What I remember up to 1976 : South Africa in the 70's

I remember….

My parents lived in Sabie.

I remember….

My father was a saw miller, and my mother was a school teacher.

I remember….

Behind our house was a big pine plantation.

I remember….

I made a fire that spread into the plantation. I got a hiding of note.

I remember….

Mom catching a bus to school, it stopped at our gate and my Dad and I waved to her on the bus.

I remember….

My Granny and Grandpa lived in Potchefstroom. We used to drive for hours to see them. Usually it was over Easter or Christmas.

I remember….

Always being able to go to Grandpa to get a hug and sit on his lap.

I remember….

Granny told me to call her little boy for her. I thought I was her little boy.

I remember….

Thick bushes of colourful Cosmos that grew on the side of the road on the way to Potchefstroom.

I remember….

Hiding my head under the table whilst my friends sang "Happy Birthday" to me at my fourth birthday party.

I remember….

Long country drives with my parents on Sunday afternoons.

I remember….

Going to Lourenco Marques on holiday in our caravan.

I remember….

Leaving very early in the morning with Dad and his friend and going to the Rand Daily Mail 9 hour race at Kyalami.

I remember….

Jackie Ickx won the Nine Hour race, John Love raced in a car with Gunston colours.




I remember….

A railway line near our house and steam trains chugging black smoke out their stacks.

I remember….

My silkworms spinning their cocoons up the side of the wall in Dad’s study.

I remember….

My Mom engaged a little black boy to keep me company and play with me because there were no children my age around. His name was Picanin. (It really was !)  He taught me Afrikaans.

I remember….

Our gardener playing with me. He was swinging me by my feet and I bashed my head on a brick, there was a lot of blood.

I remember….

Mom taking me to the cinema in Sabie to see Bambi

I remember….

When Bruce (my Godfather) and my cousins lived next door to us and we used to play all the time.



I remember….

The hole in the fence that we used to get through as a short cut, and Bruce chasing me through it once when I had done something naughty. He didn’t catch me!

I remember….

Drinking a whole can of beer that I pinched from my Dad and being terribly drunk and terribly sick.

I remember….

My Dad’s blue Cortina station wagon.

I remember….

When he sold it. The black man who bought it, pulled a pile of cash out of his pocket, and drove away with it there and then.





I remember….

Going to the coast with a caravan.

I remember….

Christmas at the coast in the caravan, once I got a racing drivers helmet for a Christmas present.

I remember….

A bigger boy teasing me about my racing driver’s helmet.

I remember….

Crying my eyes out on my first day of nursery school after my mother left me there.

I remember….

Heidi Jacobs from nursery school ………and what we got up to in high school.











I remember….

It snowed in Sabie and you could see the snow on the mountains in front of our house. I slipped on the icy driveway.

I remember….

My mother taught at the Afrikaans High school in Sabie, and going there with her sometimes. But being terrified of the bald principal.

I remember….

Going to the sawmill where my father worked, the smell of freshly sawed pine wood still reminds me of that.

I remember….

Going to the Lone Creek water fall before it became a commercial tourist attraction.

I remember….

Falling into the cold Lone Creek chasing my plastic boat.

I remember….

My mouth being washed out with red Lifebuoy soap for saying “Bliksem” to our gardener because he broke down the bridges I was building out of blocks.

I remember….

A friend of my Dad coming to visit us on a horse and looking up the horses nostrils because I was told that if I picked my nose I would end up with nostrils like a horse. The horse’s nostrils were big!

I remember….

My Dad shot a snake in the Granadilla vine with his revolver.

I remember….

My dog, Corky when she was a puppy. She was a black and tan Daschund, I loved her to bits.

I remember….

Going to Mac Mac Falls with my Granny and Grandpa, and Corky and I chasing butterflies in the long grass.

I remember….

Getting a baby brother and being disappointed because I wanted a sister.

I remember….

The stork brought me a Meccano set as a consolation present.

I remember….

Listening to The Chappie Chipmunk Show on Springbok radio.

