Talk 15 September 2022

TALK OF THE TOWN 15 September 2022 Advertising & Newsdesk: (046) 624-4356 Find us on Facebook 11
ndlambe
n ost a l g i a
with
HEATHER HOWARD
This fortnightly column features the old stories
of Ndlambe. If you have an interesting anecdote
(with photos) to share, please email
s u e l a b u r n go rd o n @ g m a i l .c o m
Amateur Dramatics – wh a t
a quaint ring that has in
these days of instant onscreen
entertainment! Shades
of the town engineer strutting
his stuff as Lord Lister in “Th e
Chiltern Hundreds,” or a pretty
young mum-of-two as Alice in
the wonderland of Christmas
pantomime.
We might smile rather
condescendingly now, amidst
so much potted entertainment,
but what fun those days were!
Cue for curtain: Behind the
scenes with Kowie players
Weeks of learning the lines and
evening rehearsals at the end of
a busy working day, with
endless in-jokes and the
occasional spat, and then the
adrenalin rush of stage fright on
the night.
Kowie Players began in 1964
when John and Dr Gwen
Dovaston retired here from
Kenya with years of amateur
stage experience behind them.
They challenged us with a wide
variety of plays and widened
our scope considerably until we
tackled, with them and later
producers, comedies, thrillers,
period pieces, three-one-act
play evenings, supper theatre,
prose and poetry readings by
candlelight, even musicals. In
1966 we bravely presented NF
Simpson’s Theatre of the
Absurd, though that didn’t go
down too well with our loyal
supporters who attended just
about anything we produced.
And where did we tread the
boards? At first, until the Civic
Centre’s Memorial Hall opened,
we shared the tiny stage of the
old Town Hall in Wharf Street
with Vernon Timm’s Marine
Cinema, so we could have only
Mondays and Thursdays when
his films weren’t showing. The
auditorium could seat 140
people, the front rows pressing
up against the stage so that we
could hear the audience’s
whispered reactions. In one
play my husband and I, as an
“engaged couple” had to kiss on
stage, highly embarrassing, and
mid-kiss we heard “Ag shame,
they’re married in real life you
k n ow ”.
The dressing rooms in this
old stone former warehouse
were non-existent. We just
squeezed off the stage and ran
down the steps into the Council
Chamber at the back where
everyone, whatever age or
gender, just peeled off and
changed into their next outfit,
while stage make-up and
mirrors littered the beautiful old
20-seater Council table.
Sometimes we went “on tour”
and entertained audiences in
Grahamstown, also Alexandria
and Kenton once the bridges
were open in the early 70s.
The Memorial Hall stage,
opened in 1969, was by contrast
huge, and we lost that intimate
atmosphere of our old home.
But we did have good lighting
and, glory, dressing rooms! This
space enabled us to produce
more ambitious plays and hugecast
pantomimes at
Christmastime which we
performed for six nights to
packed houses. “Alice in
Wo n d e r l a n d ” (1971-72 season)
was a wonder of special effects.
The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party had
the local vicar as the Hatter, and
the White Rabbit singing “I’m
late, I’m late, for a very
important date.” The casts for
these pantos were often family
affairs, like the Croquet game
with both my husband and
mother dressed as playing cards
and myself as the
Queen shrieking “Off with his
head” until my voice was hoarse
after six nights. “Peter Pan” wa s
our next panto, complete with
flying apparatus, pirate ship,
and six Lost Boys, many of
whom are now fifty-year-olds
with their own boys. And later
there was Ali Baba with a lifesized
camel and Athalie Elliott
and her two pretty daughters tap
dancing as harem girls to “Tie a
Yellow Ribbon”!
And after the final curtain
there were the after-parties on
stage, everyone high on
adrenalin, with lots of toasts and
thankyous, and one regular who
always wrote long amusing
verses featuring everyone in the
cast.
Gradually, and especially
after the advent of TV in 1976,
amateur dramatics became
passé, and cast members and
audiences morphed into Dallas
fans. But “for everything there is
a season, a time for every
activity under heaven” and
eventually it was time to wrap it
up. Forgotten bits of scenery
still lie under the Civic Centre
stage…
Half a million horses imported in war
“Horses in the Anglo-Boer War
1899-1902” was the title of
Anne Irwin’s talk to the Lower
Albany Historical Society.
Here is part of her summary:
Horses have played an
indisputable role in warfare for
the past 3,000 years, from the
horse-drawn chariots used in
Egypt by the Hyksos in the 16th
century, to the start of World
War 1.
The Anglo-Boer War was the
last fully horse-powered war in
history, requiring a staggering
520,000 horses to be imported
from across the British Empire as
well as the US.
The average life expectancy
of these horses from their time
of arrival in SA was only about
six weeks.
Reasons for the demise of
these horses included the long
voyages they had to endure
from abroad, during which they
lacked exercise and were not
well-nourished.
Imported horses were
unused to the rough terrain of
the theatre of war and suffered
low-level malnourishment as
they were not used to surviving
on the veld grass.
Fodder therefore had to be
imported in great quantities
from places such as Mexico and
Argentina – which is why we
now have khakibos, blackjacks
and cosmos flowers in SA as the
seeds came in the fodder.
Boer horses also suffered
from a lack of fodder, which
usually came in the form of
wheat or bales of oats.
