Places, People and Pipe Dreams

(c) 2011 E.C. Lunnon

Saturday 12 November 2011: 5 years 3 months on … Deuce

I have written before that Home is where the Heart is  -  about a number of places where I am privileged to have lived or visited.

But now I have a broken heart. It is split and  parts remain in those wonderful places. 

Stellenbosch is where I was born and educated.

There is the greater Cape Town Metropole including the City of  Cape Town itself and the Hottentots-Holland basin: The Strand, Somerset West and Gordons Bay where I was raised and spent my formative years.  

Then there is the United States of America, in general, and Oklahoma and Sulphur in particular. I lived and went to school there too.

There is the Eastern Cape where I have lived for the past twenty-seven years.

 

I have visited Londres no less than seven times. 

It is the city of my surname, my forefathers and my dreams: the New Jerusalem to which I look forward. But, if that destination is anything better than London, it can only be called Heaven!

And from the noise and bustle and coloured tracks of the tube trains of London, there is the quietness and simplicity and dust tracks of The Karoo.

 

With each of these places comes the so many people who are my friends and acquaintances.  

 The simpler one’s life, the less one has to give up and the less one has to say goodbye to.

The more privilege, the more pleasure, the more places, the more people, the more presents, the more pets, the more paper, the more photos, the more possessions, …

Yes, the more parts of your heart …

 

And the more parts lead to the more partings and the more pain.

 

It is hard to start saying goodbye to a hundred places, a thousand people and a million pipe-dreams. 

It’s a Small Small World

© E.C. Lunnon 2011

Friday 4 November 2011: 5 years 2 months on … Advantage CBD

Dear Kay, Lee, Jerry and Kathy

Thirty six years ago, in 1975, I completed grade 12 at Sulphur High School, in Sulphur, Oklahoma.

During that year, I lived with four families:  first, with Bill and Nadine Whitley (and their five sons) out at the Lake of the Arbuckles and then in town with Judge Dixie and Ruby Colbert (and Shelley and Mark), yourselves, the Rev Lee and Mrs Kay Griffin (and Jerry and Kathy) and finally with the Seips (and Robert and Becky). I had an additional four mothers and fathers and many more brothers and sisters! (I recall the most difficult thing for me was to actually call my host parents “Mom” and “Dad”!)

Despite the years, I remember many things of my stay with you: celebrating my 19^th birthday with a special cake in your kitchen, the Methodist Church (I believe it’s changed its venue now), Kathy’s mice,  Jerry’s bedroom (!) and, of course, our ten-day hiking trip up and around the Maroon Bells and Snowmass Lake in Aspen, Colorado. To this day, a watercolour that Lee painted for me of the Bells and the Lake hangs in our entrance hall in Port Elizabeth (to where I moved from Cape Town in 1984).

 

(Note the signature and date in the left hand corner – I was hoping, Lee, that you had made it famous as a painter by now and that my original is now worth a few million dollars!)

Upon returning to South Africa, I commenced my studies at the University of Stellenbosch. In those years, we relied solely on “snail mail” in order to communicate.  It took some three weeks for a letter to reach Oklahoma from South Africa and the same amount of time for a response to get back here – almost two months for a “round trip”!

Needless to say, despite all our good intentions, the letters dried up rapidly, later became just an annual Christmas card, then SILENCE and then DISAPPEARANCE.

Thanks largely to Kevin Whitley and his insistence in not allowing me “to get away” I remained in contact (to a greater or lesser degree) with the Whitley clan.

I was, therefore, privileged to return to the US on a further four occasions. As a South African (and an honorary citizen of the Great State of Oklahoma) I have most probably seen more of the USA than most Americans, having had the pleasure of visiting most of the 48 contiguous States, as well as Canada and Mexico. 

In 1988, a friend and I toured the country from “sea to shining sea” (and I also returned to Sulphur for a while); in 1999, I visited Orlando and Atlanta on a business trip (and saw the Whitleys in Atlanta); in September/October 2001, my family and I vacationed in Atlanta and with the Whitleys in Missouri; and in March 2007, just after I became ill, I returned for Bill’s (surprise) 80^th birthday party. Unfortunately, he became ill at that time and passed away shortly thereafter.

