The sidewalk to and from the location was a hive of activity, with men and women dressed in the uniforms of the different kitchens (domestic work), and also the men in the brown overalls of the South African Railways and Harbours (SAR & H), which is today known as Transnet.
How times have changed.
There were also young men dressed in the white shorts and shirts known in the location lingua franca as “mathanda kitchen” (he with a passion for domestic work).
But then these young men in their brilliant white attire worked in the laundry at a couple of hotels scattered around town.
Strange that in present-day South Africa, the white attire of the “mathanda kitchen” has now been transformed into a fashion statement, worn by many celebrities on television.
Back to the washerwomen who dispatched boys and girls to collect laundry from downtown households.
Many of these boys and girls worked on these chores to earn a penny for goodies such as bubble-gum, or fish and chips at a Portuguese-owned takeaway outlet called All Night.
My own granny entrusted this chore of collecting laundry to a reclusive youngster going by the name of Bisto Mokgotloa.
Bisto would leave early on a Saturday, return with the laundry from, among others, the household of one Dr Kitchen (no pun intended!).
During those days there were no medical doctors in the location, with the sick being taken to medics such as Dr Kitchen.
I have vague memories of the good doctor dressed in a white safari suit and matching white shoes, the stethoscope having pride of place around his neck.
These are the images which must have fired Bisto’s imagination on his weekly visits to the Dr Kitchen household.
You would see him, Bisto, with a bundle of laundry on his head, pounding the sidewalk barefoot, for shoes were a luxury for few who were born of black middle-class schoolteachers or coal merchants.
Now, many years down the line I resettled in the town of Brits.
During a visit to the local hospital, I saw the familiar face of a medical doctor in a splendid white coat, stethoscope hanging proudly around his neck.
Dr Bisto Mokgotloa had triumphed against all odds, to become a medical doctor modelled in the image of his boyhood rolemodel, Dr Kitchen of erstwhile Warmbaths.
