Rob in the ‘Hood: The light at the end of the tunnel

Greetings. Seems it’s just like the good old days. The Hibiscus Coast is bursting at the seams with out-of-town visitors making up for lost time after months in the wilderness.

Restaurants are full, beaches packed, and traffic queues a welcome sight. It all adds up to a feel good factor. We are in the last quarter of the year, and things are looking up.

ALSO READ : Rob in the ‘Hood: Sporting legends call back the past

Bonnie van Rooyen

One visitor to our not-so-sleepy shores this week has been an old friend of some 40 years, Bonnie van Rooyen.

For those readers who became exiled from that country north of Limpopo river, many, I’m sure, will recall Bonnie, who was “world-famous throughout Mabelreign and Borrowdale,” in the former Salisbury, before it was renamed Harare.

All tongue-in-cheek, I may add, but Bonnie was a well-known celebrity on radio, television and a leading light at the old Reps Theatre in Avondale.

It’s been a long, long time

Bonnie had her own spots on the radio on the-then Rhodesia Broadcasting Corporation, with her ‘agony aunt’ teenagers’ hour-long programme; a Top Ten hits pop music show, with a following by all age groups.

A stalwart entertainer at Reps, Bonnie appeared in many stage productions, including “Godspell” and “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat.”

In the 1980s Bonnie and I did some radio work together for the RBC, featuring singers and orchestras from the Golden Age of American music.

Internment in Hong Kong

Bonnie had the dubious honour to be born in a prison: the Stanley Internment Camp No. 1, run by the Japanese military forces in occupied Hong Kong during World War II.

Her Canadian-born soldier-father, Robert Macklin, became a prisoner of war, eventually dying at the hands of his captors. Bonnie and her mother were interned for the duration of the war.

Bonnie had no proper recollection of her time there as a toddler, but for her mother, Ursula, together with the other women and children interned in the camp, life was very hard.

Repatriated to Canada after the war, her earliest childhood memories were of living in Saskatchewan, before her English-born mother returned to Britain.

In the early 60s the family moved again, this time to the former Southern Rhodesia, Central Africa.

In time, Bonnie married Johann van Rooyen, from Philippolis, Orange Free State.

Sadly, she was widowed at an early age with two young children, Laura and Robert to support.

Starting over

Bonnie and her family moved to South Africa in 1982, starting a new life.

Opting to live in Umhlanga, she became a corporate management trainer and public speaker. Her success was recognised and the inevitable promotion and transfer to Johannesburg followed.

After 30 years in Northcliffe, Bonnie still likes the ‘buzz’ of the big city, and what it has to offer. She is familiar, however, with our lovely Hibiscus Coast, previously owning a holiday home in Uvongo.

Delighted to be revisiting the area after many years, Bon has promised to come back soon.

SHAFTS Is back

A sure sign that things are beginning to look up socially, was the return of the SHAFTS monthly get-together and braai at the Striders Clubhouse in Uvongo at the weekend.

Old friends reunited after a hiatus of six months. Masks were worn, as part of the ‘guess who this is?’ quiz.

But gay abandon prevailed; masks were cast to the wind, albeit with everyone keeping a safe distance.

All that is needed now is the resumption of the Moondeckers monthly get-togethers at Ramsgate Conservancy and Whale Deck.

Always popular, held by the light of the silvery moon, with good company, a tipple or two and the best prego rolls in town, it is always a special social event.

When Moondeckers reconvenes then we will know, for sure, that life as we know it is back to its best.

See you, Rob.

HAVE YOUR SAY

Like the South Coast Herald’s Facebook page, follow us on Twitter and Instagram