Once Called Home

A collection of 181 posts

Once Called Home

Going Beyond the Barriers

Going Beyond the Barriers Mom’s Guiding ambitions grew by leaps and bounds after that first foray at the Davies plot.  She now turned her attentions to training Katie Bosman to run a Coloured Troop, and Florence Chileshe a young school teacher from Amaveni Township to run Wayfarers (a modified

Once Called Home

A Uniform of a Different Sort

Mom, in her Prime  A Uniform of a Different Sort  As you recall in last weeks blog I hoped that I would fit in at school wearing a school uniform like everyone else.  My mother too believed in uniforms as a great equalizer.  A Uniform of a Different Sort The

Once Called Home

Anticipation Is Best

Anticipation Is Best Last week I wrote about the Swiss embroidered muslin dresses that my mother made for me.   They marked me outwardly as different at church on Sundays.  I had other reasons too for being different.  School and a uniform held great promise for me. Anticipation Is Best I

Once Called Home

Transparency

Transparency  In the past weeks, I have been writing about Que Que’s pantomimes, highlighting a few of the townsfolk that made them the success that they were.  We could go on for quite some time with these tales, and perhaps I’ll return to it later.  However, I thought

Once Called Home

The Roast

The Roast Mary Morrison was Mom’s right hand, reliable, amiable and ‘absolutely vital’ in the smooth organization of the front of house and finances for all the pantos: all the things that were not Mom’s strengths.  Mary would trundle the pram with first one baby and then the

Once Called Home

Donkey's Years

Jiminy Cricket Lynn Jelks Pinocchio Wendy Allen Pearls Leslie Opperman June Mackey Me Lesley Candy Lobster Susan Harman Donkey’s Years Mom remembered the magical Pantomimes she had seen every Christmastime at the Empire Theatre in Johannesburg as a child.  It began with the tram ride from her home in

Once Called Home

Backdrops

Backdrops in Peter Pan Tiger Lily (Lesley Candy) Smee and Starkey (Steven Combrink and Norman Fullwood) Mermaid (Judith de Beer) Backdrops I’ve devoted three blogs to a few incidents in Mom’s first play In Mother Nature’s Garden.  Of course, it and the subsequent more ambitious pantos wouldn’

Once Called Home

The Insect Orchestra

The Insect Orchestra G du Pressis Jennifer Arnott L Pretorius J Hutcherson The Insect Orchestra Last week I mentioned that Henrietta Fox had aspirations much higher than being an insect in Mom’s pantomime Mother Nature’s Garden. But there were lots of other children happy to be musical  insects.

Once Called Home

Catch a Falling Star...Never Let it Fade Away

Early Morning Sunflowers Far R Heather Heap Far L Jennifer Morrison 2nd L Sugar Bressler Milkweeds of Autumn Center Front Eileen Sloman imm behind Davidge-Pitts Front R Hillary Jelks                     Catch a Falling Star…and Never Let It Fade Away Last week I introduced you all to Mom’s first play

Once Called Home

In Mother Nature's Garden

In Mother Nature’s Garden  Every mother has hopes and dreams for her offspring, but my mother encouraged lots of kids.  I hope that wherever you hail from, you’ll enjoy my family’s dynamics as I remember them.  In Mother Nature’s Garden.  My parents didn’t spend much

Once Called Home

Goodness Gracious! The Queen Mother is Coming to Town

A Royal Welcome along the length of the Railway Platform A Shy bob as a Sunbeam presents a bowl of wild flowers to Princess Margaret The formal welcome to Que Que by the Mayor Goodness Gracious!  The Queen Mother is Coming to Town Tuesday 7th July 1953 Queen Elizabeth The

Once Called Home

The Roar of a Lion and Shots Heard Around the World

Mom at the Fever Hospital Johannesburg, 1936 The Roar of a Lion and Shots Heard Around the World Last week, over breakfast, the family discussed a school assignment of mine to recount a hunting or fishing experience.  We needed to bring along a related memento or photograph to share with

