Once Called Home

A collection of 181 posts

Once Called Home

Who Me?

Dad had a lot of experience treating Africans from South Africa all the way north to Abyssinia before he settled in Que Que Who Me? As I mentioned in my last blog Mrs. Tyzack handled the WWII ex-ambulance with great aplomb on the weekends.  During the week she was my

Once Called Home

The Ambulance

The  Ambulance all dressed up for the Rag Parade 1968 The WWII Ambulance. I mentioned in my last blog the Boy Scouts and the Girl Guides anonymously acquired an unlicensed WW II ambulance.  It was used in all sorts of ways as development of Echo Park began with the transportation

Once Called Home

It Takes a Villiage

Piper Moss Mine. Demolishing an old house donated by Mr. Varkevisser. Bricks were cleaned and transported on an old WWII ambulance to Echo Park at Dutchmans Pool It Takes a Village. I’ve written a lot about my parents and the contribution they made to developing Que Que from a

Once Called Home

Rhodesia from beginning to end

[flickr id=”6011724231″ thumbnail=”medium” overlay=”true” size=”medium” group=”” align=”center”] Rhodesia beginning to end by Ron Morkel  Ron Morkel’s family saga, Rhodesia beginning to end, culminates at the family farm, Mazuri Ranch, in the Rhodesdale district forty miles south east of Que Que. Rhodesia beginning to end

Once Called Home

Gabby Turnbull Our Celebrated English Teacher

Que Que High School Entrance Post Independence in 1980 with the name change. Lets call it the Blues period. I remember it in the Colonial whitewash period.  Photo by Lynn May Gabby Turnbull Our Celebrated English Teacher Gabby Turnbull, our much loved  English teacher, was small in stature but had

Once Called Home

Predictions from a Que Que High School Student

Que Que High School Magazine 1959. A really fun submission by Morris Sloman Predictions from a Que Que High School Student Que Que High School was the only high school for the whole district.   All kinds of kids went there.  Here’s a submission to the High School Magazine from

Once Called Home

A Learning Curve

Students Glynis Reynolds L and Diana Hirsch R hard at work in the Biochemistry Laboratory, Harare Hospital, Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia, 1966 A Learning Curve After a while at the Public health Laboratories on North Avenue in Salisbury, (described in my last blog) I got a chance to get a transfer

Once Called Home

Blood Sweat and Smears

Dr. Michael Gelfand, doyen of Southern Rhodesia’s medical community, much as we loved him, usually failed to notify us ahead of time of the deluge of urine specimens (or worse) that he was sending for analysis in conjunction with the latest publication he was working on. Blood, Sweat and

Once Called Home

A First for Que Que and Rhodesia

Barney and Dora Kahn of Que Que imported the first Cadillac into Southern Rhodesia A First for Que Que and Rhodesia The Gaika Mine,  two km (just over a mile) south of Que Que on Chicago Farm included a series of claims named the Gaika, Robin Hood, Zulu, Golden Quarries

Once Called Home

The Sanyati Expedition 1959

August 1959 nineteen schoolboys, including eleven from Que Que High School and eight adults, spent twelve days camping on the banks of the Sanyati River, about forty miles from Kariba. The Sanyati Expedtion 1959 Many thanks to Tess (nee Banfield) Harris (and Phil for scanning) for ferreting out the back

Once Called Home

The Annual Yom Ha'atzmaut Picnic

The Annual Yom Ha’atzmaut Picnic 1960. Are these kids Jewish or what? Back row: Helen Spengler (Gatooma), Yetta Ehrman, John Loebenstein (Gwelo), Lynette Samson, Miranda Bloom (Gwelo). Behind:  Elmer Phillipson, Rabbi Ehrman, Brian Hirsch.  In front of the Rabbi, Albert and David Hatchuel, Leslie Brom, David Hirsch, ? , Morris Sloman.

