A Train Journey to Kempton Park

We visit some of my mother’s relatives.

Arnold Randall & family

            My dad was away in the army and I think that by now he was stationed in Walvis Bay.   During 1942 my mother decided to visit her sister, Ivy, who was known as Aunty Dickie Whittal, as well as her brother, Uncle Arnold Randall, and his family, all of whom lived in Kempton Park.   We would go by train and spend some time with them.

            Bertha tells me that she did not go as she was in boarding school or with Aunty Ivy Vermaak in Kroonstad.   So it was Mommy, Thelma, Daphne, Leslie and I.   What an experience for us children!   Our first train trip!   I can remember seeing all the mine dumps as we passed through Germiston and all the houses in the suburbs.   We got to Kempton Park station to find Uncle Arnold and his sons, Edward and Sonnyboy, waiting for us.   They lived in a Railways cottage very near the station.   Aunty Bess was waiting for us with tea and cake.   Their eldest son, David (called Cookie), was away in the army, and their daughter, Frances, and then there was a little girl, Adelaide, about Leslie’s age.

Walter, Florence & Gracie
Whittal

            It was soon after our arrival that Auntie Dickie and some of her children came to fetch us as we would be staying with them.   Their house was in walking distance.   She was married to my father’s youngest brother, Uncle Arthur Whittal, who was in the army and stationed at Umbogintwini in Natal.   Her children were Walter, Florence, Gracie and Patty.   It was a very happy time with our aunt and cousins, but I can’t remember much other than that there was a huge patch of tall cosmos plants nearby in full flower where the children of that area played, making tunnels through the plant   

         Thelma, who was by then 18 years old, was a very pretty girl and had photos taken of herself at a photographer in Kempton Park.   She gave one photo to Aunty Dickie who kept it in a small frame, and when a nephew of Aunty Bess, Gordon Bradford from Port Elizabeth, later saw the photo, he asked for Thelma’s address. 

Thelma Whittal

This happened some time after we had gone home and it eventually led to the two of them marrying after the war.   Gordon was in the army at that time and, when he had a weekend off, he would visit his aunt in Kempton Park.           

Gordon Bradford

 Uncle Arnold Randall was a very soft and kind man and was very fond of his two sisters.   I can remember him giving my mother two budgies, one green and one blue, but I can’t remember what became of them.   I am certain that they must have died as I wonder where my mother would have obtained the correct seed to feed them.   The little birds fascinated me and even now I still breed budgies here in Port Elizabeth.   These little parrots are indigenous to Australia and in the wild they are all green in colour.   Now they come in all colours except shades of red!

            Cosmos plants flower during autumn so this little holiday of ours must have taken place during April 1942 when I was eight years old.

Cosmos Flowers

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