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CHAPTER 6
M
r Jan Combrink, another one of Grain SA’s members
with years of service at the Harvest Day, has a number
of funny stories from the vicinity of the ‘buighuis’, like the
one about the chap who was crawling around on all fours
in the parking area late at night, looking for his car, when
they went to make sure that all the vehicles were gone
from the grounds. It was a Citroen, he indicated, but they
could not find such a car. Quite some time later they found
his friends trying to find him, but quite awkwardly as a
result of too much to drink. They were actually driving a
Cortina! ‘I probably should not have turned right there’
explained the man who was staggering around drunkenly.
A
nd Mr Vic Mouton, former Harvest Day Chairperson, also
tells about one of his good friends who had them helping
him search for his ‘white car’ after he had spent quite some
time in the pub, and when they eventually found the car it
was blue!
K
lub 200 was the restaurant where important guests were
usually entertained. Shortly after the 1994 election the
former premier of the Free State, Mr Mosiuoa Lekota, was
entertained there by the committee when the power went
out. People who know the place will know when the power is
out it is not only pitch dark, but the fans that have to extract
the smoke from the grills stop working and the venue is rap-
idly covered in smoke. When that happened, Lekota’s body
guards stormed inside – very prepared with cocked weapons
and all. Things could have gone very wrong, recounts Mr Jub
Jubelius, former Chairperson of the Harvest Day Committee,
if it had not been for his wife who yelled through the darkness
and the smoke that it was only the power that had gone out
and that everyone had to calm down. ‘It could have turned
ugly, but today we can just laugh about the body guards who
were so ready to start shooting.’
He also tells the anecdote about one of the members of
the Ladies’ Committee who had to make an announcement
about the Ladies’ Programme. Dressed very elegantly and
with a perfect hairdo she walked to the front on her high
heels, but at the stage she stumbled over a grand handbag
in the aisle and fell down so that everyone could see whether
she had dressed in all her clothes that day! But she was not
at a loss for words. She started her announcement with
‘dan
val ek sommer met die deur in die huis…’
.
2016