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GRIFFITHS Wendy ( Mast)

Griffiths Wendy ( Mast) WENDY2 MAST (THEODORE MAURICE1) was born 1944. She is the daughter of BARBARA ANNA7 FLEMMER (JOHN DISTIN6, CHRISTIAN LUDVIG5) born 1910. She married THOEDORE MAURICE MAST born 1900.

Born in Johannesburg, my earliest memory is the day that our neighbour, Mrs Telfer popped in for a friendly visit and I asked her if she would please make me some ice cream as my mother wouldn't. I still remember the embarrassment on my mother's face, when Mrs Telfer said "Of course". She picked me up onto the counter and borrowed all my mother's ingredients to do the necessary!

We had a huge garden with rose bushes as far as you could see, a swimming pool, which in those days was a major problem to keep clean, as my dad told me later on, and a little room which they called the Sanctuary, in which us kids got up to all sorts of nonsense.

The other highlight of those days was my Gran, Maud Flemmer, who stayed in a cottage built next door to our house. Whenever we popped in to say "hello", she would offer us a barley sugar stick which was kept in the bottle right inside her front door. She would put me on her piano stool next to her while she played beautiful music for me. She gave me a love for music which has lasted all my life.

We moved to Pietermaritzburg for a short time where I started school at age 4, and then to Gillitts for a short time. The nearest school at Kloof said I had started my education too young so there was a slight reprieve in the learning process. (The start of a bumpy school career). The next move was to Kloof to Sykes Road which was down the road from what is now the Thomas Moore School. We got to know the family who lived in that house quite well, especially as my brother dated their daughter for a bit.

My mother's sister, Doris was a great knitter. As a child she was found knitting furiously on two long nails (all that was available to her) with a bit of wool dangling. When asked why she was knitting so fast, she replied "My wool's nearly finished and I'm trying to beat it!". Naturally, she was the one who taught me to knit with the unique style of securing the left needle under the armpit which makes for great speed. She was never without her knitting and took orders as long as she lived.

When I was 11 we moved into Durban to a lovely double-storey house which had a fish pond in the garden, before my parents finally settled in a little place in Cherry Ave which is where I met my first boy friend. I started working as a shorthand typist when I was 19, and met Dave between the passage and the lift, as we worked on the same floor.

Dave also loves music and when the kids were old enough, they each learnt an instrument. Gavin and Travis did really well on classical guitar, though Travis has since moved onto a more "versatile" mode, Paula got going with the flute and Jene on clarinet.

Dave is now doing water colour painting quite seriously, and I still type for a living!

 

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