The Athlone Cooling Towers in early morning sunlight
I have a personal story about the cooling towers. And yes I know how weird that sounds, because I am no cooling tower expert. In all honesty, I have no idea what it’s function is and I am not too interested either.
I lived a few kilometres from the Athlone Cooling Towers in my youth and I remember how those two towers caught my imagination. Quite literally. I’m … ahem … old enough to remember when the towers were in full operation and used to (I guess) cool stuff down. Anyway, back then it was probably the tallest man-made structure for miles around. Come to think of it, it probably still is, despite all the construction around our city.
Every Sunday our family would visit relatives over on the other side of the city, in Maitland. The drive there and back home took us past the towers at least twice on that journey – once in either direction. As a little girl with a vast imagination, I pictured myself being INSIDE the towers. I imagined that I was an intrepid explorer, climbing up the outside of the tower around the platforms and up the stairs. If you look, you’ll see the stairs running all the way around it. I imagined what it was like walking around one level, climbing up the stairs to the next level, and so on, all the way to the very top. Then, when I was all the way at the top, I could see all of Cape Town! I’m still not sure, maybe you actually get a pretty great view of the city from all the way up there. Of course if you went up, you had to come all the way down. My imagination again, lead me all the way down to the bottom. I had different routes to climb up and down the towers. The water that ran down the bottom of the towers was a waterfall and if I stood behind it, no one could see me or would know I was there, but I could see them. I had dreams of one day being allowed inside so that i could see it all and explore it for myself. That idea, as you can imagine, has long-since faded and I haven’t thought about my childhood fantasies in a very long time.
This week, as the Athlone Cooling Towers made headlines because of today’s demolition, I have a little touch of nostalgia about my childhood fantasies . I know that it makes me sound old to make say this, but one does not often look back in wonderment at the strange imaginings of the childhood mind :)
While the demolition will cause a ripple of chaos and excitement as everyone scrambles to see these landmarks implode, I’ll remember being young and imaginative. To me , the towers symbolise two strong, sturdy old friends, that allowed my mind to be spirited and adventurous for a little while. The demolition teaches me that nothing is forever because change is inevitable and so, too, are my creative thoughts.
I know that my dreams will not turn into a pile of rubble on the highway, but rather take flight as I find creativity through my imagination.