Once Called Home

The River Spirit from the Back of Beyond

Nyaminyami The Spirit of the Mighty Zambezi River will be at WAFA World Flower Show in Boston MA at Seaport World Trade Center June 15-19 2011 River Spirit from the Back of Beyond Enters the World Flower Show at the World Trade Center in Boston. Nyaminyami the BaTonga Spirit of

Once Called Home

Rabbi Ehrman was a Real Mensch

Communal Seder 1960. Rabbi Ehrman flanked on L by Freda and Morris Teperson, on R by Hanna and Ruben Sloman. Far R Zuky Fine. Nearest camera: Albert and David Hatchuel, Barry Rest, Brian Hirsch, Gillian Schattil, Lucille Keril. Rabbi Ehrman was a Real Mensch   Que Que’s Jewish community had

Once Called Home

The Back Of The Bus

My brother Brian and Jan Polisensky hitching a thousand miles to the southern tip of Lake Tanganyika in 1963 The Back Of The Bus Lots of change was in the air in the early sixties. The ‘Negro’ Freedom Riders were protesting against being relegated to sit at the back of

Once Called Home

A Diagnosis In A Jiffy

A typical rural clinic landscape like the ones Dad attended at Umniati Power Station, Redcliff and the Gaika and Connemara Mines from 1946 through to 1975. (Photo courtesy of the web) A Diagnosis In A Jiffy Dad liked company. Once I learned to behave and before I got into serious

Once Called Home

The Difference Between Half A Crown and Five Shillings

In thirty years of medical practice we never thought to take a photo of a Native Clinic. This web picture gives you an idea of what it was like. The Difference Between Half a Crown and Five Shillings The much respected Menashe family owned a habadashery store.  They were pioneer

Once Called Home

Cookie

Cookie. Painting by Violet Ross 1958 Cookie Cookie was from Northern Rhodesia, one of ten children, though six had died in early life.  He had worked in the mines on the Copper Belt, saved enough to buy cattle for lobola and married.  He had a gift for languages and had

Once Called Home

The Sting

Brian Hirsch, Mark Gilby, John Seton-Rogers, Phil Harris and Jan Polisensky  seeing Lake Kariba Southern Africa’s new inland sea for themselves as the water rose to its maximum capacity in the  early 1960s The Sting My older brother Brian embarked on a camping trip of his own with his

Once Called Home

What Happened to Mr. Teperson?

Mr. Teperson (left) and other Jewish Leaders in Southern Rhodesia sometime between 1959-64 What Happened to Mr. Teperson? You couldn’t miss the aroma wafting out of  Mr. Teperson’s Midlands Bakery on Que Que’s Main Street as loaves of bread cooled on racks. Chocolate éclairs, sugar buns, Neapolitans

Once Called Home

The Big Catch At Kariba

Bill and Merlin Atkinson and Mom with the big catch at Lake Kariba, 1964 The Big Catch at Kariba The rescue of wild animals from the rising waters of Lake Kariba was called Operation Noah. Clouds of birds came to feed on insects and rodents as they were flushed from

Once Called Home

Noah's Stockings

On holiday with the Atkinsons and De Beers in the drowning mopane forest at Lake Kariba 1964. Noah’s Stockings 1916 was the last time lions were seen in Que Que.  Sir Roy Welensky, the prime minister,  famously said, “You can’t run a farm and a zoo.”  Tsetse flies

Once Called Home

An Epic Engineering Feat

Kariba below the dam wall.  Me in the foreground, along with Val and Barbara Atkinson fishing  Southern Rhodesia 1964 An Epic Engineering Feat The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, formed in 1953, was a grand compromise, since amalgamation  of the two Rhodesias was not politically possible. A decision was made

Once Called Home

The Lions of Que Que

Lions on the Prowl The Lions of Que Que Bill and Sid West’s Jena Group of Mines named after the big cats were a long way from town on dirt roads.  We still had leopard at Hillandale when we first broke ground there on our new house in 1956.

Once Called Home

The Termite Mine

Bill West Territory, Silobela District, Southern Rhodesia. Bill and his brother Sid were naming their gold mines after the big cats of the area but Bill had a theory… The Termite Mine Bill West, despite having no formal training, was a wealthy man.  He and his brother Sid owned the

Once Called Home

I was Victrix Ludorum

Que Que High School Swimming Team 1960 Back Row standing: Diana Hirsch, Erica Leonard,Wendy Corbyn, Leslie Ann Newton, Melody Hannaford, Diana Forester, Jennifer Baker, Patsy Papenfus, Maryalice O.Hagan.  3rd Row: Brenda Rees, Gillian Hulley, Kay Whittaker, Miss Midge Henderson (coach), Stella Fullwood (captain), Grace Glover.  Kneeling: Betty Botha,