ones gone; thousands more people in the streets; market stalls, overflowing with traders, seemingly erected everywhere; and the thing that really made me open my eyes wide – a large number of traffic lights, spread around the city’s central business district. If the notes below are of any use to you please use them. They might stimulate others to have their own Hurricane Sandy brainstorms and add to themGreetings to all who were in our classes (UJS 1953 - 1957) & UBHS (1958-1963). Currently I am teaching at Lomagundi College, a private school in the Hunyani Range outside Chinhoyi (Sinoia to those who left Zimbabwe long ago). I’d be chuffed if anyone wants to make contact. My email address is, to say the least ‘iffy’ so it’s better to use that of my wife, Gilly: gillian...@gmail.com Here goes – A brainstorm on Umtali days in the 50’s and 60’s, and before! I’ve attempted to place these lines in some sort of chronological order, but haven’t always succeeded. First the Schools – UBHS mixed with UJS * Cycling to Tiger Kloof in your new uniform – probably bought at Barnard and Hodges or G.R. Leach. Within the first week those much feared grading tests down in Crawford/Palmer dining hall – which class would you end up in. * The bilharzia tests at beginning of each year – pee in a bottle. Sometimes boarders swapped urine samples with ‘clear’ neighbour so as not to go through the dreaded treatment. * At 1300 the race home – down the dirt road to the tarred part of Circular Drive above the traffic circle. And those of us who lived in Palmerston often rode home around Circular Drive, past the Young Farmers’ Club and down the path through the vlei that the Senior Cross Country runners followed. * Assemblies – sitting on the concrete floor enclosed by the low wall at the academic block entrance … how did the whole school fit there? The staff sat on a line of chairs either side of the flag pole. The Gledhill Hall came later. * House Assemblies- Livingstone on the lawn outside the Metalwork Dept with staff, housemaster and prefects on terrace. * Day scholars lying on the lawns at break. Sandwiches made at home – peanut butter and syrup, cheese and tomato sauce. Often you swapped with a mate if each favoured the other’s cuisine. * Gob-stoppers and cream buns bought at the tuck shop (Can anyone recall what else was for sale?) * The cloakrooms where one kept all the items you’d need for the day. Straw bashers for the seniors – Sandra Dee was the picture in mine! * The cycle park: dozens of bikes leant against concrete blocks with slits in them. You didn’t place your wheel into the slits (which was what they were intended for) for fear of buckling it. * The Friday night train to Salisbury to play sport: Juniors take cricket kit boxes to the guards van. Six to a compartment – the race for the middle or top bunks. Green donkey whops and cushions (Many thrown into the Odzi river!) Always a long night – one got to know virtually every siding as the mail train crawled to the big city on its nine hour journey. 0600: Salisbury school trucks (or buses if we were lucky) met us at the station. The dreadful food at Churchill, Allan Wilson et al. The walk into town after to match to find a café with (black & white) TV. Umtali didn’t have TV till years later. Bonanza, Rawhide etc (Who can recall what other programmes there were? … or the presenters?) 2100 train moves out – sometimes Staff late – met us at Ruwa! 0600 Sunday am – reach Umtali, folks there to meet us. * Natural history club- boiling baboon bones and reassembling skeletons. * The new subjects were eye openers – languages, science, woodwork, metalwork and each with a different teacher. * UBHS Chapel on the hill overlooking the classroom block. Manual labour details cleared the site. One step for each of the past UHS pupils lost in the 2nd World War Laying of the foundation stone. Was it by Humphrey Gibbs? The large clear glass window looking through to Cross Kopje. * Gledhill Hall built when we were there. Public exams therein. One pupil ran down stairs and right through the door’s huge glass windows. * The Sixth Form study in the new block. * Harry Brown’s tiny truck lifted and wedged between a pair of trees. * Trevor McEnery’s MG with spoked wheels. * Conie’s tin office adjacent to the cycle park whilst his was being renovated * Wednesday afternoon school – not many enjoyed that. * A wonderful distraction from classwork was looking out the windows to the left and seeing the glamorous Mrs. Clarke working in the gardens. * Compulsory ‘manuals’ working on the new athletics track, and the weeding of the main