All this time, I have asked about the whereabouts of my other families. I understand that the Seips have moved back to Pennsylvania. However, I have had no contact with them since 1988. I also saw Ruby Colbert at that time (my understanding is that both Judge Dixie and Ruby have now passed away.) I occasionally get some news via Facebook of the doings of the Colbert’s.

 The Griffins remained the “lost tribe”.

But, all that changed last week, thanks to the wonders of that modern-day invention of the Internet and all the various social networking sites, especially Facebook.

Last Monday, in the early hours of the morning, I heard my Blackberry beep. It was a FB message from Esti Stewart, the editor of the St Francis Bay newsletter The Village News.

In my dozy state and without my specs, I read that my mother wanted me to contact her. Well, bearing in mind that my mom passed away in 1986, it came as a bit of a shock!

On getting my specs and re-reading the message, I read the following:

“Hi ED, Kay Griffen requested via my website for you to contact her, she says she is the mom of the family you stayed with.

I was extremely excited about the contact and immediately responded with a brief note to you, Kay, realizing that it was in the middle of the night in Oklahoma City.

I thanked Esti for passing on the message and she informed me that Kay had found me by reading one of my blogs on OKLAHOMA that I had written and that she had republished in her newsletter.

By noon here, I had received another note directly from Kay:

“Hi, ED. I am Kay Griffin, the mother of the Griffin family with whom you stayed in Sulphur, Oklahoma when you were an exchange student. I would love to visit with you!”

Could I have forgotten the Griffins? No!

But I had forgotten (initially) that ‘visit’ in America simply means to have a chat and not that it was a face-to-face encounter as a visit is here in Africa.  For the moment, I was excited that the Griffins were right here in South Africa!

 However, the World Wide Web would have to do. And, in the next few hours, the beeps continued on the Blackberry, the laptop, the desktop and the I-Pad. The Internet was abuzz with requests from the Griffins to “be my friend” and to “poke me”!

The Lunnons and the Griffins had found each other! 

In 1975, it was impossible to phone directly from Sulphur, Oklahoma to Cape Town, South Africa. Now, we can sms, text, WhatsApp, BBM, Skype, Facebook, call, see and hear each other.

So much has changed in thirty six years. And especially so in our family and personal lives. I guess we have all experienced the ups and downs of life, and have met with the challenge of turning the downs into ups.

I will not bore you with all my details, but I invite you to read my blogsite www.edlunnon.wordpress.com or to visit my website www.edlunnon.co.za. You will find most of my life story stuck away in the blogs that I have written over the last two years.

It has been a truly amazing experience that, after so much time, we have been able to connect once again. I will always be grateful to Rotary and to you and all the other OKIES for the year that was afforded me in Sulphur, Oklahoma, USA. It was a life-changing experience for me and something that has defined my life journey ever since.

Despite modern technology, I hope you will understand that, as a result of my illness, it has become difficult for me to keep up individual correspondence with so many good friends around the world. Hence, the writing of my blogs to keep everyone updated.

I do hope that we can continue to keep in touch through my website and Facebook. You will also be pleased to know that hopefully soon, my blogs will be published in book form.

Thanks so much for writing, for your words of encouragement and for putting me up (and I guess, for putting up with me!) in 1975.

I sincerely hope that, if you ever come to Africa and pass this way, I will be able to reciprocate your kindness. 

Remember, “Yea’re Welcome” and “Y’all come back now!

Lots of love and good wishes

 ED

 

 

 

 

2B or not 2B – that is the question!

Wednesday 20 July 2011: 4 years 10 months on … Advantage CBD

Today, 42 years ago in 1969, I was twelve years old and in Std 5 (now Grade 7) at Hendrik Louw Primary School in The Strand. It was the day that Neil Armstrong became the first human being to walk on the moon.

