Museum News

What is the last thing you’d expect to come across in the middle of nowhere in the Karoo? Maybe a set of false teeth? In 2000 Fred Badenhorst found a set 30km from Prince Albert. The false teeth, it turned out, had belonged to Hansie Odendaal. He lost them on 17 February 1978 while in the air as a passenger with the flying doctor, Manie Coetzee. After 22 years in the open veld the teeth found a home in the medical display at the Fransie Pienaar Museum. You can see them in a glass display case surrounded by other inventions to make life more pleasant for human beings.

Having had a sleepless night caused by a dozen mozzie bites and still scratching, a white metal tube exhibited near Hansie Odendaal’s false teeth caught my eye. It has green and black writing on it half of which is gone but one can still read the words “repellent cream… Ypel trademark, an entirely new protective cream against flies, midgets, gnats, mosquitoes and other biting insects.” There is some stuff left in the tube and it made me wonder if mankind has - unbeknownst to me- found the ultimate itch-reliever. If you know of anything, please drop off the info at the museum. I’ll mention it in the Friend so that the entire community can benefit.

Museum Greetings!

Gunda Hardegen-Brunner