Smithfield News

Smiffie’s Stoep Skinner by JJ

We All Got  Lift We make no apologies this month for concentrating your attention on the “Bibber- You-Know-What” -  but after all, you have to admit that it was a big thing on our calendar and it did give the town a lift – and we all thoroughly enjoyed it.
This [...]

BibberChill Promises to be the Best Ever — Support It

With all systems GO, Smithfield’s BibberChill Festival 2008 is set to be a resounding success, with “Proudly Smithfield” featuring prominently during the day as emphasis is placed on art and craftwork produced by Smithfielders.

Smiffie’s Stoep Skinner

How do you rate this for community spirit?

A local trader, not long in this neck of the woods (which may explain the unfortunate attitude), says she will not be going to the BibberChill Festival. The reason? Last year was such a disappointment. And, the entry fee is too high. See page 2 for what the fee covers.

We all know that last year’s Festival was disappointing but if you go through life believing that one setback points the way to the future how do you ever believe there is a future in anything?

Of course, she’s not alone in this attitude of indifference towards supporting local activities: Smithfielders are notorious for this attitude, which is why we don’t achieve as much as many other small towns do.

No doubt this is one business that will do the decent thing and not open it’s doors on Saturday, 24 May so as not to benefit from any potential customers who may descend on Smithfield for the occasion.

Stoep Skinner by JJ

A Smithfield Disease
How utterly absurd that the Smithfield Residents’ Forum, which we should all be supporting in whatever way we can for it’s efforts to represent all members of the community, could not afford the hire of the church hall for its general meeting last week. It even had to accept a donation (donor anonymous) [...]

Stoep Skinner

by JJ
Giving – Or Taking
It almost goes without saying that a community is only as good as how much support it gets from it’s members. So why do I raise the subject?
Well, one of the pleasures of living in a small community such as ours is becoming involved in the affairs of the [...]

Stoep Skinner by JJ

It Has to Be Joeys
“You know you’re in Jo’burg when the person in front of you in the traffic is hijacked – and you are irritated because you missed the robot.”
This bit of black humour comes from the Free State University Rag booklet that arrived in our neck of the woods the other day [...]

Stoep Skinner

by JJ
How We Have Grown
When we took over Smiffie in 2005 from the founder, Anhesta Venter, we had no idea whether, as they say in the classics “the idea would fly”. Well, it certainly has, in Smithfield, in Aliwal North, Zastron, Rouxville, and Bethulie and beyond and for this we are grateful [...]

Stoep Skinner by JJ

What We Do For Our Community!
The editor of this distinguished newspaper went up Smithfield “mountain” a couple of weeks ago to check on the new municipal reservoir, currently being built after a spot of controversy in the early stages.
In retrospect it was a bad decision. (See Rose’s cartoon)

— Stoep Skinner by JJ —

N6 Trip Calls for Extra Time
Driving on the N6 these days has become a bit of a sweat. Hopefully we should cool off before too long. But, in the meantime not only is the road between Smithfield and Reddersburg deteriorating steadily but the roadwork from there to Bloem still takes time to negotiate. Further south, [...]

Stoep Skinner by JJ

Glorious Black Eagles
Two fully grown Black Eagles, flying up a gorge two metres away from us AND sllghtly BELOW us! Things don’t get much better than that.
This was in the Karoo National Park last week. - not surprisingly, the highlight of a two day visit.
We had absolutely no idea what to expect of [...]

Stoep Skinner by JJ

In this Internet age of webs and disks a website is only as good as the amount of attention it attracts. To date we are not doing too badly as www.smiffie.za.com becomes more widely known.
As we have said previously, we hope readers will treat it as a two-way communication - reading what we have written [...]

Stoep Skinner by JJ

Contentedly Grazing Hoffman Street
This completely calm and unconcerned animal wandered the full length of the Smithfield’s Hoffman Street shopping area the other day. Oblivious of the midday traffic, it was eventually chased off the road and onto the square by a motorist.
Perhaps it, and all the other cattle making such a nuisance of themselves in [...]