field once it had been ‘fertilized’ with sludge. * The much hated cadets, disliked because it took up a Monday (?) afternoon. Cert A Parts 1 and 2, the annual camp at Gembokie. The first time we fired a Bren gun. * The 11:00 Armistice day ceremony at the small park opposite Meikles where we cadets had to parade with the 4th Battalion on 11th November each year … standing motionless during the two minute’s silence, twiddling toes in ones boots to stop one fainting. A random look at Staff members (who have I forgotten?): * Mike Whiley still lives in Harare – he’s getting on now, but is still fairly active, and involved in schools’ cricket selections and rugby referees. He disallowed my first (and only) try on the Main rugby field. * Art – Jock Forsythe’s classroom at the top of the tower. From here you could get out onto flat roof where the telescope was housed … it always seemed to be aimed towards Marymount! *PE classes with Gordy Brown – vaulting horses and wooden spring boards in the clearing next to the armoury; white vests and longs when we put on displays alongside the pool at the annual swimming gala. * Science classes- another new subject for 1st year pupils; Bill Brewer’s beard in peril of being singed by Bunsen burners. *None of us 1st years wanted to be in Mrs Curtain’s choir as it meant being at school on Friday afternoons. * Tigs Edington called all and sundry ‘Mon brave’ – and told you that it was pronounced ‘Mon braav’ as he wiggled that single false tooth. * Dear old homely Oom Thys – we were so happy to be in the beginners’ Afriks class as Jack de Wet and Mnr. Howard were baie strict. * Mr Andrews took us for Geography in the first year – he told us he’d been prospecting in Belingwe, and after he’d decided to return to teaching, his friend had discovered the famous emeralds there. * Tony Mennie was also a Geographer – he ended up a Headmaster in Byo. * Then there were the Clarkes – JB, EJ and MBE. EJ picked me to open the batting in his U13 cricket team. The first game was against Eagle school up in the Vumba. I got home and told my Dad that I’d made two byes – he had to inform me that byes weren’t credited to the batsman and that I’d therefore made a duck! * Tony Law was one of the staff members who came on the school tour down the Limpopo to LM and then up the coast to near Beira. We threw him in the sea at 231/2 south as our ‘crossing the line’ ceremony. I believe he’s in Cape Town now. * Woodwork – a new subject to us in form 1. We thought that the canoe that Eric Mirams built was a masterpiece. Most of us felt we had two left hands as we feverishly tried to chip away making joints fit. * Charles Pert taught in the technical side. My first government teaching post in 1969 was at Allan Wilson. He was the house master of the residence I stayed in. *There was the Russian (?) teacher Bogamas– he clipped Theo de Beer across his ear one period, and the next day Theo came to his maths (?) class with a huge bandage around his head, covering his ear. Bogamas was horrified … “Did I really do that?” * And those sing-song Latin chants “amo, amass amat” conducted by Les Leach. The class was divided into Romans and Carthaginians! Other random memories: * The cricket kit room at the pavilion. * The tiny ‘C’ field where the non-team cricketers had to practice. * Gilbert and Sullivan productions – I remember Mike Whiley, in a History lesson, explaining the plot of the Pirates of Penzance. * Night time activities meant a long cold ride home on our bikes. * Conie told us we should all attend Debates and engage in Public Speaking. At one question time I raised my hand with dozens of others, hoping to be lost in anonymity … but the Chairman somehow selected White. I hadn’t a clue what to say but did manfully manage to stand up and stumble through some sort of statement … my first public speech! * Cheering the 1st XV with the ‘Shumba!’ from the pavilion on a Saturday pm. * The annual sports day – very popular with the townsfolk too. Roy Coltman becoming the first Rhodesian schoolboy to clear 6 feet! Mrs Fleming’s teas at these events. * Cross country – that long trek down as far as Mac’s Grocery then the killing haul back up Bain Drive to finish with a circuit of the athletic track. As an U13 I came 2nd to Frickie Bower – he broke the existing record. At the Peterhouse cross country we had to run through their stone quarry, which really slowed down the bare-footed Umtali runners. Once, when they were selecting the CC team (which no one particularly wanted to be in) a huge group of us decided that once we reached the cinder track we’d all