“One small step for man. One giant leap for mankind!” were his first and THE first human words uttered from the moon.

In 1975, on 15 July, I was fortunate to be at the Johnson Mission Control Centre in Houston,Texas– from where all American space missions are controlled and monitored – when the joint Apollo/Soyuz mission took place. It was the last Apollo mission until the shuttle programme started in 1981.

On 30 November 2000, I visited the Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canaveral in Florida from where Apollo 11 and all other American space missions are launched. There, I witnessed the awesome launching of space shuttle, Endeavour, from Launch Pad 39B.

Since the tests flights of Enterprise aboard a jumbo jet in 1977, from the launch of Columbia in 1982 to the final flight of Atlantis, there have been 355 astronauts on 135 space shuttle missions.

Challenger and Columbia were lost (the former on blast-off and the latter on re-entry), while the other three shuttles that went into space – Discovery, Endeavour and Atlantis – will be preserved in museums.

Last Friday afternoon, friend Eddie Terblanche and I watched the last launch of a shuttle, Atlantis, on CNN whilst enjoying a cold one at the new Zest Urban Cafe in Walmer.

And, as I write, Atlantis is on its way back to earth for the very last time and scheduled to land at Cape Canaveral tomorrow morning at 05h57 (EST) – 11h57 (SAST).

I have been an avid space follower since my early days at Primary school and I shall be glued to the television set yet again tomorrow morning. Now, watching on TV makes it almost like being there.

However, then, in 1969, whilst the rest of the world watched that moon-trip of Apollo 11 intently on TV, we had to be content to listen to the broadcast on radio – on what was known as the “A” (English) programme. We did not have TV in South Africa yet.

That only came seven years later, in 1976, when after returning from the United States, I lived in Helshoogte Residence as a first year student at Stellenbosch University.

I originally shared Room A208 with Glynn Jones from Tulbagh. He was a medical student, later became Dr Jones, married Carol (it was to be the first of many weddings at which I officiated as the MC) and then immigrated to Canada. (I had a phone call from him a while ago from somewhere near the North Pole where he was doing medical visits to an Eskimo settlement!)

Before he emigrated, we socialised and travelled quite a bit (together with Dr Shelley Cohen and others whose names now evade me). We often visited their holiday home on the Breede River at Silver Strand near Robertson, and also did a trip to Windhoek, Etosha Pan and the Fish River Canyon in South West Africa (now Namibia).

In 1977, our second year at Stellenbosch, Glynn and my other medical student friends moved to Hippokrates and Huis Fransie Van Zyl in Tygerberg at the University’s medical school (where I would be diagnosed with CBD thirty years later in 2007).

I remained on the second floor in Helshoogte, but moved to B201 on Section 2B. A few years later, when I became a House Committee member, I moved to A701 on the seventh floor before I ended up in my final year in the Primarius’s “suite” A401/402 on section 4A.

On section 2B we wore t-shirts with a slogan “2B or not 2B” – a parody of Shakespeare‘s famous words!

This past weekend, 2B and Stellenbosch was on my mind as we headed off in pursuit of, what I call, the B’s of our South African Society – the pillars that support our way of life on the southernmost coast of the African continent:

Biltong, Braai, Beer, Brandy, Boeremusiek and Buddies!

On Friday morning, we were on our way to the Castle Lager Biltong Festival in Somerset East.

The slogan for the festival is “KOM HANG SAAM MET ONS”! Like biltong hanging out to dry, we were going to be “hanging out” with our Buddies this weekend.

First, we travelled east from Port Elizabeth along the N2 and then turned north at Nanaga along the N10, past Paterson and over the Olifantshoek Pass.

Just past Kommadagga, we passed the Schneider’s farm (Lynne was at Stellenbosh with me – in Minerva Residence) and at Middleton Manor, we stopped on the banks of the Fish River for lunch with friends Michelle and Colin van Niekerk (whose sons, Carl, Hugh and Angus have been with Sean and Phillip all these years at Grey). 

