Sarlem Menthol

From Great North Road

By Philip Pain.

At around the age of 6 or 7, Trevor Gothan and I were best friends; he lived at No.9 Boma Street, which was next to Fredrick Knapp School on the Eastern side where the dirt road went to what I think were some railway houses at the back of Boma Street. This road was the short cut from our area to town and by crossing the railway lines you came out at the station close to, and if my memory is still with me, on the road where the Dutch Reformed and the Anglican churches are situated.

On this particular day I went to Trevor's house to play and on arriving there, Trevor had in his possession a box of twenty "SARLEM MENTHOL CIGARETTES" and a box of matches, after some discussion we decided to go to our fort which was a giant anthill in the area between Boma street back lane and the station. Our fort was the biggest anthill in the area, which at some time before our occupation had been excavated on the top into a redoubt by some other guys at some time long ago as the excavation was overgrown with grass. This anthill was an excellent place for cardboard box sliding. (Great fun) (Thanks to the guys who did all the digging, it was a fort of note!) From this fort, you could see someone approaching from tomorrow.

On arriving there we started with our smoking experiment, (Trevor explained to me that the menthol cigs tasted like peppermints and your folks would not be able to smell that you had been smoking from your breath) we tried all the things which we had seen the grown ups doing with cig's.

After several cig's I started to feel kind of ill and decided that maybe it would be a good idea to go home. On arriving home, my Mom took one look at me and decided that I was on death's door and put me straight to bed. As I could not explain why I was so sick and she was so concerned for my health that she wanted to send a message to Dr. Hanna at the mine hospital to come to the house to attend to me. (Those days’ doctors still did house calls)

Afraid that the doctor would find out why I was so sick, I convinced my Mom that after puking into the enamel bucket (with JAYES FLUID) that what I had eaten had come out and I was on the road to recovery and feeling much better.

The lesson which I learnt that day has stayed with me all my life and I am one of the lucky ones never to have smoked in their lives.

To the Bullies who tried to force me to smoke TURBO CABBAGE behind the ASTRA cinema (You know who you are) I guess you got your dues, the big wheel turns.

Cheers to all.