He was with me in the South African Airforce in 1976. I did not know him then, be we have worked out that we were both at Technical Services base at the same time. I was a Physical Training Instructor, and he was one of the apprentice Aircraft Technicians that I chased around the parade ground.
We laugh about it today. But the circumstances are greatly changed. I left the SAAF and went to become a pastor in the Methodist Church, while he remained, and eventually became a Sergeant Major. Dave reminisces nostalgically about the evenings in the pub with all his SAAF mates. These are the same mates who persuaded him to resign - tempted by the prospect of a pension payout. These are the mates who then helped him spend his money. And now he lives on the streets.
Dave survives by painting aircraft on hardboard offcuts.
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And he wants me to buy a painting, so that he can get some money for materials. The Ysterplaat airshow is around the corner, and he wants to sell his paintings there.
So I paid a deposit on a painting of a Cheetah in a hanger in Hoetspruit. It is still in his mind, and perhaps it might arrive in my office one day.
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