After a tasty Karoo roast (and a snooze), we moved onto Grant and Sarine Abrahamson on their farm west of Somerset East. I taught Grant in my first year of teaching at Grey and their son Anthony and daughter Abigail are now at Grey and Collegiate.

In those teaching years, I often visited Somerset East:  the Abrahamsons as well as Helena (Kitshoff) Glennie (who had also been at Stellenbosh with me, in Harmonie Residence) and Richard Glennie, who had been at Grey. (I had been MC at their wedding, too, when they got married in my home town of Somerset West!)

The Abrahamsons now run East Cape Safaris and, for supper, we joined them and their American hunter guests from Kansas USA.  With Kansas being the state just north of Oklahoma, I had lots to discuss!

 

On Saturday morning, we all headed for the show grounds in town.  There one could find more than enough of the B’s: biltong at most of the many stalls selling anything and everything from artwork to food (genuine African art – but when turned over displayed the words “Made in China!”), the Boeremusiek (blaring from the stage in the centre of the showground to the many who were seated on their camp chairs (and all the others who were walking around), the Buddies and friends who were also there, and then, of course, the beers and brandy and whatever other booze that was being served in the marquee that dominated the showgrounds. All in all, an affair displaying our truly African culture!

Late afternoon, we decided to head back to the farm for a brief lie-down and rest before we would return for the evening programme.

Well, return we did not – instead we all ended up sitting around the fire in the bouma (another South African “B”) and participating in that greatest of the South African B’s – the traditional Braaivleis!

So, it was with a sense of contentment that we headed back to Port Elizabeth on Sunday. I had left with some apprehension, as I had not travelled for some while and have been finding it more and more difficult to sit. Whilst it was uncomfortable and slightly sore, I proved that I can still do it, and hopefully will still be able to do many more trips.

I always enjoy visiting my Buddies, and together with all the other B’s, we had enjoyed yet another special weekend just “hanging out”. Thank you to all who made it possible!

“2B or not 2B?” – if that is the question, then surely there is only one answer: how truly awesome it is “2B”!

 

 

 

 

 

OKLAHOMA! PREMIERE TUESDAY 17 MAY

Tickets cost R110 each (Block bookings: 10 or more R100 each)

To Book:

Call: 081 311 9634

Email: live.life@worldonline.co.za

Website: www.edlunnon.co.za

Ich bin ein Berliner

Tuesday 3 May 2011:  4 years 8 months on … ADVANTAGE CBD

Today would have been my parent’s 60^th wedding anniversary. My father, Herbert Louis Lunnon, was of English and Dutch descent and my mother, Doris Stanbridge, was of English and Irish descent.

They were married in The Strand on 3 May 1951. Sadly, both have passed on – my Dad at age 60 in 1976 and my Mom at age 55 in 1986.

I am the second of four children and the only son, born in Stellenbosch, South Africa.

I am a South African.

John F Kennedy, President of the United States, an American citizen, Irish by descent, made a speech in Berlin in 1963.

He said “Ich bin ein Berliner” (I am a Berliner).

He was underlining the support of the United States for West Germany 22 months after the Soviet-supported East Germany erected the Berlin Wall as a barrier to prevent movement between East and West.

The speech is considered one of Kennedy’s best, and a notable moment of the Cold War. It was a great morale boost for West Berliners, who lived in an exclave deep inside East Germany and feared a possible East German occupation. Speaking from a platform erected on the steps of Rathaus Schöneberg, Kennedy said,

Two thousand years ago the proudest boast was civis Romanus sum [I am a Roman citizen]. Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is ‘Ich bin ein Berliner!’… All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words ‘Ich bin ein Berliner!’

In this week of the killing of Osama Bin Laden north of Islamabad, Pakistan, I can say I take pride in the words “I am an African American. I am an Okie!  I am an Honorary Citizen of the Great State of Oklahoma!”

Not because I want to be controversial, but because those titles were conferred on me in 1975.

I have written before that I was selected as a Rotary Exchange Student in 1974 and headed off to the USA in January 1975. I stood on the roof of the World Trade Centre in New York City and the world was at my feet.