I remember….

Chappie Chipmunk sent me a photo of himself.

I remember….

Dad got his finger caught in a circular saw and nearly lost his finger. It was sawed right up the middle of his finger, the doctor saved his finger, but it grew skew, and always was skew after that.

I remember….

He always pointed with his middle finger because the index finger was skew.

I remember….

Going shopping in Nelspruit and thinking how big the town was.

I remember….

The lady who sold ice cream cones from her Kombi outside the OK Bazaars in Nelspruit.

I remember….

Going to the Plaza cinema to watch the Saturday morning movie whilst my parents went shopping.







I remember….

Before the movie there was always a black and white news reel short called African Mirror.

I remember….

Saying “goodbye” to my cousins because we were moving to Port Elizabeth.

I remember….

Meeting my new cousins in Port Elizabeth, we lived in their yard in the caravan until we moved to our house in Sparrman road.

I remember….

My new cousins were weird, but their Mom used to call us from play once a day to give us sweeties.

I remember….

You got cool lucky packets in Port Elizabeth, better than anything we got in Sabie. They had great plastic animals inside.

I remember….

Older friends of my folks that we used to visit once in a while gave me a pet white mouse in a cage.

I remember….



Going to the beach, and how big the beach was and how big the sand dunes were.






I remember….

Going to the Drive-In to see “The Jungle Book”.

I remember….

I had a friend called Geoffrey who lived down the road and he died of pneumonia. I was so scared that it could happen to me that I didn’t want to go outside again.

I remember….

My first day of school. I had to wear a cap and a blazer, and I had a nice new leather satchel on my back. I saw all the other kids bawling when their mommies left them and thought what babies they were.

I remember….

In my school satchel was a lunchbox with Marmite sandwiches and a plastic bottle of red cool drink.

I remember….

Mrs. Mitchell, my sub A teacher at Kabega Park Primary. She was a kind lady with grey hair.

I remember….

Mrs. Mitchell helping me put my grey socks back on properly after some kiddies dancing lesson.




I remember….

Getting a red bicycle with trainer wheels for my birthday and Dad teaching me how to ride it. He ran behind me while I pedaled, but I fell and grazed my knees and elbows.

I remember….

Mom put mercurochrome on the grazes and it hurt.

I remember….

The Esso Galloob. And you got a little pink Galloob when you filled up with petrol there.

I remember….

The Ice cream boy came past our house every day riding his bicycle cart and ringing his bell.

I remember….

Banana Boy ice creams cost 5cents.
I remember….

The small silver five cent coin with a blue crane on the face.

I remember….

Blue cranes on our front lawn at our house in Sabie.

I remember….

Everyone talking about “The Man on the Moon”.

I remember….

Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin and Michael Collins.

I remember….

You got cool space models in Kellogg’s cereals and silver disks about the history of flight at Shell garages when you filled up with petrol.

I remember….

My Grandpa had all the Shell history of flight disks mounted in a special cardboard holder.

I remember….

I got a baby sister. She was very sick. When I saw her for the first time I thought she was Chinese because she was all yellow with straight black hair.

I remember….

Great Gran gave me 50 cents as a present. It was a fortune! I bought a whole lot of “Sad Sack” comics.

I remember….

Dad taking me to see the Boswell-Wilkie Circus, and laughing at Tikkie the Clown.

I remember….

Watching a recreation of the 1820 Settlers landing at the beach in Port Elizabeth, with people in funny period costumes, and an old sailing ship in the bay. I asked my Mom what is 1970 and she said “ It is 1970 now” The most exciting thing for me was seeing a military helicopter lifting a cannon.

In 1820, approximately 5 000 British settlers from economically depressed regions of Britain arrived in Algoa Bay in the eastern Cape to increase the size of the white settler population. On their arrival, it was revealed to them that they were also required to act as a civilian defence force against the indigenous people who frequently raided and stole from the British settlements.
They were allocated land in the Zuurveld, next to the Fish River and Port Elizabeth was founded.
My great-grandmother Constance, was a direct decendent of the 1820 Settlers.

