Calling back the past

Browsing through The Argus, Friday November 7 1986. On the front page is a photograph of planet Earth taken from a satellite – front page news! Aside from the other articles which don’t seem to change too much from decade to decade – PW Botha warning business to stay out of politics, Canada stopping visas for South Africans, hitch-hiker murders motorist, ANC establishes office in Moscow – the really interesting things relate to food, car and house prices and other domestic advertising.

An automatic washing machine cost R799, a VHS video cassette recorder (with 1 free tape!) would set you back R1 599, and a 4-piece lounge suite R699. A portable computer with a 256 kb (!) hard drive cost R3 000. Technology was obviously new in South Africa and costing us an arm and a leg! Carrots were 9 cents a bunch, onions R1.99 for 10kg and live crayfish were R12.65 a kg. A house sold in Bishopscourt for R500 000.

On the political front, only names have changed – the game remains the same. Labour relations were pretty much as they are now and people are still riding over traffic cops.

Alex Ferguson was named Manchester United’s new manager (still in office) and Larry Holmes announced his retirement for the second time. The BOC single-handed round the world yacht race was hosted in the Mother City, at Royal Cape Yacht Club.

On the Letters to the Editor page, a concerned citizen asks when the first shark attack will take place in False Bay (related to sightings of large populations of seals along the shoreline), and another even more concerned citizen demands to know why inflation has reached 18.7%!

David Biggs’ column, The Wanderer at the Tavern of the Seas, was in its usual place and is still running today, an incredible run for a daily column. Well done, David Biggs!

On TV we could watch MacGyver and Papillon, with M-Net only broadcasting in Johannesburg! Television hours were 3.30pm to 12.35am!!

The entertainment section looks almost the same as today: mostly the same restaurants, movie houses, opera house. The only things missing are the drive-ins and Dairy Den!

A cursory glance through the Hatched, Matched and Despatched provided a strange coincidence – a death notice inserted by our neighbours, with all their names. How odd to find that in this particular newspaper.

On the down side, the paper had as many spelling mistakes as they have today!

Having called back the past, it has become clear that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Our basic lives remain the same and it is just the players around us that change. Something to be thankful for, I suppose!