LETTERS

My dad, Ken, grew up in Pretoria, and then moved to Virginia in the Free State in 1953. Here he established himself as a building contractor, and in later years he built, amongst other things, the Voortrekker Monument in Winburg. I recently looked through old photos of Dad. He must have returned to Pretoria a number of times. Hartbeespoort Dam is in one of the photos; it was taken in 1957 and the area looks untouched, compared to today. Just like with building, Dad didn’t shy away from hard work. On another photo there are old canvas-and-wood camping chairs next to a bakkie – a lot more noticeable than the bakkie itself. On the back of the bakkie is a garden shed, the door of which opens up over the tailgate. You can even see the legs of a steel bed inside the house on the bakkie. I’m not sure what kind of bakkie it is, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a Chev, because that was Dad’s favourite. You can clearly see the “OXV 956” number plate – Virginia’s number plate years ago. I was born in 1961 and Dad passed away in 1987. I never heard the full story about the bakkie with the garden shed, but I do know about Dad’s love of nature – something you can clearly see in the photos.