BILL AND MAUREEN 1962 →

Still under suspension of my drivers licence, Maureen had to do the driving on our honeymoon.  We spent the first night at the Three Monkeys Inn in Marandellas (Marondera) and then on to the Inyanga (Nyanga) Mountains.

We moved into a bachelor flat in a block called “Gail” on Jameson Avenue, which was barely adequate, but we could both walk to work.

We had two single beds, a radiogram, kettle and toaster.  Maureen resigned from the Bank and joined Philips Rhodesia.  Fortunately and within a short time we learned that friends of the Andersons, Bill and Jenny Shepherd were proceeding overseas on long leave and we had the luxury of housesitting their home for almost four months.  I was doing regular call-ups and Maureen was expecting.

We were constantly looking for a place of our own and were worried that a small cottage would cost about £30 p.m. to rent – I think I was earning about £60 a month.  It was by incredible co-incidence that one Wednesday afternoon I bumped into a work acquaintance, Jim Wright, who told me he was leaving the country and asked if I knew of anybody who would care to ‘take over’ his bank house.  Suffice to say I made application to the Bank for a bond and bought No.1, 85th Avenue, Mabelreign for £3,042 – the bond repayments were £13 p.m. less than half the rent of a much smaller place. They also talked us into taking over their television set on which there was about £40 still owing, which we paid back at £4 a month - my folks didn’t even own a TV yet!

The place was a mess, however, and we spent every evening after work painting and so on.  Mid-September I was again on Army call-up, the house was not finished and Maureen decided that her working career was over and she needed to deliver our first baby.

Heather Glynn arrived on 19 September 1962.  I managed to organise time off from the Army to visit her in the Lady Chancellor Nursing Home but quietly extended my absences so that I could finish off the re-decorating exercise and try to get the house ready for occupation.

Bill and Jenny returned home from overseas and we moved into our first home.  I took a personal loan from the Bank as we had no cash to buy furniture, other household requisites and generally to get us established.  We had also bought some bit and pieces from the previous owners, which turned out to be junk.

We had to lay a lino-tile floor in the kitchen; with Maureen’s Dad we built kitchen units and then also fenced and gated the property.  Maureen and I also wallpapered the ‘baby’s nursery’ which almost ended in divorce and papering has not been repeated!  In time I laid concrete paths etc.

Next news Cecil and Mamie motor from Cape Town in their new Ford Anglia to see their first grandchild.  We held the christening while they were staying with us and new Granny decided to do some of the buying in for the occasion – no doubt with the best will in the world she probably didn’t realize that what she spent on the snacks would have kept the three of us for more than a month.  I used to make my own beer costing 1½d a bottle in those days!

Staying with us certainly changed their appreciation of Maureen once they had seen what a good mother and wife she (most certainly) was – and has continued to be!

Maureen had given up her job when Heather arrived and I was transferred to the Avondale branch of the Bank.  Having gone through a few embarrassments in being short of cash when most needed, I decided to tackle the preliminary certificate of the examination of the Institute of Bankers – these I passed and was rewarded with £50.  We went out immediately, bought some material, which Maureen sewed into lounge curtains.  The old curtains were part of the purchase from the previous owners and we progressively replaced everything with a better quality.  

Then the car packed up after giving electrical troubles for some time.  This meant I walked to work on a number of occasions.  I came to hear that one of the managers in the bank, Eric Foord, was selling his fairly new Ford Consul 315 in which I expressed an interest but we could not afford.  In short, Maureen took a temporary job at Mabelreign Service Station for six months and we used her full salary to pay off the car, which saved the day.

During this time Heather was left in the care of Granny Flo and one day when Tony was working on his Mini Minor, the ever-inquisitive Heather decided to investigate the spinning radiator fan by  putting  her  left  hand  into  it  and almost having her fingers amputated much to everyone’s utter distress.  It was thanks to the incredible skills of eminent surgeon Mr. Rosin that her fingers were saved – the minute stitches had been done with such fine workmanship that hardly a scar remained although one finger was ever so slightly bent.

Army call-ups were always there with rioting in all three of the Federal countries. On one call-up I was based at New Sarum – headquarters of the airforce – doing signals duties on a link to Ndola when I was given the opportunity of a flip in a DC3 fitted out to drop supplies and so had my second ever flight in an aircraft.

It was in our new car that we motored to Pretoria to attend my brother, Bob’s wedding to Colleen over the Easter weekend of 1965.  Apart from the wedding celebrations, the weekend was a nightmare both traffic-wise and we had three (expensive!) punctures.  We stayed at the Arcadia Hotel, as did Mom and Dad and Glynn and Cocky.  Maureen was a couple of months pregnant.

We had been accommodating trainees from outside Salisbury attending the Bank’s training school which generated most useful income but we had to curtail this venture when on 23 October 1965 Maureen delighted us all by giving birth to our son Grant Anthony Robert.  He was no lightweight and so long (tall?) that he had to be laid diagonally in the nursing home crib.

(Ed: One of the bank trainees, not that we knew it then, was Eric Windell father of Cheryl a close friend of Bonnie’s.)

Three weeks later Ian Smith (Rhodesian Prime Minister) announced to the nation, and we all listened raptly to the radio, that Rhodesia had declared unilateral independence from Britain – the date: 11 November 1965.

Apart from the political and economic affairs affecting the country, things initially did not seem to change much.  In 1967 Grant won the Baby of the Year competition – he and Maureen appeared on national evening TV.  He won a cup and some valuable prizes – not that he was aware of this!

