Some time around 1963/4 (I still have to determine the exact dates) I arrived at the office at Old Mutual in Pinelands one morning and saw the (then) girlfriend of a very good friend, Norman Calitz, at a desk.  Her name was Suzie Moolman and I went over to her immediately and discovered that she had started work there that day.

We chatted at tea-time and lunch time and I discovered that Norman had bought a half-acre plot in Acacia Way, Durbanville and needed to start cutting down some trees on the street side of the plot.  I told Suzie to tell Norman that if he didn’t let me help him cut down the trees I would be cross!!!!  The next day she told me that Norman would be most grateful for my help.

Some Saturday very, very soon soon after that I made my first "lumberjacking" trip to Durbanville:  first from Pinelands to Bellville by train and then by bus to Durbanville.  On some later occasions, Norman would meet me at Bellville station just after 1pm – I think at that stage he was doing his practical year working for a Durbanville Architect (Conradie) in Parow/Bellville so it was not a problem for him to give me a lift.

(Norman then had a red MG sports car and I remember one Saturday he fetched me at the station and then we fetched his brother Mellvyn who was then at the Trust Bank in Bellville.  We drove to Durbanville and I sat on the back of the car between the two seats!!)

That first Saturday, we started work on cutting down one of the four bluegum trees with his Dad's two-man "crosscut saw" (Afrikaans = "tweeman-treksaag") which was about 5 feet (1.52 meters) long.  These tress were around (80-to-100) feet (24 to 30) metres tall.  Although I was very very fit and strong in those days, that day, for about 4-5 hours, we used muscles that we didn’t usually use and the Monday morning I went to work literally unable to straighten my arms fully.  And each palm, near the wrists, had two raw spots about 2.5cm (1 inch) across – they were blisters I had pierced.

For the next six months, every Saturday and Public Holiday I would go out to Durbanville and Norman and I would work on cutting down and cutting up these trees.  I HAVE NEVER BEEN, AND WILL PROBABLY NEVER EVER AGAIN BE, SO FIT IN MY UPPER BODY!!!  I remember one Easter weekend he actually came from Durbanville to Kenilworth (we had moved from Pinelands some time around then) and collected me at around 06h15 along the main road there on Good Friday!!!

The way we worked was to first cut through the trees (all 4) at about waist height.  Once the tree fell, we would start at the top (the thinnest part!) and cut up the tree progressively.  At the waist height where we cut, the trunks must have averaged around 90cm/35 inches in diameter (i.e. 2.83metres/11.5feet in circumference).  Then came the most difficult parts – trying to remove the stumps that remained.

After we had cut down all 4 tress, Norman and I realised that in our inexperience, we had gone about this task "a*se-about-face" and created a huge problem for ourselves!!!  What we SHOULD have done was to dig around each tree to expose all the roots.

Once the roots had been cut through, with a steel cable attached round the tree somewhere in the top half, and the other end hooked up to a bulldozer the tree could have been pulled over.  This would then have uprooted the main ("tap"?) root. 7nbsp;Said tap root was at least 35cm / 14 inches across and this was the most difficult part of the already difficult part of removing the stumps!!

I seem to recall that we managed to remove 2 stumps - and then Norman got a front-end-loader and/or a bulldozer to help with the remaining 2.

THE "FINALE"!!