I remember….

Before we left Port Elizabeth, we met Grandpa at the airport . He flew in on a Boeing 707.

I remember….

Grandpa drove Mom’s car, Corky and I rode with him until he became very ill, then Mom drove the rest of the way to Potchefstroom.





I remember….
Stopping on the road in the middle of nowhere because Grandpa was sick and then Dad and Grandpa driving off with the car keys, so Mom and I (and Corky) sat in the dark until they came back for us.

I remember….

The people who moved our stuff from Port Elizabeth were called “Springbok” and the mover’s truck had a pair of springbok horns fixed on its grill.

I remember….

Dad wouldn’t buy me a packet of Simba chips because the price had gone up to three cents.

I remember….



Simba chip packets being a lot bigger than they are today.





I remember….

We moved to a house on a plot near Plaston. It was very wild and bushy and the garden had roman statues built all around it. The house used to belong to the acclaimed South African artist , Bobby Lawrence.

I remember….

Walls Ice Cream, and the small plastic zoo animal that was inside it.

I remember….

Going to Sabie on weekends to visit my Godfather and my cousins.

I remember….

Bruce, my Godfather, always having a braai when we went to visit. My Dad said it was because he loved braai’s.

I remember….

Listening to Springbok Radio’s “Memories are Made of This” on the car radio on Sunday afternoons and thinking that that the weekend was over now, and tomorrow would be a school day.


I remember….

Grey short pants, short sleeve grey shirt, long grey socks and brown shoes school uniform.

I remember….

My father polished my school shoes on Sunday nights. He kept them in perfect rows on a sheet of newspaper and used Nugget brown shoe polish.

I remember….

My father would say “Bring me your school shoes” on Sunday nights. That also meant the end of the weekend.





I remember….

Mrs Rheeder, my grade one teacher at my new school White River Primary, I thought she was a mean woman.

I remember….

White River Primary was a dual medium school. I went to nursery school with Afrikaans children, so it was not unusual for me.

I remember.....

By the time we got to school going age, the National Party's separate development programme had been in place for 22 years. The schools were beautiful, well maintained buildings, with immaculate grounds. Religous Instruction, PT and Youth Preparedness were mandatory weekly subjects. Every morning at school assemblies, hymns and "Die Stem" were sung, the tune hammered out on a tuneless piano. The headmasters were invariably Afrikaans, English headmasters were very rare, even at in English schools. It never did cross our minds that we were at a whites only school. Black children went to school somewhere else, and that is how it was. Sometimes we saw them in their black and white uniforms, on their way to school.

I remember….

Having to ride the bus from school to Plaston and an older Afrikaans boy picking a fight with me on the bus. I gave him a black eye and he sat there sulking and muttering “ Ek gaan jou kry Rooinek” for the rest of the journey. He left me alone after that.

I remember….

Getting a soccer ball from my cousins (Cheryl and Wayne) for my seventh birthday, but most of all Mom and Dad gave me a real bicycle!

I remember….

My first bicycle was a BSA Junior with a black frame and white mudguards, it was a little too big for me but I grew into it.



I remember….

Mom killed a big Rinkhals with a grass slasher in three swift chops after the snake had reared up when the workers were clearing the grass.

I remember….

Sitting at the dining room table in the evenings, doing my homework, and watching the lightening and thunderstorms approaching over the hills.

I remember….

Bruce stamping on a huge scorpion that had crawled onto the patio.

I remember….

Dad and Bruce place kicking a glass Coca-Cola bottle over the telephone wire and Bruce breaking his foot.

I remember….

I had an LP record of children’s songs by Des and Dawn. My favourite song was about an old lady who swallowed a fly. I don’t know why she swallowed the fly, perhaps she’ll die.

I remember….

Our garden worker was a young black boy called Amos, we were friends.

I remember….

Getting the measles….and then mumps.

I remember….

The old lady from down the way, offering to make me a steamed pudding when I was sick, but I was feeling so rotten I declined it and felt sorry afterwards.