finish in a straight line … who ever the master in charge was, he wasn’t amused and made us all run the whole CC again. * Class tours around the town – to the BMC factory, the Rhodesian Milling Company, to SunRho and the Cold Storage Commission where we witnessed the slaughter of cattle. * Rugby – Pete Kolbe making us pass bricks after we’d played a dreadful match being unable to catch the ball … you certainly watch a brick when it’s passed to you! As an U13, when we were all learning the game I tried to tackle Spits Lancaster at a practice, and got the hardest hand-off right into my face … all part of the learning curve! I recall, when playing rugby against Mount Pleasant, the scrum all stood up to watch an aeroplane fly overhead! We never saw many of those in Umtali … although didn’t a Vulcan Bomber do a fly-past one day? Still on rugby – wasn’t it wonderful witnessing our 1st XV thump PE at Glamis Stadium as a curtain raiser to a Rhodesia match! * The YFC down on Circular Drive. That’s where the Junior Cross Country turned back toward the school.. * Swimming – Mike Taylor (thereafter called Test-match Taylor) swam for the country against South Africa. As a diver Sarie Bezuidenhout went to the Empire Games (in Australia?) Didn’t Shelley Butler also swim for the country? * The school tour to Lourenco Marques following the Limpopo, then north up the Mocambique coast. One night at the Limpopo barrage we all walked across to a bar on the other side of the river, returning ‘rather high’ – Ken Fleming didn’t say a word … but he got us up at about 4.30am for ‘an early start’! We all left rather over-hung! We visited LM Radio and met Evelyn Martin – she played our requests when we were lying on the beach at Xai-Xai a few days later. As we trekked north Dave Olsen learnt that it wasn’t wise to attempt to pee off the back of a moving vehicle! *School dances – both at UBHS and UGHS. We were keen to try the goodies on the tables until one lass told us “We made these in domestic science!” A week or so ago, at one of our Lomagundi College morning assemblies, the Deputy Head read the following prayer, which took me back many a year: “Teach us, Lord, To serve thee as thou deservest, To give and not to count the cost, To fight and not to heed the wounds, To toil and not to seek for rest; To labour and not to ask for any reward Save that of knowing that we do thy will.” More than 50 years later, there are some things that haven’t changed! *** At the end of 2013 our class of 1963 will have been out of school for 50 years!! ‘Where have all the flowers gone, long time passing?’ Then some brain storming on Umtali town in the 1950s and 60s * Two lone traffic lights, each in the middle of the road. * The small park opposite Meikles with its 1WW and 2WW memorials. * Meikles tea lounge: 1/- for a brown cow, 2/6d for a knickerbocker glory. * Cecil Hotel veranda – another place for morning tea – served in heavy silver pots and jugs, and deep cups. The manager of the Cecil was Paul Gould. His wife, Peggy, is still alive. She lives with her daughter, Paulette, (ex UGHS) our resident nursing sister at Lomagundi College outside Chinhoyi (Sinoia). * The flamboyants in Main Street which flowered in November, following the jacarandas which came into flower in October, lining those avenues running at right angles to 5th Street, 4th Street, 3rd Street, 2nd Street. * The Parade Ground on 3rd Street, adjacent to the Drill Hall. * Donaldson’s Building, then the ‘tallest’ in town (7 or 8 storeys?) Dee’s Bakery started there before moving closer to the town centre. * Helen’s Fish and Chip shop down near Lawson Piggott Motors: a must once swimming at the new pool was over for the day. * Umtali Plumbing, owned by Frank Meglic’s dad. The Humes were involved with Radio Limited, also in 2nd Street. Mac’s Seconds where one could find all manner of used bargains if one was prepared to scout around . * E.T. Brown the little photographer with a gammy leg – and Jonty Winch’s dad was the opposition at Windsor Studios. E.T. had a photo of a huge python swallowing a duiker, whole, in his window. * Umtali Junior School – our brown blazer badge eventually carried the UJS initials but when we were in standard 1 and 2 we wore UHS in brown as opposed to the UHS in green across at what ultimately became Girls’ High. In Std 1 we played rounders on the two ‘fields’ in front of the building. At break time, especially when we were younger, we played marbles on the two dirt side playgrounds … glassies and the metal goons. Mrs. Eddington was our Std 1 teacher. (I saw her in Bulawayo just a few years