Pip Curling: Africa Day, Pools & Landscape Painting

May 25 - Africa Day in Zimbabwe.

I was sent a link to the Facebook page for people who lived in Gatooma (now Kadoma in Zimbabwe) - previously Rhodesia. That’s where we lived from 1952 to 1964. For me those were the twelve years of school and growing up.

Here’s the link https://www.facebook.com/groups/34283593538/

They were privileged times for some of us. Well, to be honest they were the good times if you were white and probably tough if you weren’t. I couldn’t say what life was like for black people because I didn’t know any apart from the man who worked in the house. I remember black people had a separate entrance at the Post Office something which never did seem logical to me. But that’s all I remember. We took so much for granted.

Gatooma was a small town. For us children and teenagers the social centre was the town swimming pool. That’s where you met your friends after school and where you played all day in the summer holidays. The pool was where you “got a tan” the better to show off a nubile young body. The pool was where the boys “ducked” the girls who screamed and enjoyed it - mostly.

My father was the Town Engineer with the Gatooma Municipality. The swimming pool was part of his responsibility.

And here is the pool today ... I guess it isn’t any longer an important part of social life.

Comment from the sender of the Facebook link “... as for tacky you would rather not see the state of the town pool ... colonials do like cleanliness and order.”