Celebrating her 90th birthday on 9 October, longtime Toti resident Lynn Eustice (nee Tedder) shared some of her golden memories of the ‘good old days’. Lynn was born and grew up in Greenwood Park, Durban in 1929. Her first school was Berea Girls.
Her father worked on the docks during the Second World War and one day he came home from work to declare, “We are getting out as soon as possible. Nobody realises how close the Japanese are to attacking”. “I remember the exact day the war broke out (1 September, 1939) – my dad spent all day pacing up and down to the news agent to check if the white pages had come out.”
The Tedder family moved to Doonside to live in a cottage on The Gables property (holiday guest house), close to where Elgro flats are now. “During the war there was a great shortage of butter, eggs and meat. My dad was a keen fisherman who would often go down to the beach to catch our supper. I remember it was shad season when we moved to Doonside.
“During the war there was a total blackout in Toti. One night on the beach my dad saw someone flashing their curtain, to signal to either an Italian or German submarine. He reported it to the army and that person was arrested.”
Lynn’s father was exempt from enlisting due to medical reasons, but his brother died in an Italian POW camp after he was recaptured following his escape from another POW camp.
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There was no development in Athlone Park, only Doonside and Warner Beach in those days. The only tar road was Kingsway, the rest were dirt tracks. There were very few cars and Lynn said they could walk to school and back without seeing one.
There were only two schools in the area when she started standard six at Warner Beach in 1942. The school was situated where the senior primary campus is now. Warner Beach opened in 1910 and Umbogintwini Primary a year later. “Warner Beach only went up to standard six (Grade 8), but while I was there they added on standard seven (Grade 9). I did English, Afrikaans, arithmetic, geography and history and in standard seven (Grade 9) they added typing and bookkeeping.
“There were only three boys in my class of 15 to 20 and two of them came from Umkomaas, because Warner Beach was the closest school for them.” With a memory an elephant would envy, Lynn can recall all her teachers’ names from 1942, all single, unmarried woman and a spinster. During the war, Toti offered refuge to many Middle Eastern and British evacuees, who took up residence in holiday cottages and private homes. “Our school was suddenly overcrowded when the evacuees came to town.
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“I was part of Brownies and Guides and we went away on trips. We had Sunday school picnics once a month and we played on the beach a lot. You could hire boats and paddle down Toti River. It was safe for us to play on the beach or by the river, although there were no lifeguards back then.
“Our bread and milk was delivered to our door and we bought our food from a grocer in Doonside, which was the only shop. The only other building was the post office.” Toti had two hotels – in the vicinity of the Bella Vista in Warner Beach and the World’s View Hotel close to where they lived.
After completing standard seven (Grade 9), she had to move to Durban Tech to complete standard eight (Grade 10) to finish her schooling. “Ice-cream was my favourite treat and even today I still love it. It cost four pence for either a milkshake or a pie. We would go to the children’s paddling pools or swimming lessons in the baths, but there was not much else to do on the Durban beachfront.
“I still remember the day the war ended. My friend and I were dancing on our veranda, drinking lemonade and shouting at the top of our lungs.”
Her first job was as a typist at the Automobile Association in Durban and her salary was the princely sum of 10 pounds. Like her father, she caught the train daily from Doonside to Durban for work. She then moved to Redhill and started working at Coronation Tile and Brick (Corobrick), where she stayed for eight years.
“On most Saturday nights we went to dances at Parkhill and as Coronation owned the bioscope, I got in for free. The bioscope was opened on Wednesday night, Saturday afternoon and night. At the Masonic Hall they held what we called ‘tickey bioscope’, although it cost a penny. Margaret Thompson often held concerts to raise money for the war funds and I sang at those.”
In 1952, in a quest for adventure, Lynn and two friends moved to Salisbury, Rhodesia (Harare, Zimbabwe), where she met and married Douglas and gave birth to their first son, Neville. The family moved to Johannesburg, where Neville was joined by Brent and Colin, whose wife, Verity, is the principal at Twini Primary.
In her 90 years of living Lynn has been blessed with six grandchildren and seven great grandchildren, and she is looking forward to celebrating her great milestone with all three of her sons by her side.
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