Here's another of those breaths of air from the past, from 1947 when I was two, a brief excerpt from captain Bill Solly's diary:
Monday 21st July, 1947
Left Zanzibar about 1300 hours, arrived Dar-es-Salaam and moored in harbour about 1900 hours.
Tuesday 22nd July, 1947
Sent telegram to Margaret*, also letter by air.
Received note from Mrs Helen Haylett of invitation to visit.
Wednesday 23rd July, 1947
Met Cecil Haylett (African Mercantile) at pier in evening & called at Sports Club en route to residence.
* Bill's wife
Bill was a captain in the British India line whose ship carried passengers and freight between East African ports and those on the Indian subcontinent. My father's company, the African Mercantile, did not deal with BI ships, yet it is evident from this that the two families were already firm friends, perhaps through having children of much the same ages.
The section I love most is "called at Sports Club en route to residence" - it was what my father did with all the captains he invited ashore. By the time they arrived I would have been out of the way in bed.
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