| Tony
Close (added June 5,
2009) |
|
|
I have seen Neil Stirks questions
about Tony Close in the guest book. |
|
| This might be of interest and is my
personal acount in brief of working with Tony. |
|
| At Forbes in the 60's Tony had a metal caliper on his
leg and sometimes used a crutch He had bright red Ford Cortina GT , which he
spent hours cleaning . |
| I am not sure where or when but he smashed it
up with very little injury to himself.
He then acquired the later model Ford Cortina GT, metallic gold in
colour. |
| His favorite drinking place was
Vila Manica and that car certainly knew its way home, often at great
speed. |
| The Portuguese Customs had recently
moved to their new premises in the petrol station buildings . One evening, or
early morning, that GT came thru the |
| petrol station at great speed and took a corner very
wide, straight into the steps of the old Portuguese Customs House, He hit those
steps so hard that they were |
| actually dislodged from the building. In this accident he messed up his leg and arm
and his throat/voice. |
| When he came back to work he used a
small tree trunk as a crutch!! |
|
| I next came across Tony at Beitbridge, driving his white
Landy. He Mauby and Scotty were at one time in the house on the river, where he
tried, unsuccessfully, |
| to raise ostrich chicks. I think at that time he acquired an Alstion
that he called Chibules. The army
suddenly found that Tony Close was not doing his fair |
| share of military training and sent
him forms to fill in In his terrible writing he filled it in and when he came to
the part where they asked if he had had
any opertations, |
| he thought for a while and
wrote PTO. On the reverse of the form he listed 16 operations, and sent it back,
Nothing more was heard from the Army. |
|
| Tony's mom lived in Pietermaritzburg and for some reason
he never kept in touch with her, and she, annually, used to phone the Collector
Beitbridge and enquire |
| whether he was still alive. Tony and Chibules were transferred to Byo in
the late 70's where he acquired a newer, more modern, blue
Landy. |
| He lived a few houses from where I lived and when he
went on leave he entrusted me with the care of his old white Landy. This Landy
had a sticker across the centre |
| of the steering boss "DO NOT DRIVE
THIS LANDY WHEN PISSED
". |
|
| When I resigned and left for SA Tony was in examining in
Byo office. On occasion my daughter, who at the time worked for Tupperware
needed guidance/info on |
| Customs procedure and phoned Tony. The last time she
phoned him he could hardly speak and had to call on the services of another
customs officer to relay the |
| answers.
When we went up to Byo for Dan Schoonraads daughters wedding we popped in
to see Tony, now driving a Toyota Cressida ,and sitting in what I
knew |
| as the drawbacks office At
first he did not recognise us, but when we told him who we were he was delighted
and pointed to a certificate on the wall |
| acknowledging his long
service in the Customs Dept. It was very difficult to follow what he was
saying and it was obvious that his health had
deteriorated . |
| Chibules had long since passed on
but he now had two Alsations . |
|
| Despite his difficulties Tony was a
super person to know and had a real good sense of humour and I often wonder how
he is. |
|
| Alan Howard |
exCUSTOMSnet