Adrie Box

DAVE BOX THE MAN WHO REFUSED TO GROW OLD

Adrie Box

ŠAdrie Box 2018 ISBN: 978-1-928245-38-4

Published by: BK Press 14 Wolseley Rd, Stamford Hill, Durban, 4001

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, translated or transmitted in any form by any means electronic, digital, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of the author, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

This is not a work of fiction. Any resemblance to anyone, living or dead, is undeniable.

Dedication

To an athlete and family man whose motto was “The mark of a great athlete is when the going gets tough, the tough get going. They never give up.�

Contents Chapter 1: Growing up ......................................................................................... 1 Chapter 2: Making a name in cycling ................................................................... 6 Chapter 3: Early working life and army service ................................................. 11 Army service................................................................................................... 12 Chapter 4: Our meeting ..................................................................................... 15 Chapter 5: Immigrating to Rhodesia .................................................................. 20 Chapter 6: Our life in Rhodesia .......................................................................... 24 Chapter 7: Exploring Rhodesia ........................................................................... 31 Chapter 8: Victoria Falls ..................................................................................... 33 Zimbabwe Ruins ............................................................................................. 33 Chapter 9: Ndola, Northern Rhodesia ............................................................... 35 Chapter 10: Becoming an athlete ...................................................................... 38 Chapter 11: Climbing to the Top ........................................................................ 42 Knysna ............................................................................................................ 47 Chapter 12: Fynnlands Angling Club .................................................................. 51 Chapter 13: 1968 Comrades and John Tarrant .................................................. 53 Chapter 14: Do the Stars Foretell ...................................................................... 54 Chapter 15: Hoy Park 100 Miler ......................................................................... 60 Chapter 16: Savages ........................................................................................... 63 Chapter 17: London to Brighton Road Race ...................................................... 66 Chapter 18: Waltham on Thames 100 Mile ....................................................... 69 Chapter 19: Return to South Africa ................................................................... 73 Chapter 20: Another go at the record ............................................................... 78 Chapter 21: The Camping Club .......................................................................... 82

Chapter 22: Back to running .............................................................................. 88 Mozambique .................................................................................................. 97 Chapter 23: Losing Mandy ................................................................................. 98 1973/4 .......................................................................................................... 100 Chapter 24: 1974.............................................................................................. 105 Chapter 25: Full circle, back to cycling ............................................................. 109 Chapter 26: Competing at cycling .................................................................... 113 Chapter 27: Still racing ..................................................................................... 117 Chapter 28: Riding in England and Europe ...................................................... 120 Chapter 29: Riding with Grenville .................................................................... 128 Chapter 30: Riding the English country lanes .................................................. 133

Chapter 1: Growing up

D

avid George Box, born in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, on the 3rd February 1929, was a champion long before he made his name as an athlete by breaking the 100 mile world record and becoming one of the great Comrades Marathon Gold Medallists.

When Dave was 10-years-old his father won the Irish Sweepstake and with the money bought 65 Victoria Road, Cirencester. This, in spite of the threat of war, and warnings that property was not the best investment at that time. This of course was proved wrong. His parents lived in this house until they followed us to Rhodesia in 1960.

Dave outside 65 Victoria Road taken on a trip down memory lane a few years ago. Dave with Stephanie’s only daughter Hannah.

It was a typical Victorian terrace house, but Dave’s father was a good DIY man and decorated it beautifully and Dave’s mother was a more than proud housewife, so their home was always immaculate. It had no bathroom or inside toilet when they moved in, but this was installed later.

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In England in those days, the toilet was known as “Out the back” and in place of a bathroom, traditionally in this type of house, there would be a “copper” in the kitchen. This was a round structure built of brick and concrete, which had a place for a fire underneath. The fire would be lit and the copper filled with water and heated. A galvanised steel bath would be dragged into the kitchen, usually on a Friday night, for the whole family to have their weekly bath.

