Number 121: We travelled often from Port Elizabeth to Cape Town. Those trip details etched in my memory: “Are we there yet?!”. First stop Humansdorp for Breakfast. Engineering drawings at Storms River restaurant of how the bridge was built; single lane roads and long lines of cars unable to overtake; hairpin bend on Bloukrans Pass; lush beauty of the Garden Route; expanse of farmlands and mountains after Mossel Bay. 

Dovvie and I of course knew all the towns by heart, ticking each off as we passed them. Much singing – “Coming round the mountain”; “Whiskers on kittens”; “This Old Man”.  And counting the ubiquitous Windmills along the route. Multitudes of Numberplates to “tick off” against our list, of the Cape, Transvaal, Natal, Free State. CCC was easy  – because we passed through Riversdale. But CCP “Van Rhynsdorp” was seriously rare, a big win!!  The palpable excitement of turning into Silverlea Road Wynberg, running into the arms of Oma and Opa arising from their green wicker chairs on their stoep.

Some crazy Motor Car stories with my late father z”l. Many trips to Cape Town in the Green Opel which served us well for many years – except when it didn’t! Returning from Katberg: “Marcelle, this car is going like a bomb”, then it seized, plumes of steam blowing from the engine on the mountain pass. Same experience with the Renault Dauphine on Outeniqua Pass, this time returning from Cape Town to visit our mother z”l in hospital. The Opel, doing work of a tractor, pulling the roller around the Summerwood Club soccer field that Dad built – to flatten ground after burning the forest. The same Opel in which my parents returned from work to find me looking out the window of our 3 Molsonder Mansions, Summerstrand lounge, sobbing in the arms of Mariah, with cut chin and pinkie finger after falling through the glass of our front door.

One’s motor vehicle a reflection of personality?  My father later drove a second hand red Alpha Romeo sports! And my mother the Ford Cortina purchased from Opa!

How since the world has changed!!