I headed off via Chicago to Sulphur, Oklahoma and attended Grade 12 at Sulphur High School. Having been there just three weeks, I wrote the following in the Sulphur Bulldog 1975 – the school yearbook Vol 23 (1975):

The purpose of Rotary Student Exchange is to exchange understanding, and to build up fellowship and goodwill between people of different races and cultures by staying among them and becoming a part of them. I have come to you from The Strand, near Cape Town, Republic of South Africa, to do just this, but whether I will succeed or not, remains to be written in the book which I have set aside on my private shelf, that book for the memories which will be written within my life this year – the memories forming an Adventure in the “Volumes of Life.”

After three weeks … I know … that this book which is being written, is going to be a number one best-seller! I have been made more than welcome in Sulphur, I have been accepted into the community, and I have been made a part of it …

I can say now, with confidence, that like reading a book, I am going to be reluctant to finish the last page of 1975.

And so, I can say too that in October 1975 I had the great honour of having United States Senator Dewey F. Bartlett confer on me the official right and privilege to designate myself as the bearer of the proud and historic title of OKIE.

And on 1 December 1975, in Oklahoma City, Governor David L. Boren designated and appointed me as an Honorary Citizen of the Great State of Oklahoma.

During 1975 I was privileged to travel through North America, from Galveston in the south to Winnipeg in the north and from Los Angeles in the west to New York City in the east.

It was the beginning of a relationship that continues to this day. In 1989, I spent three months in the USA, travelling from Mexico to Seattle, from San Francisco to Washington DC, from Las Vegas to New Orleans, from San Diego to Orlando, from Salt Lake City to Houston and from the Grand Canyon to Key West. On a Delta travel pass, Grant Lloyd and I followed the good weather around the United States, and experienced all it has to offer – from sea to shining sea!  

I have water-skied on the Lake of the Arbuckles and the Lakes of Minnesota and I have snow-skied in the Rockies. I have walked the trails of Aspen, Colorado and the greens of Pebble Beach, California. I have weeded the roads of Murray County, Oklahoma and have smoked the weed in Times Square, New York! I have wondered at and touched the stars of God’s creation in the deserts of Nevada to the 13000 feet above sea-level trails at the Maroon Bells behind Snowmass Lake in the Rocky Mountains.

 In 1999, I attended the University of Disneyworld in Orlando, Florida and experienced Disneyworld for the second time (after also having been to Disneyland in Anaheim, California on a previous occassion.)

On 20 September 2001, just days after Bin Laden orchestrated the attacks on the Twin Towers, our whole family flew from London, right over New York, on our way to Atlanta, Georgia and Table Rock, Missouri. Sean was 8 and Phillip was 5 but we remember the smoke billowing up from Ground Zero into the clear blue September autumn skies of the Big Apple. For a month, we experienced the unity, the togetherness and patriotism of a country that had war declared on it.

The Land of the Free was no longer so free. (You even had to go through beady eye machines – something that we had grown up with in apartheid South Africa!)

I am happy, that almost ten years later the Home of the Brave has won that so-important battle in the War against terror. 

And I am so happy that in two weeks’ time, the Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Port Elizabeth will be producing the musical OKLAHOMA! in the Savoy Theatre. It is especially significant and humbling that the profits of the premiere of that show will be donated to the Lunnon Family Trust Fund – a fund established to assist with our sons’ education costs and my future medical expenses.

“If I were to die today, my life would be more than Okay”

I thank God for an extra-ordinary and very privileged life.  

 

The Great State of Oklahoma

To all who shall see these presents, Greeting:

This is to certify that

EDWARD LUNNON

THE STRAND, SOUTH AFRICA

Is hereby designated and appointed

HONORARY CITIZEN OF OKLAHOMA

With all rights and privileges pertaining thereto, with the obligation to fully enjoy the innate hospitality, natural beauty and vast resources of this great state and to carry the word that Oklahoma is striving to create a model of excellence for the nation.

Given under my hand in the City of Oklahoma City

This 1^st day of December 1975.

