Stayin' Alive 1977 -1979

I remember.....

Our Aunts in Potchestroom had a television. We used to go and watch every thing that screened, every evening when we were in Potch until they chased us out, or the test pattern came up.













I remember.....

South Africa’s first TV signal was tested in 1975, and the first broad casts started in 1976. The government viewed television as a threat to their narrow minded way of life, despite the fact that even Rhodesia and Swaziland already had TV. Only the major centres could receive a signal as it was slowly rolled across the country. The broadcast started at six in the evening and ended before midnight. Living in the remote Eastern Transvaal areas, we were among the last towns to get a picture. TV was such a novelty to us, that when we visited relatives in Potchefstroom, we made a nuisance of ourselves by watching every possible minute that we could.

I remember.....

Pop Shop, was a fifteen minute show of music presented by David Gresham. We saw our music idols perform “live” for the first time.



I remember.....

I started High School at Lowveld High School in Nelspruit. It was the only English High school in the Lowveld. We had to catch a bus from White River at the crack of dawn every morning.

I remember.....

Geoff left for boarding school at Pretoria Boys High. We only saw each other during school holidays after that.

I remember.....

Being in Standard Six and being the juniors again was not much fun. The matrics made us carry their school cases and other menial stuff.

I remember.....

Getting so many text books, I thought my brief case would burst open...and it was so heavy!

I remember.....

Getting so much home work, I thought I’d never have fun again.

I remember.....

The Concorde


I remember.....

A peanut farmer became the next American president.

   I remember.....

Our Scout group went to Pretoria for the weekend every year in February, to take part in the Baden-Powell’s Day celebration. We went by train, and were hosted by Hatfield Scouting families in Pretoria.



I remember.....

I won “The Star” newspapers caption contest. I received a cheque for R10. My Dad took me to the bank to cash it. It was the most money I had ever had.

I remember.....

Mississippi, by Pussycat, was the number one song on the Top 20 for seven weeks.



I remember.....

My girl friend Louise died suddenly from Leukaemia. She had been my closest girl friend since Standard 1. I was devastated. We had played badminton together only two weeks before.

I remember.....

When I stopped believing in God, I could not understand how a loving God could take someone as beautiful and lovely as Louise away.

I remember.....

My Dad finally bought a TV set. It was A Sony Trinitron.

I remember.....

White River didn’t have an official TV signal, but some of the towns bright sparks hooked up a booster to get the signal from Nelspruit. The picture was very snowy, if the wind blew too hard, we lost the picture, but we didn’t care, because it was TV!

I remember.....

When the orange trees came into blossom, the whole Nelspruit valley smelled of orange blossom.

I remember.....

It was announced that National Service would be increased to two years. I knew that going to the army was compulsory, the penalties for not attending were severe, but I liked the idea of being a soldier one day.


Around this time, the South African Defence Force was deployed on the South West African border with Angola to control the inflow of  military insurgents engaging in terror attacks on the South West African population and other key installations. This was the start of a huge chapter in the South African border war history that changed the lives of many South Africans. The war ended with the independence of Namibia in 1989.

I remember......

Sara Moon prints. Just about every girl I knew had one. I was particularly fond of "Hippy Girl", she reminded me of Lorraine.

I remember.....

The school produced the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta “The Gondoliers” I sang tenor in the chorus.

I remember.....

Melvin, Ian and I made skateboards by attaching old roller skates onto a board. We skateboarded from sun-up to sun-down every weekend, and every afternoon after school.

I remember.....

Pepsi-Cola had a skateboard promotion; you could buy the Pepsi board that had a fibre glass deck, proper trucks and wide poly urethane wheels. My father agreed to let me buy one with my savings.

I remember.....

The Sarie Awards for local musicians and Sonja Herholdt won so many awards that it got boring.



I remember.....

Nick Nolte in Rich Man Poor Man.



I remember.....

Eddie Ekstein and The Bats

I remember.....

Elvis Presley died on August 16, 1977. People said The King is dead. Sadly, I thought Elvis was an overweight, sweaty slob.



I remember.....

Hearing on the news that someone called Steve Biko had died whilst being held by the police. I didn’t understand what the big deal was. I didn’t know who he was, but he must have done something wrong if the police had him.

I remember.....

Sylvester Stallone in Rocky.



I remember.....

Tom Pryce the racing driver and a marshal died in an horrific accident during the Grand Prix at Kyalami.





I remember.....


Falconetti in Rich Man Poor Man part 2. He was the Dude.



I remember.....

Terrorists exploded a bomb in the Carlton Centre. Innocent people were hurt.

PLAN, The Peoples Liberation Army of Namibia had the courage to take the South African security forces head on in combat. The ANC however, chose to oppose the  Governments racial policies by bravely bombing civilian targets, killing and injuring not only women and children, but black people also. Today these bombers refer to themselves as "Struggle Veterans"

I remember.....

Kojak, on Saturday nights


I remember.....