Imported horses were
seldom given the opportunity to
acclimatise before being sent
into action; they suffered from a
variety of illnesses such as
biliary, pneumonia and horse
sickness; they also tended to be
poorly looked after as a result of
bad horsemanship and a lack of
veterinary supplies.
British horses also carried
almost double the weight of the
Boer horses as they were
frequently overloaded with
unnecessary equipment and
s a d d l e r y.
As the war progressed, there
was a dire lack of horse shoes,
as well as nails.
The Boer commandos often
collected horse shoes from dead
horses or made them from scrap
iron and used wire collected
from fences and even telegraph
wires for nails. Horses were
used in the mounted infantry, as
gun horses and cavalry horses
and were vital for mobility.
Some horses had to be
slaughtered for their meat,
especially during the sieges of
Mafeking, Ladysmith and
Kimberley, when usual sources
of fresh meat were unavailable.
Many combatants often
developed a strong affection for
their horses, such as General de
We t ’s famous grey called Fleur;
General de la Rey’s Starlight and
Lord Roberts’s Arabian horse
named Volonel.
● Anne Irwin is a history
researcher, and retired teacher.
The society holds meetings
on every third Thursday of the
month at the Don Powis Hall in
Settlers Park Retirement Village.
Talk of The Stars
with Professor Don Kurtz
Voyagers 1 and 2: Where are they now?
Back in 1965 scientists working
at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory
(JPL) in California were studying
the orbits of the planets around
the Sun and thinking about
sending space missions to the
outer Solar System. They found
that there was an upcoming
arrangement of the planets that
would allow spacecraft
launched in 1977 to fly to
Jupiter, then be flung by Jupiter’s
gravity to Saturn, by Saturn’s
gravity to Uranus, and by
U ra n u s ’s gravity to Neptune and
out into interstellar space. They
called it the “Grand Tour”. The
chance only happens once
every 175 years.
Over the following decade
the satellites were built and
readied for their missions.
Voyager 2 was launched first, on
20 August 1977, followed by
Voyager 1 on 5 September. Both
missions went to Jupiter and
Saturn, but only Voyager 2
continued to Uranus and
Neptune. Both sent back thenunprecedented
views of the
planets as they flew at high
speed, past Jupiter in mid-1979,
and then Saturn more than a
year later. It then took until 25
August 1989 for Voyager 2 to
whizz past Neptune on its way
out of the Solar System.
There is a constant wind
blown off the Sun, typically at
about 400km per second. That
wind eventually grinds to a halt
against the pressure of the very
thin gas between the stars,
marking the edge of the Sun’s
“Heliosphere”. Now in 2022
both spacecraft have left the
Heliosphere and moved into
interstellar space. Voyager 1 is
now over 23.5 billion km from
the Earth and Sun.
Way out where they are now
the Sun is 25,000 times fainter
than here on Earth, but it is still
by far the brightest star in the sky
for the plucky little Voyager
missions. They are now
plunging into the dark depths of
interstellar space, never to
return to the Sun, probably
never to pass even close to
another star.
They are moving fast: 17 km
per second.But the stars are
very, very far away. If the
Voyagers were headed for alpha
Centauri – the closest star
system – it would take them
over 70,000 years.
Donald Kurtz is
Extraordinary Professor at
North-West University in
Mahikeng.
What feeds
your soul?
Some believe that our souls
have existed since the
beginning of time and that
our earthly existence is but
an infinitesimal part of
e t e r n i t y.
Most of us are caught up
in the business of our lives
and are too busy trying to
please others, wearing masks
and hiding our true selves.
But for our wellbeing and
contentment and
communion with the
Universe, we would do well
to feed our souls.
But what feeds a Soul?
What changes to our
lifestyles and attitudes are
essential if we are to tune
into the Universe? William
Henry Channing suggests
that we “live content with
small means; seek elegance
rather than luxury, and
refinement rather than
fashion; be worthy, not
respectable, and wealthy, not
rich; listen to stars and birds,
babes and sages, with open
heart; study hard; think
quietly, act frankly, talk
gently, await occasions,
hurry never; in a word, let
the spiritual, unbidden and
unconscious, grow up
through the common”.
Aaron Lauritsen refers to
the ‘highway of grace’ being
a better way to get
somewhere quickly than the
‘freeway of spite’.
LIFE LEARNING advises
that we need to outgrow the
worlds beneath us to grow
into the worlds above us,
“realising the higher realms
of consciousness within
us”. Simplicity in life, regular
interactions with nature, the
arts and creative activities,
THINK
ABOUT IT
Roy Hewett
conservation and health
services, music and sport
nourish the Soul.
Concern for all life, the
environment, our planet and
the wellbeing of our fellow
humans shows a recognition
of the interrelationships of all
beings and things and is
central to the desired
communion.
Three key elements in our
makeup are essential
stepping stones to higher
levels of consciousness.
Without love in the
purest sense of the
word, authenticity to self
and others, and integrity in
thoughts and dealings with
all, the Soul will be starved
and communion with the
Universe, stifled, according
to William Ward. Advice
from an unknown source is
that we should love without
condition, talk without bad
intention, give without any
reason and, most
importantly, care for people
without any expectation.
Each life’s journey runs its
unique course, but we are all
permitted to try to make ours
more meaningful.