‘To a Definite End’

Malcolm Mackendrick of the Connemara Mine standing on the doorway of the cab of Tim Hughes’ 1939 Chevrolet Pickup truck on Giraffe Farm. Tools and fuel were stored in the Cato hut in the background.

‘To a Definite End’

One’s school motto does, I think, to a greater or lesser degree, influence one’s thinking even if sub-consciously. Que Que High School was founded to service the Globe and Phoenix Mine almost half a century before my parents arrival in 1946.   They, each in their separate ways,  much more so than us kids, fully embraced the school’s motto Non sibi sed omnibus, ‘Not for Ourselves but for All.’  Tim Hughes, at fourteen, applied himself to Plumtree School’s motto Ad Definitum Finem, ‘To a Definite End’ when the opportunity arose to revive his fathers abandoned 1939 Chevrolet pick-up so he could bring ‘a definite end’ to dependence on the bicycle.

‘To a Definite End’

For a start, raised on chocks, the pick-up lacked tyres.  Bert Hossak, on the next door farm, allowed Tim to scavenge worn out Fordson Major tractor front tyres from his rubbish dump. The tyres, still with tubes tucked inside, were worn smooth but fitted the sixteen inch Chev. rims perfectly. After a lot of help from Philemon, the farm foreman, and parts from Gervas’ metal scrap heap, the Chev. was a go’er.  A year later the bonnet and tray were found by Tim, who repaired and refitted them.

Gervas’ grey Ferguson tractors ran on petrol and Tim was permitted to fuel the Chev. from his forty four gallon drums.  He taught himself to drive.  The Chev. made the trip to visit his old junior school friends at the Connemara Gold Mine seven miles from Melrose Farm and two miles south of Hunters Road siding, on the main Bulawayo-Salisbury highway a breeze.  At sixty miles per hour down the highway it was a dream come true.

The fact that Tim did not have a driving licence and the Chev. was not registered for the road didn’t seem to worry Gervas, although he did have the vehicle covered by third party insurance. One of the first refinements Tim made to the Chev. was to add an exhaust pipe. The original muffler was broken off under the cab and had been lost. Exhaust fumes and noise from the six cylinder engine were hard to tolerate. The problem was solved when Tim forced a long metal pipe, from the scrap heap, into the broken exhaust pipe. He supported the pipe with fencing wire along the chassis to extend half a metre beyond the back of the vehicle.  Emitting a mighty roar, flames shot out of the pipe when the motor was revved up which was quite spectacular at night.

Tim took off one evening for the mine while Gervas and Dorothy were having a quiet sundowner on the front verandah. The next day Gervas had some harsh words for Tim about his driving. They had heard him changing down to go over the railway crossing five miles away. He was more careful after that, worried that the Chev. would be confiscated bringing ‘a definite end’ to his newly acquired freedom.

Many Thanks to Tim Hughes of Queensland, Australia for the  picture and the excerpts from his unpublished manuscript  Matambega and Son written in the 1980’s.

Serious Rhodesian car buffs might enjoy a look at Wayne Kennerley’s web site http://www.classiccarsinrhodesia.co.za/