I remember….

Amos used to take me into the bush and show me the most interesting things, like how to find African potato and Marulas.

I remember….

Dad teaching me to shoot with his revolver.

I remember….

I had a friend called Japie who lived further along. He had two much older brothers, and his parents drove a Stingray. Japie died in car accident on the Nelspruit-White River road.

I remember….

The farm was owned by an old man called Tom Lawrence. He was stone deaf and had a driver who drove him around in a Ford F250. He was scary, but Japie and I stole his oranges anyway.

I remember….

My Grade two teacher was Mrs. Weyers, she was much nicer than Mrs. Rheeder.

I remember….

Moving into town. It was very exciting living in a town after being on the farm.

We lived right by the school, so I walked across the road to school every morning.

I remember….

Lying in bed on my first night in town and watching the cars headlights on my bedroom wall.

I remember….

When Granny Crooks got very ill and we went to see her in the hospital. I was scared because I didn’t recognize her. Mom stayed in Potchefstroom to be with her.

I remember….

I made friends with an Afrikaans boy called Dirk who lived across the road. They had all kinds of interesting stuff in their back yard like old cars and machinery that we could explore.

I remember….

I also made friends with Melvin and Greg who were in my class, and we stayed friends through high school.

I remember….

Dirk’s Dad had a beach-buggy with an 8 track cassette player in it. His Dad always played the song : Pretty Belinda.

I remember….

I invited a new classmate : Oscar to my house, and wanted to make friends with him, but we ended up fighting. He gave me a thick lip and I bloodied his nose, and we were never friends again. I heard much later that Oscar was killed in a car accident on the Nelspruit-White River road after finishing high school.

I remember….

Geoffrey Hardwick and I were best friends. We sat next to each other in class. My birthday was on the 5th and his on the 29th April and our parents were both involved in the Round Table organization.

I remember….

My first puppy love crush on a girl. Her name was Cheryl Pfaff, she was the daughter of an American missionary from Pennsylvania. I used to carry her school suitcase to where her father waited for her outside the school.

I remember….

Viewmaster. I had slides of Peter Pan and The Jungle Book.












I remember….

My cousin Bryan grew long hair and a beard when he left the army. He looked like a Hippy. My Dad said that if I ever grew my hair long, he would sit on me and cut it off.

I remember….

Hippies lived in Jo’burg. They all had long hair and wore tatty jeans. (They were so cool).

I remember….

The Round Table’s Christmas tree functions for the kids. Father Christmas arrived on a tractor with our presents.

I remember….

Bryan played Father Christmas at my Gran’s house and the dogs chased him.

I remember….

Dad installing a Porta-Pool and learning to swim in it.

I remember….

Chappie’s Bubblegum were two for one cent.

I remember….


Wilson’s Creamy Toffee and Candy Cola sweets were much bigger than they are today.

They cost 1c each.


I remember….

Sugus. A fruity sweet that came in a flat box that had a collectable card inside. Sometimes it was an animal theme and once it was a costumes of the world theme.

I remember….

The roadhouse next to Duffy’s scrap yard, near the Drum Rock Hotel, we sometimes went there for toasted cheeses and milkshakes on Saturday nights.

I remember….

Going to The Wimpy in Nelspruit for special treats like birthdays.

I remember….

Dad telling me that Granny Crooks had died. I cried a lot and missed her so much. I stayed at Dirk’s house when Dad went to be with Mom in Potchefstroom.

I remember….

“Hello children, its four o’clock and time for Little People’s Playtime” on the English radio station.

I remember….

Climbing our neighbour’s Avocado pear tree. It was the highest tree around, with the biggest avo’s around.

I remember….

Going to The Kruger Park for day trips on weekends.

I remember….

Swingball, with wooden bats.

I remember….

Fuel restrictions during the oil crises. You could not buy petrol after hours or on weekends. The speed limit on open roads was 80 kph, and was heavily enforced.


I remember….

