Unlike my co-travellers I only had a girlfriend saying goodbye at the station, but that didn't make it any easier. Worried and tearful little groups watched sons and fathers and husbands pushing bags through train windows and saying their goodbyes. The long journey north was either a chaotic alcohol orgy or was spent in quiet anticipation of the terrible Unknown that lay ahead. Twenty-four hours later we were delivered to a row of dusty army trucks waiting in Potchefstroom...
Yes, I do remember the young man who got on the train thirty five years ago, trying very hard to hide his fear behind the arrogant smile of youth.
So I am going back to Potch in 2012. The train, the truck, the dust, and the domain of the PF.
The why you can work out for yourself.
Maybe I'll be looking for a few answers. Maybe I'll go search for an old tree or steep hill that was totally oblivious to my passing more than three decades ago. Whatever. One thing is an undeniable certainty - I'll sit down and share a laugh and a drink with a special group of men who's faces will stay with me right up to final lights out.
Were you on the station too, that winter of 1976?
Were you on the station too, that winter of 1976?
*******************
20 February 2012
Fire plan successfully executed 17-20 February 2012 by a brave contingent of veteran gunners, no casualties. Operations reports and feedback to follow.
20 February 2012
Fire plan successfully executed 17-20 February 2012 by a brave contingent of veteran gunners, no casualties. Operations reports and feedback to follow.