At work I pursued my determination to better myself: I typed a memo from the Manager to Head Office to award me a double increase in recognition of the work I was doing and put it before him for signing – he appeared ‘gob-smacked’ at my audacity but signed it anyway! In quick time I was moved from Avondale branch having been asked to join the Inspection team from South Africa  (basically internal audit) from which I learnt considerably.  The success of my machinations convinced me that I had to rely on myself to get ahead and this had to be soon – it was becoming irritating constantly being under financial pressure.

Heather started at Hallingbury School, we had taken on a maid to assist with the house, and political pressures were becoming apparent.

(Ed: Hallingbury School was a significant event in our lives for it was here that Maureen met Ann Jackson, sparred with her at the PTA and we would ultimately become life-long good friends!)

I put my back into my bank final exams which I passed and was rewarded with £150 plus promotion to branch accountant at the Highlands branch. This was referred to as a Grade 3 appointment and I was the 2nd youngest to achieve this ranking (the Chairman’s son having  been the youngest!).

The Consul 315 was sold and we bought a Ford Cortina Station Wagon.  The bank then sent me on a month-long Accountant’s course to Johnannesburg, which was a great experience; I did well and had my first ever flight on a commercial aeroplane – Boeing 707.  I straightaway began studying for the C.I.S. exams.  I learned that I could qualify for a larger housing loan, applied and was granted a bond for £6,000.  We borrowed some plans, designed our new home and contracted a builder.  We sold our existing home for a profit of  roughly £1,000, which we used to buy a plot in Vainona (No. 1  Granta Road)  -  actually  Stand  162  Vainona  Township,  in extent  1.0864  acres.

We had come to what we thought was an ideal arrangement with the buyers of our Mabelreign property that we could stay on till our new place was ready but within a month they reneged on the deal.

Suffice it to say that we had 5 moves in as many months including a spell staying with Maureen’s folks in their two-bedroom Avondale flat!  During this time my Dad also stopped off in Salisbury returning home from his trip to America.  He was very interested in the building,  progress etc with our new house, which we visited every day.  It was also during his visit, that we were burgled at the house of friends (Rob and Ruth van Zyl) where we were housesitting.

Still homeless and tearing our hair out by late November, we prevailed upon our consultant architect who arranged that we could move in during the first week of December despite the kitchen and the en-suite bathroom not being complete.  Maureen was expecting offspring number three!

Another visitor, and our first at 1 Granta Road – my Mom returning from London after attending my sister Glynn’s marriage to Steve Rush.  She was suitably impressed with our new abode and contributed to the “christening“ of the en-suite bathroom when this was completed before she returned home to Cape Town.

March 29th 1969 and the arrival of ‘baby’ by which name she was known for several days as we had strongly been expecting another boy!  She was duly endowed with the names: Bonita Kerryn.  Her first name after ‘Nita Thompson (nee Damstra) – however it was ‘Bonnie’ that would stick!

Christmas of the same year saw the whole family travelling by train to Cape Town for our ‘annual’ holiday.  Money was short and the car was giving considerable problems.  As far as I can recall we we lucky enough to be able to use Mom’s Mini and even paid a visit to Ceres which, along with other towns, had recently been damaged by earthquake.

With expanded family commitments, I was becoming more despondent about my future with Barclays Bank.  When an advert from UDC finance company appeared in a Sunday newspaper I was reading, Maureen convinced me to “stop griping and do something about it”.  I wrote a hasty application and before we knew what had hit us I had been interviewed, was appointed Collections Manager and started on 1 May at a third more in salary!  (We later learnt that seven other contemporaries from Barclays had applied simultaneously.)

Bob and Colleen and their three children came up by car from Benoni and spent Christmas 1970 with us.   A year later saw us on holiday again but this time in our newly-acquired BMW Cheetah to Cape Town via Port Elizabeth where we stayed briefly with Glynn and Steve.  Their twins had only just been born.

On returning from South Africa we contracted Joe Jackson to put in a swimming pool.  He had only just gone on his own so we claimed to have the very first ‘Jackson Pool’.  He and Maureen argued relentlessly over the siting of the pool with the pegs being moved backwards and forwards.  Maureen naturally won - she wanted the pool very near the house where we set up the outdoor living area.  I confess to having tampered with the pegs and when the premix concrete ran out no-one could understand why.  At least until handover time when I told Joe he had just built us a 40 ft pool for the price of a 36 ft pool.  

Glynn and Steve arrived by train with the three small girls a fortnight later for a holiday with us. The train trip had obviously been a nightmare and they were all strung out.  But at the end of the day we all had a good time together.

My Staff in the UDC collections department grew from 15 to 125 in 5 years and with my CIS exams behind me I felt I was progressing quite well.  I had my first company car  and had also bought Squadron Leader Gordon Nettleton’s Morris Minor, which was our first ‘second car’.  Our two older children were doing well at Vainona Primary School. 

In 1972 we went off to Beira for a week and despite getting a broken windscreen en route (lefthand drive Ford Taunus Sport Ghia) and a hugely worrying time with Heather having to go to the local hospital where no one spoke English except a male cleaner - and by then very broke, we had a fantastic time.  It was to be the last opportunity to visit Mozambique as not long thereafter the borders with Rhodesia were closed.

On return from the coast,  I received call-up papers having been transferred into the reserves commonly known as ‘Dad’s Army’.  We were under-equipped, under-trained and were mainly deployed on guarding-type duties.  We went to different, interesting parts of the country but actually we had no direct contact with the ‘enemy’.  I had several amazing helicopter rides, mainly with the SAAF, was promoted from corporal to sergeant over the radio whilst manning a radio relay station high on the Mavuradona Mountains after having directed an airforce attack on a terrorist location that we had observed through our binoculars.

Around the mid-70’s we were so lucky to be visited by Les and Beryl, George and Mary, Tilly and Brian in between visits of Mom and Dad and one by Mom and Edna.