Karoo Magic
Karoo Magic – Richmond Gothic
Jan
Story and Pix by Chris Marais
There was once a guy from Richmond who was owed money by another guy in nearby Hanover. So he simply went up there and welded the Hanover guy’s workshop shut.
“The same man’s wife had an affair, so he hired a bulldozer from the Municipality and just drove over their house,” the locals say.
Then there was a reclusive local farmer who rebuffed visits from his family and ignored the phone when it rang. His daughter tried visiting him one day. She saw his bakkie outside, but there was no answer when she knocked and so she drove off.
Three months later she tried again. The bakkie was still in the same place, but covered in dust and leaves. The daughter recruited some help and, when they broke in, found the farmer dead and decomposed on the bed. So they wrapped him up in his sheets and took him away.
And that’s exactly how they fed his body into the cremation furnace. All of a sudden bullets started flying. It seems he’d slept with a loaded gun under the pillow, where no one had thought to check.
Over at the Richmond Horse Museum are a couple of interesting prosthetics. A Richmond man called Doel Kock was wounded in a skirmish here and lost his right hand.
They made him a lovely new one, complete with moving joints. But he chose the ‘hook hand’ instead, because of the instant respect it commanded.
We have published a large catalogue of print and ebooks on the Karoo available HERE and HERE or contact julie@karoospace.co.za for prices and courier details.