TV advertising started in 1978.

I remember.....

Mathews Badswadi became the first black Springbok

I remember.....

One of the Pretoria scouts that I stayed with when we made our annual trip taught me how to play pinball! This was the start of a long obsession.

I remember.....

Pyramid Power was the rage.

I remember.....

Passing through Johannesburg on our way to Potchefstroom and thinking how great it must be to live there..... It is.


I remember.....

The price of white bread went up 25% to 25 cents.

I remember.....

My brother, Cim and I used to hoard 10 cent coins, which we would blow on pinball games when we went to Potchefstroom. Pinball was an exotic entertainment that was frowned on, sometimes even banned, and definately not found in the Lowveld.

I remember.....

Luke Skywalker and Star Wars. Even though we only got to see it 6 months after its release.

I remember.....

Radio 5 broadcast on short wave. We could pick up a very crackly and hissy signal. I built a short wave aerial on my Dad’s roof to try getting better reception. The music they played was like we’d never heard before.

I remember.....

John Travolta and Saturday Night Fever


I remember.....

“Stayin’ alive, Stayin’ alive, uh uh uh uh Stayin’ alive, Stayin’ aliiiiiive”


I remember.....

GST, General Sales Tax was introduced. It was 4% on everything.

This severely affected my budget, because my Mom gave me 10 cents to buy lunch with when I stayed after school for rugby practice. I could no longer afford a coke and a packet chips on 10c.

I remember.....

Cheryl Pfaff, came back after being away for 3 years. The cow didn’t even greet me.

I remember.....

I became immensely interested in the novels by Sven Hassel. I have read them all, over and over since then, and continue to do so. I own three complete collections.

I remember.....

The Test Tube Baby, Louise Brown....





Pity they were not able to make her pretty.....


I remember.....


John Vorster resigned and PW Botha the minister of defence, became Prime Minister.

I remember.....

I saw Kate Bush singing “Wuthering Heights” on Pop Shop. I was fascinated with her high pitched squeaky voice. I saved and saved until I had R5 to buy her album. The video is a bit scary to watch now days.


I remember.....

When “Grease” was the word!


I remember.....

I took a train to Johannesburg and spent a week with friends of my Mom. It was the most fantastic time for me. It was the first time I had been to the city.

I remember.....

Sha Na Na and Bowzer





"Grease for peace!" was their slogan.


I remember.....

I thought Farrah Fawcett was the most beautiful woman alive.


I remember.....

The Post Office and the liquor stores had separate entrances. One for whites and one for blacks.

I remember....

The benches at the stations and in the parks had signs on them that read "Whites Only - Net Blankes"

I remember.....

Our standard seven history teacher showing us photos of Nazi racism. It never entered her mind that the Afrikander was practicing the same thing in this country, and we never dared to question her because  we were taught that our teachers and elders were always right.

I remember.....

A man named Jim Jones poisoned a whole lot of his followers with cyanide and Kool Aid in Guyana. The images we saw on television were appalling.

I remember.....

The old black and white number plates that had TDH for White River and TBH for Nelspruit were replaced by the black and yellow three alpha three numeric number plates, the sequence ended in a T, for Transvaal. The Transvaal was the only province that adopted this. We eagerly waited for FOK666T to show up, but they were clever enough to omit the vowels.

I remember.....

Forces Favourites on the radio on Sunday afternoons. Pat Kerr and Esme Euveraad would read out messages from families like “ To rifleman So and So somewhere on the border......” It was always on my mind that it would be my turn one day.

I remember.....

The strip tease dancer, Glenda Kemp. And how people would go across the border to Swaziland to see her shows, and gamble. Strip teases and gambling were banned in South Africa.



I remember.....

We wore Bata Toughees to school, and North Stars were popular casual shoes.


I remember.....

Superman, The Movie.


I remember.....

C.B radios were the rage. After much persuasion, my father agreed to help me buy one. My “handle” was The Sultan, from the Dire Straits song “Sultans of Swing”




I remember.....

“Breaker! Breaker! Any good buddy for a rap on the one nine?”

I remember.....

Some wise guy, probably Gray, got it into his head that we had to wear Cadet uniforms for our Youth Preparedness lessons, and we had to learn to drill, like the military.

I remember.....

The Afrikaans school’s pupils would wear those stupid uniforms all day. We changed back into our regular school uniforms as soon as YP was over.

I remember.....

We stayed up late and the neighbours came over to watch Gerrie Coetzee fight Leon Spinks. He put Spinks down in the first round before the kettle had boiled for a cup tea.


I remember.....

Skylab came hurtling down to earth. I prayed it would crash into the school on top of Gray’s head, instead it landed in the Australian desert.




I remember....

My father announced that he was going to be transferred to Johannesburg and that we would have to move. I was over the moon at the news. " Good bye Lowveld High, up yours Gray! "

I remember....

Suzie Quattro sang, "She's in love with you" and that was the end of the 1970's.