Pints for the taking
WHO KNOWS how 45th Cutting got its name? Is it somewhere in the municipal or provincial records, tucked between 44th Cutting and 46th? I suppose that's what I'd always imagined.
But no. It's named after the 45th Regiment of Foot (also known as the Nottinghamshire Regiment or the Sherwood Foresters), who were stationed in Natal during the colonial era.
They dug the cutting from where they were based on the outskirts of Port Natal at a place called Camp Hill, which is known today as the suburb of Sherwood.
So that's Durban's association with the forest in England that was home to Robin Hood and his Merry Men. It was one of the facts to emerge from last weekend's talk at the Highland Games, up at Michaelhouse, by local historian and tour guide Ken Gillings.
It's odd how you can go through life not even wondering how something got its name, let alone questioning it. In Maritzburg the local rugby clubs compete for the York and Lancaster Cup. York and Lancaster? Where does that come from?
I'd long hung up my boots before discovering purely by chance that the York and Lancasters were another British regiment stationed at Fort Napier, in the in the capital, during the colonial era. They played rugby in the local league and before they left after Union they presented the trophy that bears their name.
Okay, these are not facts of the sort on which history turned – but they can win you beers in bar-room bets.
What was the name of the tortoise presented to the Victoria Club by the Yorks and Lancs before they left ((I think he's still there at the club with an engraved silver plate on his shell)? Durando. Who was Durando? He won the marathon at the Olympics about that time.
Remember all this – it can win you pints of beer.
More pints
KEN GILLINGS also brought us the story of John Goodman Household, possibly the first man in the world ever to fly. Household was fascinated by birds in flight. When he shot a vulture, he measured its wingspan and, working out the ratio to its weight, he built a glider.
It was not a success. Household built another with modifications and one moonlit night, assisted by his brother Archer and some local Zulus, they carried it to the top of Loskop, in the Karkloof valley. The glider was launched and it soared a few hundred metres before crashing into a treetop and catapulting Household into a fall where he broke a leg.
"His parents confiscated the buckled contraption and that was the end of the first attempt to fly in the history of Southern Africa – 30 years before the Wright brothers. This historic event is commemorated on a plaque alongside the road between the Karkloof and Curry's Post."
Yes, a great story. I'm sure Household was actually the first in the world. A version I've heard is that Bishop Colenso – who was a mathematician as well as a theologian – assisted him in designing the second glider.
Again, these are facts to remember. They can win you pints of beer in the bar.
Tailpiece
THEY ARE dressed and ready for dinner and the theatre. The night light is on, the voicemail is on, the pet budgie has been covered, the cat has been put in the yard. They phone for a taxi.
It arrives. As they open the front door, the cat scoots in again. It can't be left in the house because it will eat the budgie.
She walks on out to the taxi. He goes in to catch the cat. These days you don't want to let on that the house is being left empty. She says: "He's just going upstairs to say goodbye to my mother."
He arrives. "Sorry I took so long. She was hiding under the bed. I had to poke her ass with a coat hanger to get her to come out. She tried to take off so I grabbed her by the neck, hauled her downstairs and threw her out in the backyard. She'd better not do number twos in the vegetable garden again."
The silence in the taxi is deafening.
Last word
Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.
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