Once Called Home

Hunteen, Shooteen & Fisheen

Dad with his Smith & Wesson Revolver When the Lions Roar at Night Personal note:  My word count has been creeping up over the weeks!  I don’t want to presume on too much of your time so this week I’m just giving you Part 1 entitled Hunteen, Shooteen

Once Called Home

The Jubilee Bicycle Parade 1950

Beehive of Industry Jubilee Bicycle Parade Last week I wrote about the float winners at the Que Que Jubilee Celebration of Rhodesia in 1950.  This week I am continuing with the bicycle parade that accompanied it.  There were all kinds of entries: clowns, and fairies, goblins and witches, Noddy in

Once Called Home

The Jubilee Float Parade 1950

Slomans Jubilee Float 1950 Que Que Hospital Float for the Jubilee Parade 1950 Southern Rhodesia was a slow starter by anyone’s standards. Since its founding by Cecil John Rhodes in 1890 its development had been stalled for a host of reasons.  Ever present were the host of pestilences which

Once Called Home

The Mayoress' Tea Party

The Mayoress’ Tea Party As we saw in my very first blog, The Goings On at the bottom of the Garden, my mother was confident that the colonies offered a lot more freedom of expression than was permissible in the strict conventions of England.  To her, this openness, mixing of

Once Called Home

Early Morning Tea

Early Morning Tea Tea was more than just a drink.  It was a ritual, appropriate for almost any official function as we saw in the last piece from my novel, The Hospital Christmas Tea.  There were teas to celebrate a dignitary’s arrival, the opening of a new facility or

Once Called Home

A Present at the Hospital Christmas Day Tea (an excerpt from the novel)

This short, short story, condensed from my novel, is set in the small fictitious town of Umzimtuti, Southern Rhodesia just after WWII.  Suddenly Southern Rhodesia has an attraction for people wanting to distance themselves from war torn England and Europe.  This excerpt introduces you to a sample of the colorful

Once Called Home

The Fifty First Gamble (A brief excerpt from the novel.)

I’m in awe at the speed and distance my first blog post of my memoirs traveled within twenty four hours.  Thank you all so much for responding and passing it on. After my first entry I had a flood of inquiries into the novel. So, over the next two

1950

The Goings On at the Bottom of our Garden

Me at Age 4 The Goings On at the Bottom of our Garden October was ‘suicide month’.  The heat and the glare without a breath reverberated with the shrill of cicadas, emanating not from their throats but from the rasp of the membranes on the underside of their tummies, so

Once Called Home

The End

The End In 1921, Gervas Hughes, newly arrived in Que Que from England, went to work at East Clare Ranch.  Every day, in a Scotch-cart pulled by four oxen, he collected cows that had died from the drought. His job was to boil them in 44 gallon drums, feed the

Once Called Home

Carrying On

Dorothy Hughes spraying her pet Jersey Cows on Giraffe Farm for ticks 1962 Carrying On Gervas Hughes, Matambega, The One Who Could Be Trusted, as the Africans came to call him after a while,  put his son Tim in charge of Melrose Farm when he returned from 4 years of

Once Called Home

From Bundu to Outback

From Bundu to Outback Tim Hughes severed his ties with Rhodesia in 1962. In those days pilots navigated by the stars to cross the Indian Ocean flying at night. The four day trip from Johannesburg in a propeller driven Constellation made an overnight stop at Mauritius due to bad weather

Once Called Home

Breaking Away

Breaking Away Gervas Hughes had fended off military call-up papers for four years, telling them his son was overseas. One day another letter arrived from the Ministry of Defense requesting Tim attend a medical examination before doing his four months compulsory national service training. Breaking Away He had been subjected

Once Called Home

All in a Day's Work

Spreading Manure on the lands at Melrose Farm, outside Que Que, Southern Rhodesia 1961 All in a Day’s Work A typical week at Melrose Farm for Tim Hughes started with a cup of tea from his ‘cookboy’ Mark before daylight. After pulling on his khaki shirt, shorts, boots and