I really miss the municipal libraries.
I have been a library rat forever, going with my mother to the Natal Society Library in Longmarket Street, Maritzburg, every Saturday morning to get an armload of pleasure for devouring over the following week.
In those days my interests ran to Biggles and the Famous Five and my tastes haven’t really changed in that I still look for adventure and detective stories, though a little more grown up.
What lingers on is the smell of libraries, that sharp tang of new paper mixed with musty, dusty old books.
Did I say dusty?
I must be mistaken.
Those stern, forbidding librarians wouldn’t have allowed a speck of dust in the building!
I don’t know why librarians have such reputations for being old harridans.
Perhaps because they looked so suspicious when children hand a book back.
They would stand straight up behind the returns counter, glasses perched on the ends of their noses, and examine each book, turning the pages as if I might have torn out a few or left sticky fingerprints on the flyleaf.
Then there was a penny (one cent) fine if a book was so much as a day late, and a penny was a fortune!
Equal to one whole Wicks bubble gum!
The librarians here definitely went to different schools.
They’re all as nice as can be.
They don’t treat me with suspicion, but I suppose that may be on account of the white hair.
There are some advantages to getting older.
But they’ve been shut for over 3 months now and it’s a bit much.
Churches can have 50 people, so why not libraries?
The day there are 50 people in our libraries at one time will be the first time ever.
C’mon NDZ, open the libraries!
* * *
In the 70s there was a famous ‘psychic’, Uri Geller, who claimed to be able to bend spoons and keys and stuff simply with the power of his mind.
He was eventually exposed as a fraud, but the country was gripped by the idea of séances, getting in touch with the dead and all that.
I once attended a few séances, collecting material for an article for a Jo’burg paper about the antics of a couple who used to hold séances in the garage of their Parkhurst home.
No really, they were all the rage back then.
Anyhow, after a bit of mumbo jumbo, they turned out the lights and asked if anyone wanted to speak with their ‘loved ones on the other side’.
I said I really wanted to talk to my dear, departed Uncle John.
After a bit of crashing and rattling, the lady ‘psychic’ said Uncle John was there and what did I want to know?
I don’t recall the details but we had a bit of a cryptic chat through the ‘psychic’ and all was good.
Thing was though, John didn’t exist. I made him up.
So, forgive me if I am, to this day, more than a little skeptical about so-called psychics.
The news that a ‘satanic church’ is planning to open in Ballito has caused quite a stir.
While some locals – but only a few – preach tolerance and the right to practice any religion you choose, others are not so calm about it, threatening to burn down the devil’s ‘church’ wherever it might dare show its face.
Well, I am very impressed with the detective skills of one Facebooker, who has discovered that the satanic couple from Cape Town are very enterprising and have a whole range of talents.
It would appear that they not only claim to be in touch with Old Nick, they can contact many more from the ‘other side’, as you can see from an advertisement they were running in December 2015, and another Angel Summit in 2017.
Séances – with high tea nogal – R240 per person!
I can’t wait for them to pay us a visit.
While I’m not so sure of their ability to summon the Devil from Hell, after all these years I really need to talk to my dear old Uncle John!
Do you want to receive news alerts from The North Coast Courier via WhatsApp? Send us a WhatsApp message (not an sms) with your name and surname to 061 718 4438.
