Kris Massie's memories of Kitwe
Part 4
We carried on with work, husband ever busy with the parks and gardens also having to see to the digging of graves if there was to be a funeral. He was known to take over from one of his labour force whom he felt wasn't digging properly! A perfectionist he certainly was.
In our office we had a bookkeeper Elspeth and I gained a colleague Gladys. It was Gladys and I after work one day who ventured into a massage business (not a parlour!) to try it out. We had a most relaxing massage and the owner used a lovely scented oil after which I could have 'danced all night …' I was so energised. An amazing experience.
Northern Rhodesia was to gain Independence on 24 October 1964 and renamed Zambia after the Zambezi River which to the south divided Northern Rhodesia from Southern Rhodesia (latterly renamed Zimbabwe after their independence on 11 November 1965). Arrangements were made to celebrate and husband had to be on duty that evening in the park. A visiting Jamaican Steel Drum Band was in attendance and the sounds came wafting over to ours and other homes. I feared trouble when the allotted time was over – too much alcohol from the many in attendance and who knew what could develop. I needn’t have bothered considering sleeping under the bed with my son, as all ended peacefully.
Part of my apprehension was overhearing a couple of local men wandering down the Avenue the day before, discarding and selecting the houses they passed and which of these they would occupy immediately after Independence. The incoming President had intimated the country would be theirs – which it would be – but not in the way they interpreted it from their overheard conversation.