ago, still a game old lady. She took the part of ‘Ado Annie’ in the Umtali Players’ production of ‘Oklahoma’); I also remember Mrs Shepherd when in Std 3A and Ian’s mother, Mrs Reich in Std 5. I still say that my fairly good spelling is the result of her administrations! Pete Craig’s dad was our Headmaster. The Standard 5 classrooms were on the upper level – old tin rooms which stood on brick stilts. As we progressed through Junior School we played cricket over the way on Market Square. Mr Lamson (sp?) the 5B teacher was our coach. * Boswell’s and Wilkie’s Circuses erected their huge tents on Market Square, an event always viewed with awe by us lighties. Remember Tickey the clown? And the marginally taller Sixpence? * Luna Park also visited the Square once a year. The Big Wheel, the Whip, the Dodgems and, of course, the Octopus all demanded some of your time and shillings. * Jubilee Hall overlooked Market Square as did the home of Brian and Sandy Timmins (who is now married to Eric van der Westhuizen). * Jessie Waring – Went overseas and joined the famous Blue Bell Girls. Her near-life size photo could be seen standing on the floor of all Chemist shops advertising Kodak films. * The old Dutch Reformed Church was on a corner adjacent to Umtali Junior. It had a bell tower which was left standing long after the New DRC was built on the higher side of the block, still on Third Street. * As very young UJS kids we had to cross the road in crocodile formation to the DRC hall where we sat on the floor to watch a film or something. * Next to the DRC hall and on the same side of Third Street was Woodholme – a private residence made up of single rooms, as far as I can remember. That’s where Clem Tholet lived … when we played as kids little did we know that Clem would one day become a well-known singer and composer and marry the daughter of the Rhodesian Premier! * Now to the top of town - ‘Utopia’, Kingsley Fairbridge’s home, near the Convent. Anthony Went is a Fairbridge descendant – he still lives in Mutare. * The 3rd Umtali Boy Scouts used Utopia for many years; as kids we used to spend long hours in the guava and mango trees flanking the old road up to the house. * The 2nd Umtali Boy Scouts troupe used Silver Oaks on Aerodrome Road near the swimming pool. * For years the Silver Oaks plot had the sign ‘This valuable hotel site for sale’ on a huge billboard right at the traffic circle. (Today, nearly 50 years on, they are at last building something on the site.) * Going back many years, remember the flying displays at the old air strip further west along Aerodrome Road? * The garages: Dulys, Lawson Piggott, Gammons, Advanx Grants. Grants garage sold Tapi Tapi - Umtali’s Coca Cola equivalent. Tim Liversedge’s dad was a big wheel at the Coca Cola factory. Umtali also boasted the range of Alpine soft drinks. * The dreaded driving test – we all wanted that driving licence as soon as we turned 16. Many of my mates failed the first time round, so I decided not to tell anyone when my day came; I’d successfully navigated the One Way down near the Customs House, and managed my hand brake stop on 4th Street hill … then as I drove back down Main Street, Ferreira, Curtin, Baxter Luternauer et al saw me as they rode their bikes outside the Cecil. They wove back and forth across the road in front of me until someone noticed the man with the white coat in the passenger seat. They all pulled to the left, dismounted and saluted as I went past. * Third Street was the setting for the annual soap box derby. Most vehicles were put together in amateur fashion … but Kivi and John Ferreira’s cars were in a different class, and they were always kings of the hill. * Remember ‘Three Speed’? A black man who wore a small white helmet and walked down the centre of the roads at an alarming pace, signalling when he wanted to turn left or right, stopping at the robots. * Any talk of strange people must bring Mrs Eksteen into the picture. So many stories abounded about her … and rest assured, if you were sitting in the Vaudeville stalls and Mrs E seated herself near you, a veritable hurdles race started as we who often went to the ‘flicks’ scrambled over the rows to find clear space. * Mention of the movie houses brings the Apollo to mind. Both of these places of eternal entertainment had Coloured ladies who chased you back to the cheaper 1/3d seats after you’d tried to sneak to the more expensive 2/6d ones once the lights went out. First came the cartoon, then the weekly news - Pathe Pictorial or Movietone, followed by the main movie. Am I right in saying that one of the first