David L Boren, Governor

State of Oklahoma

—————————————————————————————— 

State of Oklahoma

Dewey F. Bartlett

United States Senator

Whereas,

The citizens of Oklahoma have pride and affection towards the name of OKIE, and whereas, today’s OKIE has the opportunity to look around him, at his state’s growth and enthusiasm, to see the better world he lives in, knowing that “We belong to the land and the land we belong to is grand”; and WHEREAS, today’s OKIE enjoys his state’s lakes and rich lands, its vibrant economy and vital growth.

NOW, THERFORE, I, DEWEY F BARTLETT, SENATOR OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA, do hereby take great pleasure in conferring upon

EDWARD LUNNON

The official right and privilege to designate himself as the bearer of the proud and historic title of

OKIE

This title is conferred with the strong belief that an OKIE is a fortunate, gifted and versatile person and the further belief that it is great to be an OKIE, knowing further that this entitles the bearer to be an honoured citizen from

 Oklahoma, Key to Intelligence andEnterprise.

Done on this, the 13^th day of October 1975.

Dewey F Bartlett

United States Senator

G & S Production of OKLAHOMA!

Oklahoma is OK!

Proceeds from this premiere will be donated to the Lunnon Family Trust Fund

G & S Presents OKLAHOMA!

 

17 May 2011 @ SAVOY THEATRE PORT ELIZABETH

R110 per person

Book your tickets now – go to www.edlunnon.co.za/content/17

 

And So, this is Christmas …

Thursday 23 December 2010: 4 years 3 months on …

Season's Greetings!

I have never been a “Festive Season” person. I could quite easily escape the madness of this period and go from early December into late January!

This will be the 55^th Festive Season that I will celebrate and the 5^th one since I became ill in 2006. As I look back over the years, I have celebrated  Christmas and New Year’s with family, friends, strangers and stragglers. We have eaten our main meal as supper on Christmas Eve and as Christmas Day Lunch and as Christmas Day Supper.

There have been celebrations in the Northern Hemisphere traditions and in the more practical Southern Hemisphere protocol. We have done it the European style and the African style. We have eaten ‘hot’ food and ‘cold’ food – turkey and braai.

We have done it on the beach, in hotels, restaurants and at our home and at your home. We have done it with Grannies and parents, with laws and in-laws, with mine and yours, sometimes on an alternate basis and sometimes, we get it all messed up, and do it on a sequential basis.

We have done it in the heat of the summer and I have done it in the cold of the winter, in the southern hemisphere and in the northern hemisphere, under the blazing sun and in the ice cold snow.

I have done it in North America (in Oklahoma and New York) and in South Africa (in the Western Cape, the Eastern Cape and, ironically, in Natal).

We have done it –sometimes – peacefully, and – often – with much argument, stress and unhappiness. I don’t think that we are unique in this regard!

Some do it out of habit, some out of conviction, and some don’t know why they do it!

Some, I remember with much affection, such as the only white Christmas in 1976 in Sulphur, Oklahoma, with the Seips and the Whitleys (my American “parents”); others I would rather forget, such as New Year’s Eve on Times Square in New York City in 1987/88; and some I just have forgotten!

But, in the final analysis, it’s the time of the year when we celebrate New Beginnings: a New Year and a new Dispensation for Mankind when Jesus, the Son of God, was born in Bethlehem, in order that we may have New Life.

How we deal with this time of the year is the same way as we deal with Life and its events at any time of the year. It is our own doing and our choice – it lies in our hands, our hearts and in our minds. 

I am reminded that one event, such as the massive snowfalls in Europe at this time, can have two very different consequences: on the one hand, there are the beautiful, peaceful snow scenes, the fun of snowmen and snowballs, children all wrapped up playing in the snow, people tobogganing and sledging and skiing and ice skating; and on the other hand, the chaotic scenes of the massive disruption of road, air and rail services, accidents, death and destruction.

