En Passant: Old papers call back the past

THERE’S nothing like an old newspaper to call back the past. John Lewis is moving and while clearing out his house came across two old newspapers – the Vryheid Herald from January 18, 1985, and the Vryheid Gazette from March 30, 1979.

It really is extraordinary to think of how much water (some of it mine, in fact quite a lot of it mine) has gone under the bridge since that time. It was in 1979 that the old Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned to Tehran, changing the Middle East for ever, and later that year Maggie Thatcher came to power as Britain’s first Prime Minister of the gentle and fairer sex, proving for ever that the label “gentle and fairer” were just wishful thinking on men’s part. And think about this – Nelson Mandela still had over a decade to spend in prison!

In the 36 years since then, Maggie ruled longer than any other 20th century British Prime Minister, retired and died almost exactly two tears ago. Even more astonishing is that in 1979 the Soviet Union was a global super power, and between the edition of the Gazette in 1979, and the edition of the Herald in 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev came to power to preside over the ultimate dissolution of the Soviet Union almost as if it never was. Well, not quite; we still have a South African Communist Party in local politics.

And in that 36 years Nelson Mandela served another 11 years in prison, was released, became President, retired and died. It really was an astounding period of world history, packed with significant events and people.

The Gazette of 1979 has as its main story the news that the doubling of the coal line to Richard’s Bay had been “shelved”, and the picture on the front page showed a very young (though not any taller) Gustav Rohrs, as Mayor of Vryheid, at the newly opened Suncrush bottling plant. The coal line was later doubled and the bottling line closed.

I’ve been asked in the past when the old Vryheid Gazette first appeared, and have never been able to confidently give an exact date. I think I’ve most often said 1927. Well, at the top in the mast head, this 1979 edition says “55th year”, which means, if you’re ever asked, that it started in 1924.

Apart from anything else, looking at the prices in the advertisements is interesting. At the OK, which was then in the building now occupied by Checkers, you could get 2kg of Tastic for just R1,49, 750ml of Sunlight Liquid at 71c, 410gm of Black Cat Peanut Butter (is there any other?) for 55c, and 100ml tube of Aquafresh for 85c.

If you wanted something to do, the old HNP, the Herstigte Nasionale Party (remember them?), was holding a bazaar on a coming Saturday, and on the same Saturday the Rotary Club of Vryheid was holding a Hobo Dance & Braai at the Golf Club – admission R9 double! Yep, you and Doris could get in for just R4,50 each. But I suppose that if it’s remembered that for R4,50 you could get six kilograms of Tastic rice, it might put things into some sort of perspective.

Let’s see: Tennis biscuits were only 32c, and here’s a thing – Palmolive bath soap was just 29c. So what, you may ask? So, it was 150gm of soap.

Haven’t you noticed how we’re being conned? Soaps, bath soaps, used to be 150gm, then they went down to 125gm (and did the price go down? Are you stupid?), then they shrank again to 100gm (and did the price go down? Are you smoking your socks?), and recently Doris came home with bath soap, and I kid you not, they were only 90gm. And did the price reduce accordingly? Are you out of your tiny gin-soaked mind?

Can you believe it, in 1979 Vryheid had daily scheduled flights to and from Johannesburg and Durban, and you could get a SABS-approved retread tyre from Nattyre in Utrecht Street for just R13.50. You could also get to dance to Northern Natal’s very own up and coming band called Magic Bus. I know people who have very fond memories of dancing to the music of Magic Bus in the Moth Hall.

Had you got the money, property would have been your best investment back in 1979. Friend & Nel were selling for only R28,000 a “modern three-bedroomed home with two beautiful bathrooms and knotty pine ceilings, fully carpeted.” There were houses advertised from R21,500 to R36,000, and I doubt that anything else has appreciated in value so much since.

And then, back then had you moved into your new house, you could probably still afford to pop into Stilwater Motel Off-Sales which had an offer of wines by the case that week. You could get Tassheimer at R16.58 per case, Capenheimer at R13,78, and Grunberger Stein and Nederburg Rose both at R18,22 per case.

If you preferred beer, you could pop into Fine Fare and Big King bottlestores, both in Church Street, and get Castle dumpies at R4,16 A DOZEN, or Kronenbrau 1308 for just R3.59 for a DOZEN 340ml cans. A DOZEN CANS!

Things changed between 1979 and 1985. Houses had already more than doubled in price with the ones advertised going for R85,000, R98,000 and R135,000. What had changed? Probably by then they’d decided to double the coal line and there was an influx of Spoornet staff, possibly at that stage there was a boom in the local mining industry.

And things have changed again and again over the years. I suppose that’s life.