Our domestic worker stayed over to baby-sit us when Mom and Dad went out. She always kept the curtains closed and would peer out of them nervously from time to time, and I never understood why.

I remember….

The bell that rang at the police station every night, it meant that black people had to get off the streets.

I remember….

My standard three teacher telling us to do well at school or else one day we would have a kaffir for a boss. She was ashamed to know of a woman who worked in Johannesburg who did.

I remember….

We went to a place called Winkelspruit on the Natal South Coast for December holidays. I met Gillian, she lived in Germiston, and we stayed pen pals for years after that.

I remember….

Joining Cubs and being very proud when I was invested and got my cool khaki uniform, green scarf and green and gold cap.







I remember….



Being even prouder when I got my first star.




I remember….

Getting my first Timex watch for my eighth birthday.

I remember….

Chuck Edwards and Red Kowalski in “Taxi” on Springbok radio.

I remember….

Having fireworks at Guy Fawkes and always thinking it was pronounced as Guy Fox.

I remember….

Captain Hurricane and Janus Stark in the Valiant and Smash comics.














I remember….

Dad had an 8mm projector and we used to watch “The Three Stooges” over and over and found it funny every single time.

I remember….

We also used to look at his photographs on slides through a slide projector against a white sheet on the wall.

I remember….

The whole family going to the dentist and trying my best to be brave because the strange chair and lights that shone in your face and the sound of the drill terrified me.

I remember….

Having to be especially brave when I saw Cheryl Pfaff at the dentist.

I remember….

I got my own portable radio for my birthday. I could listen to “Highway to Adventure” late at nights in bed with the earphones.

I remember….

Clark MacKay and Dana Niehaus presented the morning show.

I remember….

I loved Rock and Pop music, my Dad said it was a noise, and the singers were Hippies.

I remember….

Darryl Jooste, DJ the DJ in the afternoons.

I remember….

Going to film shows at the school hall on Friday nights for five cents entry.

I remember….

Cake sales at school and big sticky jam doughnuts.

I remember….

Going to Potchefstroom to spend Easter with Granny and Grandpa.

I remember….

Granny gave us tea in green plastic cups with toasted and buttered hot cross buns. I liked the half with the cross on best.

I remember….

Easter egg hunts on Granny’s stoep early in the morning before going to church.

I remember….

Being anxious to get out of church and get to my Easter eggs.





I remember….

Four Jacks and a Jill.

I remember….

The movie shorts: “The Persuaders" with Tony Curtis and Roger Moore, and also “The Thunderbirds”


I remember….






Going to birthday parties and watching 16mm hired movies. I saw “The Man with the Golden Gun” about 16 times.










I remember….

Casper the Friendly Ghost and Spooky comics.

I remember….

Going to the Drive-In on weekends and being disappointed if there were no cartoons.

I remember….

My little brother was born. He had red curly hair and we called him “Tiny Tim”.

I remember….

Springbok Hit Parade LP records. The first one I got was number 21. Leo Sayer’s song” Long Tall Glasses” was my favourite.




I remember….

David Gresham presented the Springbok Top 20 on Friday nights. He used to say “Keep your feet on the ground and reach for the stars!”





I remember….

Getting a family size Coca-Cola to share at Sunday lunch times as a treat. Sometimes we got Walls Neapolitan ice cream too.

I remember….

Rui and I were friends, he was a little bit older than me. His brother was doing National Service.

I remember….

Rui’s mother couldn’t speak English, but she made delicious food.

I remember….

Rui’s brother had the record; “Cold Fact” by Rodriguez. I taped it and listened to it until the tape snapped. We were intrigued by the lyrics “ I wonder how many times you’ve had sex”..... Did people really keep count of how many times they had sex?




I remember….

Rui and I tried smoking cigarettes. I can’t deny that I liked the taste of tobacco.

I remember….

Grown ups always used to have a nap on Sunday afternoons.

I remember….

We had a big black telephone, to work it you had to crank the handle to get the operators attention and then ask for the number you wanted. Our number was 535.

I remember….

