Yourself as a child - please contribute.

[Chris Bennett]

Looking forward to your embarrassing moments, Chris. emoji at the ready!

Hopefully this image won't undo all the good progress in your recovery, @Rob MacKillop.

This one (a sorely abused slide) is from 1975. I am at the left, sitting on the Land Rover roof and beside me is the Agfa Optima II camera that I had received for my ninth birthday.

This was a trip out in the central African bush with family and friends. A few of us travelled there in a small plane, piloted by the gent with the Minolta round his neck while the others endured hours of bumping around in a hot tin can on the roughest roads known to man. They had the last laugh though, as the plane engine failed to start and we spent a rather long time stranded on the causeway that served as a runway. Happy days.

 

[Laurence Griffiths]

You, the driver and the girls. - Quite the lady killer in your early days, weren't you. That rego on the Land Rover looks Zambian. Was it?

PS: In 1975 I was a second year civil engineering student at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, a couple of thousand kilometres to the south of you.

 

[Chris Bennett]

You, the driver and the girls. - Quite the lady killer in your early days, weren't you. That rego on the Land Rover looks Zambian. Was it?

PS: In 1975 I was a second year civil engineering student at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, a couple of thousand kilometres to the south of you.

Hi Laurence, yes Zambia. My father was a consultant engineer on the Kariba North project and we lived there for a few years. It's funny, after all this time, to hear from someone that the number plate means something to! I vividly remember that Land Rover plus two Fiats being delivered to my Dad and two of his colleagues, and that the Fiats had consecutive numbers: AAB 1086 and 1087. How on earth I remember that, I don't have a clue!

 

[Laurence Griffiths]

Hi Laurence, yes Zambia. My father was a consultant engineer on the Kariba North project and we lived there for a few years. It's funny, after all this time, to hear from someone that the number plate means something to! I vividly remember that Land Rover plus two Fiats being delivered to my Dad and two of his colleagues, and that the Fiats had consecutive numbers: AAB 1086 and 1087. How on earth I remember that, I don't have a clue!

On 18th April 1980 Southern Rhodesia became Zimbabwe. All sanctions that had been put in place against Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) were lifted. The Zimbabwean Electricity Supply Commission (ESC) decided to complete the construction of the coal fired power station at Wankie (now Hwange) which had been put on hold because of sanctions. Grinaker Construction, my employer, decided to tender for the completion of civil and structural works. I was asked to go to Gwelo (now Gweru) to help with the preparation of the tender. Our tender was successful and, in early 1981, I was asked to go up to Wankie and work on the project.

I drove up there in my own car as I wanted to be able to explore the country in my own time. As I was entering Zimbabwe to work, I had to import my car into Zimbabwe and obtain a Zimbabwean registration. I'll never forget that number plate: 222 777Y
Not an easy one to forget!

 

[Len Philpot]

Hide the children, secure the pets, alert the neighbors, 'cause this is gonna be scary.

A cellphone snap of a frame my mother pasted together YEARS ago from film snapshots of me and my birthday cakes taken over the years: Ages 1, 2, 4-6 (top row), 7-11 (middle row) and 14-18 (bottom row). Years would be 1960 - 1977. I can assure you I've only gotten uglier since then...

 

[Gianluca Drago]

Exquisite, Len!

 

[Geoff Chaplin]

I remember that holiday - happy times but sadly one of very few. Shortly after this holiday my mother, father and I got TB. My father and I recovered naturally with regular monitoring x-rays. My mother spent six month in a hospital, finally recovered but came out a changed person physically, and more importantly and dramatically, mentally. When she came back I was about four years old (and not allowed to see her in hospital) and I remember - because it was so traumatic - asking my father "who is that woman?". He replied "That's your mother".

 

[Gary R. Smith]

because it was so traumatic

Yikes Geoff, sounds like a horror. I imagine that you do more than remember it...

 

[Len Philpot]

Exquisite, Len!

Thanks! I suspect as much as anything, it proves my assertion that no one owned a mirror in the '70s ...

 

[Gianluca Drago]

I remember that holiday - happy times but sadly one of very few. Shortly after this holiday my mother, father and I got TB. My father and I recovered naturally with regular monitoring x-rays. My mother spent six month in a hospital, finally recovered but came out a changed person physically, and more importantly and dramatically, mentally. When she came back I was about four years old (and not allowed to see her in hospital) and I remember - because it was so traumatic - asking my father "who is that woman?". He replied "That's your mother".

A touching personal story on which it is difficult to comment. The photo is very beautiful, but one cannot separate the beauty from the sometimes tragic facts of life. Thank you for making me think.

 

[Geoff Chaplin]

Yikes Geoff, sounds like a horror. I imagine that you do more than remember it...

Lots of memories from around then, before and for a long time after, mostly not good. Fortunately my children have grown up in a (reasonably) pleasant atmosphere and are well balance adults. Unlike me