Likewise, how we deal with this event of the “Festive Season”, can lead to one of two very different consequences:  one of unhappiness, depression, argument, loneliness; or one of peace, happiness, joy, serenity and fulfilment.

It is of our making.

My hope and prayers, this festive Season, is that I, and you, will have the ability to look and learn from the excitement and joy and glee of the children around us at this time. That we will find ourselves at the Manger of the Baby in Bethlehem, that we will learn from Him to live our lives in peace, humility, serenity, humbleness, giving and service to our fellow human beings.

That I may say, Father, take this cup from me, but not my will, but Yours, be done.

I wish all my readers, friends and family, wherever they may be on this Good Earth, a very special, happy and contented Christmas in 2010, and a New Year in 2011 that may be richly filled with God’s many blessings.

Nine Eleven

North Tower (with TV antenna) and South Tower

 

 Saturday 11 September 2010 (9/11): 9 years and 4 years on …        

          

Where were you on 9/11 in the year 2001?         

      

I was in my office at Walmer Park. Someone called me to watch the TV in the boardroom. A plane, they said, had flown into the World Trade Centre.                

                 

I imagined it to be a small Cessna or something similar, and because I was busy, I did not think too much of it at the time. A little later, I went to the Boardroom, and as I entered the room, that second Boeing was banking and heading straight for the tower! The rest of the afternoon was spent in front of the TV and even when I went home that evening, I spent the rest of that night in front of the TV.                

                 

The rest is now cold recorded history:                

                 

On the morning (USA Eastern Time) of September 11, 2001, Al-Qaeda-affiliated hijackers flew two 767 jets into the complex, one into each tower, in a coordinated suicide attack. After burning for 56 minutes, the South Tower (2) collapsed, followed a half-hour later by the North Tower (1). 7 World Trade Centre collapsed later in the day and the other buildings, although they did not collapse, had to be demolished because they were damaged beyond repair. The process of cleanup and recovery at the World Trade Centre site took eight months.                

                 

The attacks on the World Trade Centre resulted in 2,752 deaths.                

                 

I wiped a few tears away. She was but 30 years old when she collapsed and died that day. She, too, was gone too soon!                

                 

The WTC had special significance for me.                

                 

As a youngster growing up in the sixties and seventies, I followed the building of THAT building with great interest. Remember there was no TV in South Africa at that time, but I read as many books and magazines about the WTC as I could.                

                 

The World Trade Centre was a complex of seven buildings in Lower Manhattan in New York City. The original World Trade Centre was designed by Minoru Yamasaki in the early 1960s using a tube-frame structural design for the twin 110-story towers.                

                 

Groundbreaking for the WTC took place on 5 August 1966. The North Tower (1) was completed in December 1970 (I was then in Standard 6 – grade 8 ) and the South Tower (2) was finished in July 1971.                

                 

The complex was located in the heart of New York City’s downtown financial district. The Windows on the World restaurant was located on the 106th and 107th floors of 1 World Trade Centre (the North Tower) while the Top of the World observation deck was located on the 107th floor of 2 World Trade Centre (the South Tower).                

                 

Between 1972 and 1973, the Twin Towers were the tallest buildings in the world (having overtaken the Empire State Building, and then being surpassed by the Sears Building in Chicago.)                

                 

Other World Trade Centre buildings included the Marriott World Trade Centre; 4 World Trade Centre; 5 World Trade Centre; 6 World Trade Centre, which housed the United States Customs. All of these buildings were built between 1975 and 1981. The final building constructed was 7 World Trade Centre, which was built in 1985.                

                 

In 1974, when I was in Standard 10 (Grade twelve) and selected to be a Rotary exchange Student (read Oklahoma is OK and so much more!), I was given the option to go to Australia, New Zealand, Canada or the USA.                

                 

That was no choice for me –obviously, I only wanted to go to the USA and simply because I wanted to see the WTC!                

                 

And, so it was, in January 1975, en route from Cape Town, Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro and flying into New York City’s John F. Kennedy Airport at the age of 18, I saw her for the very first time. From the helicopter that flew me from JFK to La Guardia Airport (for my onward flight to Chicago’s O’Hare Airport and final destination Oklahoma City’s Will Rogers Airport), I could see that she dominated the Manhattan skyline. I could hardly contain my excitement – I was living my dream!                

