The Casual Observer

Memories of Daisy’s Tea Room at Schoenmakerskop

By Dean McCleland in McClelands, Port Elizabeth of Yore 29 November 2016 1 Comment

This article has been written by Rosemary MacGeoghan in response to my request for an article on the life & times of the McCleland family at Schoenmakerskop.

Main picture: Schoenmakerskop on 10th December 1922 after the opening of Marine Drive outside Daisy’s Tea Room called THE HUT TEAROOM

A Mother’s Final Letter to her Daughter

By Dean McCleland in McClelands 28 November 2016 2 Comments

A letter by Mary Ann Beckley nee Waspe to her daughter Elizabeth Daisy Beckley shortly before her death on 30^th December 1931

Port Elizabeth of Yore: Schism in St. Mary’s creates the Holy Trinity Church

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 28 November 2016 1 Comment

St. Mary’s was the progenitor of a number of daughter churches such as St Paul’s Church. As always, like in politics, there are different views of liturgy in ecclesiastical affairs. Central to this dissident group’s disaffection, was their disapproval of the replacement clergyman (Rev. W H Fowle) at St Mary’s Church “high church” proclivities, , and they left St Mary’s in January 1854.

Therefore it came to pass that this disaffected group abandoned St Mary’s Church and formed what they initially called the Trinity Church.

Main picture: Holy Trinity Church near Havelock Square

Port Elizabeth of Yore: St Phillip’s Church on Richmond Hill

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 26 November 2016 0 Comment

St Philips Church is situated on the corner of St Philip and Callington Street. The church started as a mission church in about 1872 with families, mostly Dutch speaking, who had moved to Port Elizabeth from what is now the Western Cape.

Main picture: A recent photograph of St. Phillip’s Church

Lost Photographs of Berlin between 1939 & 1940

By Dean McCleland in Military History 26 November 2016 0 Comment

These photographs were taken between 1939 and 1940 in Berlin and were lost for over 50 years because the American photographer disappeared at the beginning of the war, along with his Roliflex camera.

Shown here are the originals (Used at that time in the production of magazines). The majority are 6″ X 9″. They were found by a nurse in a Berlin hospital, who kept them stored away during all these years.

After her death her daughter returned them to the current editors, who retain the copyrights to Life Magazine, which has not been published since the early ’70s

Child Labour: Reach for the Sky with a Tractor

By Blaine McCleland in McClelands 26 November 2016 0 Comment

This is another in a periodic series on our childhood in Port Elizabeth. In this episode Blaine relates an incident of which I was blissfully unaware until this morning. How is that possible if we lived in the same house?

Main picture: Ferguson TE 20 “Vaaljapie”

The Follies of Youth in Port Elizabeth

By Blaine McCleland in McClelands 26 November 2016 0 Comment

There can be little doubt that Port Elizabeth offers some superb opportunities for the ill-advised youths in Port Elizabeth to partake in speed related challenges. Needless to say, my brother Blaine has finally revealed some incidents in his ill-spent youth in which he might have met his maker long before his allotted three score and ten years.

Main picture: Blaine’s Yamaha which was the crux of Blaine’s follies

Another Ruddy Job in an Era of Loyalty to one’s Employer

By Dean McCleland in McClelands 25 November 2016 0 Comment

Amongst the many traits of the people half a century ago were loyalty, loyalty to one’s family and fealty to one’s employer. Because of this, one never got divorced however dysfunctional the marriage or toxic the employer.

In my father’s case, it meant spending his whole working life for bosses that he disrespected and conditions under which he felt exploited.

Spare a thought for one such employee, Harry Clifford McCleland, in this milieu.

Main picture: Main Entrance to Yard of JJ Ruddy & Sons in Lindsay Road

Port Elizabeth of Yore: St. Mary’s Cemetery

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 24 November 2016 2 Comments

This cemetery has the distinction of being the oldest cemetery in Port Elizabeth even predating the arrival of the 1820 settlers. Hence it was only when St. Mary’s church was built that it was managed by the church. It is also the burial place of Rev. Francis McCleland.

Main picture: St. Mary’s cemetery showing its current state of decay

Mosenthals: A Metaphor for the Fortunes of Port Elizabeth

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 23 November 2016 1 Comment

For more than half a century Mosenthals was the most prominent and probably the largest enterprise in Port Elizabeth. Even my family has a connection to this once dominant company. Firstly, my maternal grandfather was a wool sorter and later my mother was a typist in their employ. For me, the firm Mosenthals epitomises both the growth and subsequent decline of Port Elizabeth, but also the trajectory of South Africa’s industrial, agricultural, and commercial growth.

Let us trace the journey that Mosenthals, Port Elizabeth and South Africa took.

Main picture: The original offices of Mosenthals in Port Elizabeth