Two Bits – 30 May 2014

Every now and then something crops up that makes us wonder, what the hell do we have to whine about?

What passed across my desk this week was a photograph emailed in by veteran Ballito-ite Ian Coates. Ian had spotted a very beautifully restored Harley-Davidson sidecar in town at the weekend.

The sight brought back some neat memories for him.

Says Ian: “After ‘the war’ my dad had one like this (army sharks colour of course)? and that was our ‘car’. Me, Mom and the dog used to snuggle in the side-car. That was back in ’46.

“I remember the dog had prime place of importance in the side car (I was just ‘also there’)!”

Can you imagine a family of three today, Dad perched on the motorbike, Mom and kid and dog hanging on grimly while the whole contraption bounced along. The roads weren’t great in those days, nor were shock absorbers. It must have been an unforgettable experience.

Of course most people had a hard time in the days after the war, so the sight of a family crammed into a motorcycle/sidecar probably wouldn’t have been thought too unusual. It’s just unthinkable today!

Ian wonders if anyone still makes them. My information is that the original sidecar company, Watsonian Squire, which has been making them in England since 1912, is still in business. Harley-Davidson does – so I’m not sure if the one in the photo is a restoration or new – and a couple of firms in Russia and China, where they are still in wide use.

While on the subject of tiny three-wheelers, I remember a neighbour in ‘Maritzburg in the 50s who had a three-wheeled Messerschmitt ‘bubble car’.

It was made by the famous German aircraft maker when, after the war, they were not allowed to continue making planes. It was based on an invalide carriage and did a perfectly good transport job. I recently saw one in Anton Rupert’s car museum at Franschoek, which brought back a flood of memories.

* * *

Mr LA Naidoo of Tongaat is curious about the number of strange SMSs we receive, promising sums of money we have ‘won’ in various lotteries. An example below is:

“Congratulations, your mobile number has won R195 000 in OMO Washing powder promo with Ref. No. 12 SA contact Mr Desmond Joe on 0734368793 to claim your prize.”

Mr Naidoo wonders if anyone has ever responded and received any money – in a wistful sort of way that makes me wonder if he’d like to respond, but can’t quite make up his mind if it’s a scam or not.

Now it could be that the message is absolutely genuine and the recipient has indeed won some money. It could also be true that pigs fly.

I don’t believe that Omo hands out money willy-nilly, nor can you win money in a Lotto (as some of the SMSs claim) if you haven’t taken a ticket. And it is highly unlikely that they’ll send you an SMS to tell you of your good fortune. You have to go to the Lotto machine and claim your prize.

So call me a cynic, Mr Naidoo, but the only action I take when I receive those messages, is to delete them and forget they ever existed.

Someone, somewhere is just itching for you to be a sucker!

* * *

A young boy went running down the street in search of a policeman. Finding one, he pleaded, “Officer, please I need you to come back to the bar with me. My dad is in a fight.”

The officer accompanied him back to the bar where he found three guys in a fistfight. “Ok, now which one is your father?” he asked the young boy.

“I don’t know, officer. That’s what they’re fighting about!”