NO, NO!!!  I was not a member of a chain gang!!!!  It was early (summer) 1958 and I was in Standard 8 at high school.  I took out a "Cowboy" book from Parow Library which inspired me.  It was about this youthful cowboy who had been “framed” and sent to prison.  While in prison, he had worked on a “chain-gang” and all they did every day for years was break rocks with sledgehammers.

After about 8 years he’d served his “time” and the book opens where he gets off the stagecoach in his hometown – he has returned to seek justice and revenge.  All the physical hard labour had built up his body and made him very, very strong.  Standing around after the stage coach has driven off, he notices a small wagon nearby with a very forlorn-looking lady and young boy standing next to it:  one of the wheels of the wagon had come off and the two passengers were standing helplessly at the wagon, not knowing what to do.

I don’t remember the exact details but what I do remember is that he walks over, puts down his bags and gets the wheel into position.  He then lifts up the wagon and replaces the wheel – a feat that had passers-by stopping and staring.

I’ll never forget that after I’d read the book, the next time I went over to two very good friends in the next road (brothers Norman and Mellvyn Calitz - we visited one another other regularly at that time) I swore that I was going to buy myself a sledgehammer and go up to a particular spot on the (old) Parow Golf Course where there were several rocks - and I was going to break these rocks!! (With permission of course!!)

I didn't get round to the "breaking of rocks" & sledgehammers until around 1962/3 when I bought my first hammer.  The heaviest sledgehammer one could buy weighed 16 pounds (7.27kg) but I found I often needed something heavier.

Around 1969/1970 I was very much "into" photography and one evening I was visiting one of my "models", a very attractive young ballet dancer, Diane van Schoor, and mentioned this sledgehammer problem to her Dad, James.

A few days later, when I called round there again, James presented me with a cylinder of steel with a pipe welded to it for a handle – the whole thing weighing around 26 pounds (11.82kg)!!  I was "over the Moon"!!

(Some timeI soon, here I will be adding a photo taken around mid-1970!!)

Several months later, James's step-dad did me a similar favour:  I’d been talking about getting a "koevoet" but complained that the ones we could buy were too light – they must have weighed around maximum 10 pounds (4.55kg).  A few weeks later, I arrived at Diane’s place and her father (James) handed me this “koevoet” which weighed 45 pounds!! (20.5kg).  Again I was “over the Moon”!!

James's step-dad worked at the (then) City Tramways (later taken over by Golden Arrow Bus Services??) and he had apparently gotten hold of a discarded half-shaft of one of the buses and got their machine shop to grind a point at the one end!!!

(My 1949 Afrikaans/English school dictionary translates the Afrikaans word "koevoet" as "crowbar, lever & jemmy".  A search on the Internet recently has provided the following additional names:  "spud bar", "pry bar" & "rock bar".)

The photo below was taken on 15th May 2005 by my landlord / buddy John here on the farm:  on my left, leaning against the upright support of my carport, are my 16 pound / 7.27kg hammer, the 45 pound / 20.5kg “rock bar” (the tallest of the 3 with a point at the top) and the 26 pound / 11.82kg hammer.

In addition to these tools I also had a mattock (bush-pick), an axe (2.5kg / 5.5 pounds), a "bow-saw" with a 1-metre blade and a mini-bow-saw with a 35cm blade.  Below is a photo of the mattock along with the 16 pound / 7.27kg hammer.

There were several areas wherein I was able to put my fascination into practice with these "tools":

- Helping friends with the relocation of their furniture / household contents:  over the years I must have been involved in at least about 200 such "moves" which often involved helping to carry fridges, stoves, washing machines, wardrobes etc. down and up several flights of stairs!!!
- Demolition of walls & knocking holes in walls for doorways;
- Digging of swimming pool holes;
- Digging of foundation trenches for buildings, usually residential;
- Digging of holes for septic tanks;
- Mixing & pouring of concrete for sundry purposes;
- Removal of fencing corner posts set into concrete in the ground;
- Cutting down and cutting up of trees!!! For more about this one, click on the TREES button below.

TREES

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