How I miss the good old Bulawayo Chronicle, delivered daily to the front door!!
One had to pay extra for the Sunday Times, but what a treat when that arrived. Especially in winter when the family would tuck up in a sunny corner and 'divide the spoils'!!
Our daily newspaper had a particularly endearing quality, from the times of UDI in the sixties, they had to manufacture the paper using recycling, (as they did the loo paper). My Mum, bless her cotton socks, used to use Wish toilet paper, and as she said in her most ladylike way 'Its called Wish because I wish my fingers didn't go through it!!) Naughty, naughty but I am sure you get my gist
How on earth does anyone manage without a daily newspaper, especially of the quality that we all became used
It was so absorbent, after all, how on earth could one mop up the new puppy's piddle with a glossy Spectator Magazine
Newspaper is always in short supply in Africa, used to light a fire, used to cover seedbeds, used to hold in front the fireplace to cause a draught! Used to wrap cups and saucers when moving house, used to swat the flies, swat the dog when he scratched! (Often used as loo paper too!!)
The newspaper was delivered promptly by a happy fellow on a bicycle, at 6 am every morning, we could hear the plop as it was tossed through the gate onto the brickwork,
and there was always a rush to get to it.
The Owner of the House was rushing because he wanted to collect it before it was purloined by the Homeless Fellow who lived by the Matsheumhlope River. He would pass by every day with a long stick and try and hook it through the bars of the gate, before we got to it.
I am sure his need was greater than ours so Granny took to visiting him every Sunday with a sandwich and a bottle of tea!
Granny loved the crossword section, HeeHoo loved current affairs and the sports section. I liked the Letters to the Editor, who went by the nom-de-plume of the 'Chiel', and also at one stage 'Cabbages and Kings'.
I remember hating him personally, (I think it was Martin Lee at the time), as he scolded me one day in print, by calling me 'that infuriating talkative scorer' when I did the scoring on a TV programme hosted by Ken Jackson!!
Not quite the same these days scrolling through the news on X!!