Our own place - poor student life
24th June, 2009
My Dear Jeremy,
I was hugely amused that you compared our train journey to a Buster Keaton movie. You obviously enjoyed the humour of it all!
The train was due in Pietermaritzburg early in the morning. I woke, asked Michael the time, as he had a luminous dial on his watch. I hurriedly dressed expecting to pull into the station any minute. When he did not stir, I discovered it was still the early hours of the morning. Did he give me the wrong time or did I mishear? However I sat there a long time waiting and I was not all that pleased!
We collected the dogs and hired a taxi to take us to the university residence. This was an old army camp on the outskirts of town. It had been converted into a men’s residence with a section in the front turned into flats for staff and married students. We found our flat and had to push our way through a crop of tall mealies (corn) to find the front door. The accommodation was very basic, only a cooker in the kitchen and a table and two chairs and a single divan were provided. There were two rooms, with a veranda and a small grassy patch between us and the flat in front.
Great was our excitement – a place of our own! The first thing we did was to go and buy a bed and two folding camp chairs, (the latter) which we still have. My parents were to bring our wedding presents which included plates and cutlery, by car, so we bought a packet of what we thought were camping knives, forks and spoons, which collapsed as we ate. They were made of cardboard and must have been meant for cocktail parties. We ate our meal out of the dogs dishes which we washed very carefully, but all we had to drink was the gin left over from the farewell party.
Mum and Dad arrived the next day and took us shopping. With our wedding money we bought a bureau with a glass fronted cupboard at the top and drawers at the bottom. One could pull down a lid to reveal a desk on which to write, and compartments in which to keep papers and correspondence. We made bookcases out of the wooden boxes our possession had been transported in and a hanging space behind the door for our clothes.
Living in front of us was a family, Wendy and Stuart and their little boy called Jonty. They were friendly and we saw a great deal of Jonty. He was a dear little boy who called us Bobbie and Beau – I don’t know why. There was plenty of countryside around for the dogs to have a good run in. Beside us lived Dr Gardner, an English lecturer and his family. Dr Gardner was famous for writing a book on Gerard Manley Hopkins, the Catholic poet. They had three children, two boys and a little girl who was mentally retarded or "challenged" as they say today. They were English and rather reserved. Also living in the flats were Tony and Olga Wills. Tony had joined the RAF as a pilot. Olga had grown up on a farm in East Griqualand. They became lifelong friends.
Michael went off to register at the university. He had half a degree and needed to do an extra subject so as to have the full number of credits. He studied English, History and Philosophy. I made valiant attempts to become a housewife. I had never done any cooking but had been given two cookery books as wedding presents. One, Mrs Beetons, was from Ken Fryer who was very concerned about us as he thought we were both very impractical people. I remember even having to take a pot of boiling potatoes into Michael who was sitting in the bath for him to test if they were cooked. I think our friend Betty Paterson had come to dinner.
That year the university was opening an Agricultural Department and so they needed a librarian to catalogue and classify their books and papers. So that was right up my alley. I worked there very happily. I don’t think I earned very much and can't remember whether it was full time or part-time, but it did help towards our finances. Michael had only been awarded a single maintenance grant. Married allowances were only granted to those who were married during the war.
Michael would often return home with car grease on his hands. He had been helping some students up the road fix their cars. One day he came in all excited – a small car was for sale. We took it for a drive – it was very small, with a fold back roof and we felt like a million dollars tearing down the road. However, when he went to register it he found there was something not right with the papers so sadly cancelled the purchase and thankfully got his money back.
We attended the opening ball and I proudly wore my wedding dress. I also went to a few Philosophy lectures with Michael before I started working at the Agricultural Department.
That was the beginning of 1948 and the beginning of our married life together.
Love you, Mum