                 

In January 1976, on my way home to South Africa via London, I got to spend a week in New York City and to go to the top of the South Tower – to the observation deck on the 107^th floor.                

                 

During my second visit to NYC in December/January 1987/88, Grant Lloyd and I visited her again and spent New Year’s Eve on Times Square.                

                 

Ironically, the day she tumbled in 2001 was just three weeks before our family, Pera, Sean (who was but 8 then), Phillip (was 5 and still at Linkside Pre-primary) and I, were booked to go back to the States on a three-week holiday! The world was in turmoil and we didn’t know until the last moment, when planes started moving again, that we would indeed go.                

                 

We headed off from Port Elizabeth into a very uncertain world, via London to Atlanta, Georgia. A handful of us were on that Boeing 767 (no one else wanted to fly!) and we flew, so comfortably with rows of seats to ourselves, right over New York City. My video shows plumes of smoke emanating from Ground Zero, and stretching upwards into the stratosphere.                 

                 

On my third visit to NYC, the World Trade Centre was no more.                

                 

The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC), established in November 2001 to oversee the rebuilding process, organized competitions to select a site plan and memorial design.                

                 

Memory Foundations, designed by Daniel Libeskind, was selected as the master plan, which included the 1,776-foot (541 m) One World Trade Centre, three office towers along Church Street and a memorial designed by Michael Arad.                

                 

The site is currently being rebuilt with six new skyscrapers and a memorial to the casualties of the attacks. The first new building at the site was 7 World Trade Centre which opened in May 2006.                

Computer Image of the new tower

 

 We will always remember! – those who died, that awful day that changed our world, and where we were on 9/11.

Happy Birthday Mom

Friday 12 February 2010

Dear “Mom” Nadine

Thirty-five years ago, in 1975, you adopted, through Rotary, another eighteen-year-old son from South Africa.

Simple arithmetic will tell us, therefore, that you were 45 years old at the time. Thinking back on it now, I had thought that you were much older at the time – certainly much older than I am now at 53! But then, I guess, we as the younger generation definitely age much better than the generation before us!

That was the start of a relationship that has now spanned almost four decades. For a long while, when I lived with you and “Dad”, I avoided giving you a name – Mom and Dad didn’t seem quite right and Nadine and Bill seemed too familiar.

There are so many things that stand out from that year – playing in the snow in the middle of the night, homemade ice cream on the back porch, you changing the channel on a Sunday night from Sonny and Cher to the Disney channel, walks in the woods, the huge fire (so I thought) that had destroyed your trees, lying on the plush shag carpet watching TV (a novelty for me then), the Lake of the Arbuckles, … the list continues ad infinitum.

I have had the good fortune of returning to see you in the United States on a number of occasions. In 1989, I spent a month in Sulphur with you. In 1999, we met briefly in Atlanta. In 2001, just after September 11, our whole family was privileged to spend time in Atlanta and Missouri. And then, there was the last visit to you in March 2007 to attend Dad’s 80th surprise party.

Unfortunately, as we all remember, that was not to be and we spent the time with Dad in the hospital. How grateful I will forever be that I got to see him just before he passed away.

I had considered coming over for your 80th birthday, but was scared that another surprise visit from me would send you to the hospital, too!

Nevertheless, my heart and thoughts are in Oklahoma this weekend. I would so dearly have liked to be there with you and the whole Whitley family to celebrate this major milestone in your life.

We will raise our glasses to you and celebrate your life here in South Africa. As the sun sets in the west here tonight, it rises in Oklahoma – a new day, your 80th birthday!

May your days be filled with good health, prosperity and love. Enjoy this time with your very special family. God bless you all!

Thank you for the memories.

We wish you a very happy 80th birthday and many happy returns of the day!

With much love from your African American son, Ed, and Pera, Sean and Phillip.