3 Feb 2015

Info Requests

by | posted in: InfoRequests | 7

I have received a number of info requests in the past little while. Ashley Trytsman wrote:

I came across your site and it is amazing! I love Durban, my growing up stomping ground:) Please can you advise/ point me in the right direction. I am trying to get any info/ pics on AKALS toy store that was located in Stamford Court in Stamford Hill rd. back in the eighties. Any help would be greatly appreciated- All the very best for the year to come and with your lovely website.

Marie Levine wrote: Read More

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1 Feb 2015

Aviation memories

by | posted in: Mini Memories, New Articles | 7

Reader Vernon Varty wrote in with some of his memories:

Thank you for such a wonderful website … as some famous person once said: “There’s nothing like the Good Old Days.”

We moved from Pietermaritzburg to Durban in 1941, long before I started proper school. One of my very clear memories of the early 1940’s was standing in a queue with my mother, waiting for the 3-ton truck to arrive with rations … we got powdered eggs, horrible-tasting white margarine, unsifted flour, dried peas and so on. Apparently nobody was allowed to make white bread. We had a little wood and cloth contraption with a small crank-handle that could turn, and we would take turns at sifting the flour so that we could and did have white bread. We had to paint all our windows black, and shut them at night because of the blackout. Read More

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1 Feb 2015

West Street

by | posted in: Pictures | 22

Reader Richard Holmes sent this fine view of West Street. He thinks that it must have been taken sometime prior to 1931. Can anyone narrow the timing down at all?

Picture courtesy Richard Holmes.
Picture courtesy Richard Holmes.
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17 Jan 2015

Out of stock

by | posted in: Housekeeping | 0

Today was a momentous day because I finally sold the last copy of Facts About Durban that I brought with me over to Brisbane. I am unable to access the original files that the book was laid-out in and I can’t afford to have a big printing anyway. I do have high-resolution PDFs of the book and am doing experiments to see if those would be acceptable to one of the Print on Demand services like Lulu.com.

Watch this space and I’ll keep you posted on progress.

The other news is that the site hosting fees are costing me too much and so I am about to move the site to somewhere cheaper but hopefully just as good. I hope there is no interruption to the service but you never know.

I will use the move as an opportunity to tighten up on the comments that will be allowed on the site. This place is all about Durban memories and I am going to be quite strict about deleting comments that stray away from that. The only other permissible subject will be how great you think the site is. 😉

Finally, I would like to to give a big tip of the hat to my mate Gerald Buttigieg who is performing sterling work on this site both in the comments section and by posting new entries in this diary. I have not been as responsive as I might be due to many factors to do with moving on my own to a new country. Laziness has played its part too, of course 😉 but job insecurity and loneliness have been the major demotivating factors.

I’m well aware that this place might have fallen apart if it weren’t for Gerald so YAAAY!!! for him, is all I can say.

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10 Jan 2015

Durban’s Milk Marathon

by | posted in: Appeals | 4

Mike Kamionka has sent in this picture of a certificate that was handed out on completing  Durban’s Milk Marathon. The certificate border showing the route has been filled in by Jock Leyden, the noted cartoonist who worked for the Daily News for many years. If you look closely you will see how observant and clever he was at his art. When one looks at the poor quality of cartooning in the KZN papers of today, one realises how good Leyden actually was.

I recall the Milk Marathon but my only memory of it was going down to Kings Park Stadium one Sunday (I think) to watch some friends coming in.  My memory of distance conversion was 5 miles equals 8 kilometres.

Milk Marathon CertClick on certificate to enlarge.

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16 Dec 2014

The First Public Railway in South Africa

by | posted in: New Articles | 3

More first railway information here

Acknowledgement:

This article is taken from the Natal Society’s Journal No. 40 dated December 2010.

The article is written by Michael Cottrell. Some paragraphs have been omitted .

The first public railway in South Africa: The Point to Durban railway of 1860

The world’s first public steam railway in Britain between Stockton and Darlington in 1825 was followed by the rapid development of this mode of transport in Britain, Europe and all continents. Egypt built Africa’s first railway which opened in 1856 between Alexandria and Cairo. This was followed by the Point to Durban railway which opened on 26th June 1860 and that between Cape Town and Wellington on November 4th, 1863.

Read More

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2 Dec 2014

The Natal Society

by | posted in: Uncategorized | 13

I do not know how many of you are aware of The Natal Society which is based in Pietermaritzburg. Here are the introductory notes taken from their website:

“Founded in Pietermaritzburg in 1851, the Natal Society has served the scientific and literary interests of the community of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, for more than 160 years.It founded a museum (now a leading national institution) and the largest privately-owned library system in the country (now run by the city’s Msunduzi Municipality).

The Society’s leading members also played an instrumental role in the establishment of a university, the country’s largest agricultural society show, a philharmonic society and a dramatic arts society. Read More

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