Voëllym

One of the “characters” living in our neighbourhood (and there were a few) was Hannes Venter who lived with his wife Hester in the house vacated by the Strydoms after the "Lebs had trashed it".  They had no children and that’s perhaps the reason they had a car when so few others did. It was a cream coloured 1948 Pontiac four door sedan which made it about five or six years old when the events described below took place.

If you lived in Mayfair it was because you didn’t have much money and Hannes and my father were constantly hatching “get rich quick” schemes one of which was to drive out to an area Southwest of Johannesburg and there tap a particular species of succulent plant of its milky sap which would later be boiled to produce birdlime. Once this was done we would leave in the early hours of a Saturday morning to drive to Rustenburg (a country town located a good distance from Johannesburg) where there was a farm dam that Hannes knew of. According to him the dam attracted many thousands of exotic wild birds which we could capture using the birdlime smeared on the thin side branches of the trees surrounding the dam. The birds would attempt to land on the sticks covered with birdlime and become stuck. We would then grab them, clean the birdlime off them and put them in holding cages. When we had caught sufficient numbers and varieties we would transport them back to Johannes burg and sell them to breeders and pet shops and thereby make our fortune.

That was the premise. The reality was a little different. We captured only seven birds in total, five of one species and two of another and neither species was particularly rare. I doubt they recovered the cost of the petrol to get there and back but we youngsters didn’t care. We had a fine time in the car and at the dam so our world was okay.
 

Voëllym

Oom Hannes Venter sê ons kan wilde voëls gaan vang

By ʼn dam naby Rustenburg genaamd Sukkelaarspan

Blousuisies is volop en Vinke is miljoene verby

En ons gaan hope geld maak, altans so sê hy

Maar eers moet ons self die voëllym produseer

Wat ons dan sal gebruik om op stokkies te smeer

Dit op hul beurt word aan boomtakke gebind

Sodat voëls wat beland hulle vas sal bevind

Suidwes van die stad lê n groot stuk braakland

Deel van oopvlaktes duskant die Suikerbosrand

Juis daar kry ons genoegsame beeskloutjie sap

Deur die plante te sny en die vloeistof te tap

In ʼn pot op die stoof word dit dan afgekook

Tot die inhoud wel lyk soos taai gouestroop

Voorbereidings is voltooi en die motor is gelaai

Vroeg bedtoe,môre wiel ons nog voor hanekraai

Kort voor twee uur die oggend ry die ou Pontiac

Met ons jonges onder komberse op agtersitplek

Voor sonsopkoms is ons daar en als is gereed

Die toneel is spookagtig in ʼn misbaadjie gekleed

En die swerms waarmee ons ons rykdom bereken?

Daglank is daar weinig van hulle ʼn enkele teken

ʼn Skrale vyf ou Blousuisies en ʼn Sebravink paar

Is ʼn power opbrengs om by die huis te verklaar

Die kool was nou wel nie die sous werd gewees

Nietemin wag daar op ons ʼn koninklike fees