Going to Sienna’s birthday party, and dancing with an older girl to Abba’s “I Do, I Do, I Do”

I remember….

On Friday’s we had a maths test, an English spelling test and an Afrikaans spelling test at school. You got jacks if you failed any of them.

I remember….

Gordon Hunt getting jacks three times every Friday.

I remember….

Reading in the comics about the cool stuff you could buy in America. Like an 8’ glow in the dark skeleton.

I remember….

I had outgrown my bicycle, and got a new blue BSA Aquarius for my tenth birthday.

I remember….

Geoffrey and I riding our bicycles to Longmere Dam.

I remember….

We were the only English family on the block. My brother and I were constantly getting into fights with the Afrikaans kids. They called us Rooinek's and we called them Rock Spiders or Crunchies.

The Afrikander's bitter resentment and open hostility towards English speaking South Africans went back a long way. From way back when the British annexed the Cape in 1806, to Kitcheners scorched earth and concentration camp policies during the Anglo-Boer War. Even today, more than 110 years later, this resentment still remains.

I remember….

Going to movies at the school on a Friday night. I held Lynne Falconer’s hand during the show. We were “cased” for a while. She was the first girl I was “cased” to.

I remember….

Jet Jungle. He had a black panther called Jupiter. Spaghetti and Sam were his friends, and he flew around in the Verti-Jet.

I remember….

I got a Jet Jungle badge when I joined the Jet Jungle club, and a magazine every month. ( I still have my Jet Jungle Club badge).

I remember….

All my friends had Daisy BB air rifles and my father wouldn’t let me have one.

I remember….

I got a Kodak Instamatic camera for Christmas instead of a BB gun.







I remember….

I liked taking photos. The man at the pharmacy who developed my photos criticised some of my pictures because they were under-exposed, and offered to teach me how to take photos. I thought he was a twit, because I had deliberately taken the pictures in a low light to get a shadowy effect.

I remember….

My camera went missing, co-incidentally at the same time our domestic maid didn’t come back to work.

I remember….

When the One Rand coin replaced the One Rand note.







I remember….

Stink bombs and itching powder. We could buy these at the annual Lowveld Show.

I remember….

The carnival rides at the Lowveld Show were the biggest attraction for me. My folks wouldn’t let me ride the Dive Bomber.

I remember….

The Portuguese refugees streaming into town after Frelimo took over Moçambique. They were sheltered in the town hall and camped on the town’s cricket ground.

I remember….

The civil defense driving around town requesting food and blankets for the refugees over a loudspeaker.

I remember….

“Ruiter in Swart” and “Tessa” photo comics. My Mom didn’t like me reading them, but Dirk had hundreds of them.











I remember….

Rui Carreira came to our school and stayed in the hostel when his parents fled Moçambique. He could barely speak English. I remember him crying when his father said goodbye to him, the other children teased him. When I look back, I think he must have been the very bravest of kids.

I remember….

Thinking how big the boys in standard five were, and when I got to standard five they weren’t so big anymore.

I remember….

Going to Veld School. We went to a desolate place called Argent, near Delmas. It was the first time I was away from home for so long.

I remember….

Veld School was meant to be a government brainwashing exercise, but all I suffered was the horrible food and long hikes.

I remember….

The Veld School teacher giving us a lecture about subversive messages from the Communists. She told us the Peace sign was a symbol against Christianity. Back then wearing denim jackets with cloth patches and badges with the peace sign or the smiley face was enormously popular, and I quietly scoffed at her notions.

I remember….

Our maths teacher was a Mr. Swart. The cruelest excuse for a man I’ve ever encountered. He was arrogantly proud of his language, proud of his Christianity, proud of being the oppressor and he loved to inflict terror and pain on little children, especially English children.

I remember….

Asking my parents why the black school children were rioting and she told me that they did not want to be taught in Afrikaans. I thought that was odd because all the black people that I had encountered spoke Afrikaans.




I remember….

The radio jingle: "We love braaivleis, rugby, sunny skies and Chevrolet"