{"id":67705,"date":"2017-06-01T18:31:38","date_gmt":"2017-06-01T16:31:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mobserver.co.za\/?p=67705"},"modified":"2017-06-02T09:16:31","modified_gmt":"2017-06-02T07:16:31","slug":"video-new-joe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/news-headlines\/2017\/06\/01\/video-new-joe\/","title":{"rendered":"Video: The New Joe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of the many forms Old Joe has taken over the years<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a silent, colourful sentinel that watches over the N4 highway near Schoemanskloof, and his is a story that dates back nearly a century.<\/p>\n<p>Old Joe, a painted rock situated on the roadside along Patatanek Pass, is a familiar sight for those who travel between Machadodorp and Nelspruit.<\/p>\n<p>The old rock was named after Joe Barabas, the foreman who supervised construction of the first road through Schoemanskloof in 1927.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The New Joe, Middelburg\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1BStp-cqcBk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Workers discovered the rock and immediately thought it bore a likeness to Barabas.<\/p>\n<p>They erected it alongside the road, painted it and named it Joe, in honour of the dedication he showed in ensuring construction went ahead quickly and without any major hitches.<\/p>\n<p>Over the years, Joe has had many facelifts as his look changes to commemorate local events or big happenings in South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>The layer of paint that now coats him is more than 5mm thick, with each new look often applied by schoolchildren and local residents.<\/p>\n<p>So next time you drive through Patatanek Pass, look out for the <b>New Middelburg Observer Joe.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The N4 Toll Route\u2019s most recognised rock &#8211; Old Joe &#8211; has undergone yet another transformation, this time painted with the logo of the Middelburg Observer. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2844,"featured_media":67722,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"hasGravity":false,"cxt_article_byline":"Tobie van den Bergh","cxt_disable_google_ads":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news-headlines","post_format-post-format-video"],"category_labels":{"Category":"News","SubCategory":"Local news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2844"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}