Flashback Thursday: 25 November 1983
Do you still send your gifts and wishes via the post, like they did yesteryear?
It seems the Record had one of its most celebrated issues on 25 November 1983. In fact, on page 6 of that journalist Rod McGillivray celebrated the paper’s achievements.
“We have a huge paper!” he wrote, boasting a stunning 112 pages filled with pre-festive season articles, features and advertorials alongside the usual hard news, crime updates and community sections.
The restaurant Zvivago’s opened at the highly popular Killarney Hotel during that November with a show by comedian Tony Stewart as entertainment. Roodepoort’s celebrities, including the mayor, attended the opening.
Does anyone still post mail or gifts at Christmas? A relatively large space was dedicated to a notice written in collaboration with the post office, urging residents to send their mail, gifts and gift cards early (between then and 10 December) to avoid disappointment. Timely delivery and residents’ help with the flow of the mail was emphasised.
They seem to have also been nearing the election season at the time, for which resident Dick Cullingworth wrote a special poem:
The vote is ‘n wonderlike ding
It is something about which to sing
The vote is a new way of talking,
A new way of having your say.
McGillivray said that the large 112-page issue involved 34 newsprint reels (or 11,75 tonnes) of which, if unwound, would stretch from Witpoortjie to Johannesburg (18,7 kilometres).
It also took 120 litres of ink to print an edition for every household.