films to show at the new Apollo was “Where no vultures fly”? * What about the Vaudeville? The same marching tunes played as we the patrons walked out at the end of the show, into the bright afternoon sunlight. In those days we all stood for God Save the Queen. * Opposite the Cecil Hotel was the Police Station and the imposing building of the Magistrates Court. Doug Knight was the Magistrate – he was also known for his acting skills, appearing in a number of plays at the Courtauld Theatre. * The Palmerston short cut, a dirt track amidst the gum trees which separated two the the UGHS hostels. * So many other things come to mind as my Umtali brainstorm continues: the hills around the town – Cross Kopje, Range Kopje, Champken Kop, Victoria Kop, Cecil Kop with Christmas Pass and Umtali Heights. On the first day of each new year dozens used to drive to the top of the Pass to watch the New Year’s sun rise. * How law abiding we were then: you didn’t dare cycle at night without a light, or a torch – if you had neither and a car appeared you quickly dismounted and walked your bike until the car disappeared! * Down the bottom of town: the Railway Institute and Library. The mysterious smoke-filled snooker rooms where youngsters were not allowed. * The Railway Coop, and further down, a host of Indian shops with rolls of material and that smell of incense. * At the very end of Main Street the road bent left then right, and under the railway bridge. Further down, the road was engulfed by the industrial sites – way back in the early 50s they had motor racing on a circuit that looped around this vicinity. Then came Sakubva on the right and the BMC motor assembly plant on the left. * Let’s go back to nearer the town centre: the tiny Toch H hall overlooked the Park – that was the domain of the Lamberts. Pete’s dad, John, maintained this beautiful part of the town. The swings, slide and roundabout were in constant use by us little guys in the early 50s. * And, of course, at the Park entrance was the original swimming pool. That’s where we all learnt to swim. From UJS, once a week, we walked down past the Coconut Grove, in crocodile formation to the pool. There was a huge fig tree outside. Inside we were under the constant eye of Mr. Seymour. The changing rooms were a row of tiny tin cubicles. There was a spring board then a two and a three metre board. Down in the far right hand corner was a palm tree against which the bigger boys played ‘bok-bok’. Old man Seymour disliked this, and was forever on the microphone telling them to cease that activity. * In those early days the Post Office was in Main Street opposite the town’s Municipal Buildings. We all had to go to the Municipal Buildings on the 2nd of January each year to buy our metal-disk bicycle licences. Each year the disks were a different colour and shape; they had to be attached to the cycle (usually on the front axle), and its number was chiselled onto the frame below the saddle. I wonder how many of you remember that? * The Municipal Buildings were eventually knocked down, and the ground left vacant for quite some time. G R Leach and the OK Bazaars were amongst the early occupants of the replacement structure. * Who can name all the Umtai Hotels? We’ve discussed the Cecil; Further down Main Street was the Royal, and then the Balmoral down the side street from the Vaudeville. A block lower was Brown’s Hotel and way down the bottom of Main Street was the Fairbridge. The Wise Owl Motel is still at the base of Christmas Pass, in Fairbridge Park. Conie acted as Manager there for a while, once he’d retired. * I was told a very funny story involving the Fairbridge Hotel: apparently the South African equivalent of Hell’s Angels always stayed there when they did their annual biking trip around the country, and the BSAP took it on themselves to accompany them when they left town to ensure the departure was carried out peacefully. On one occasion whilst the policeman who’d been detailed to do this escort duty was checking that his dress was immaculate, his colleagues hid his motor bike, and he was forced to borrow a WPCs scooter. He must have felt awful driving alongside all the 500cc machines on the little Lambretta. It would be nice to hear others’ recollections of our little town. We always argued with Gwelo as to which of us was the third largest settlement in the country. I can tell you that, population-wise, Mutare is definitely still number three! End Thanks to Dave for sharing his memories with us all. |
Distributed to Umtali Folk and their Friends
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