The main use for the copper was the weekly wash usually done on a Monday. As for the bath, the water would be heated in the copper, the clothes put in and stirred regularly with a copper stick (which was wooden) to help the cleaning process.

When the washing was done, it would be put through a Mangle, a machine with two rollers and a handle. The washing was threaded between the rollers to remove the water. Then the flat iron was used to do

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£4 0 0

Note the prices for redecorating a house. You could not buy a beer for this amount today.

the ironing. This was heated on the top of the coal stove and pressed over the washing to get out the creases.

2 farthings equalled 1/2 a penny 4 farthings equalled 1 penny 12 pennies equalled 1 shilling 20 shillings equalled 1 pound No wonder so many children battled with giving change.

To make life easier for the busy housewife, Monday’s typical English dinner was cold meat and mashed potatoes, or else baked in their skins potatoes. The meat left over from the traditional Sunday roast. However, during the war and rationing there were often no leftovers from a very meagre roast, so it was often replaced with spam, a bit like polony.

One of the ways of making sure the Sunday lunch filled everyone in spite of the meat ration, was to serve a first course of Yorkshire pudding and gravy. Then the main course of a tiny roast beef served with Yorkshire pudding and as a sweet, Yorkshire pudding and jam.

Weekly rations per person during the war were as follows:x

x x x

x x x x

4 oz (100 grams) of meat which included all meat and you could not choose. You stood in the queue and waited for your turn and you would be supplied with a mixture of what was available.

Butter and cheese varied, usually 2 oz (50 grams). If there was a surplus it could rise to as much as 8 oz (225 grams), but that was rare.

Margarine and fat usually 4 oz (100 grams) often dropping to 2 oz (50 grams).

Milk 3 pints, sometimes less. School children, however, were given half a pint of milk a day at school, as well as being supplied weekly with a small bottle of concentrated orange juice. This was done as the government was aware how vital it was for children to have a balanced diet.

Sugar 8 oz (225 grams) Tea 2 oz (50 grams) Eggs 1 shell egg a week if available and dried eggs 1 packet every 4 weeks.

Dried egg powder made the most marvellous scrambled eggs.

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All men, if fit, were conscripted into the armed forces between the ages of 18 and 40, and many over 40 volunteered. However, Dave’s father was exempt from military service as he had hurt his back as a young man falling off a haystack while courting Dave’s mother.

His father was a butcher and could have started his own business, but when Jesse Smith, the owner of the butchery he worked for, was called up, Dave’s father agreed to keep the business going while the war was on. Naturally this was an advantage for the family as they were not short of meat, one of the perks of being in the business.

During the war, Britain could not import anything, she had to be totally independent and one of the ways this was done was by ploughing up every bit of land available to grow food. There were no football pitches, or cricket grounds, or play areas. Allotments were allocated to families to grow their own vegetables and anyone who had the room would breed chickens, pigs, rabbits, and pigeons, to supplement their rations.

All metal railings were commandeered and taken away by the government to turn into ammunitions.

Many women volunteered for the armed forces or the Land Army. These women worked on the farms doing the jobs that the farm labourers who were in the forces, usually did. They also volunteered as drivers for essential services. Even the Queen, then Princess Elizabeth, and her sister Princess Margaret, became ambulance drivers. The whole country was kept going by elderly men and the women.

The war ended in 1945, but rationing went on for a few years after.

In every pub during the war, there were pictures of the three monkeys, with hands over their ears, eyes and mouths, with the caption, “Hear nothing see nothing say nothing” because there could be spies anywhere.

Everyone was supplied with gas masks in case mustard gas was used in an invasion and the younger children‘s face pieces were made like Micky Mouse.

In 1940, no-one thought Britain could win as they were totally unprepared, but the strength and determination of their Armed Forces, particularly the Battle of Britain pilots and the ability for everyone to pull together, as well as to laugh at the gravest of situations, saw them through.

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