A CHILDHOOD IN THE OLD SOUTH AFRICA

This is not so much the story of one man's childhood and youth as it is the story of a whole generation. Much of the way we grew up, and most of the pastimes with which we amused ourselves in the days before television and TV games are completely strange to the generations which followed us. So this is more a celebration of those things and some of the places from my childhood and youth than an autobiography. I hope that whoever reads this and remembers these things and places fondly will enjoy the memories with me ...

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Clicking on place names will bring up a map of each area

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PLACES

Although I was born in the Pilgrim's Rest District in the old Transvaal (my parents running  a banana plantation between Sabie and Graskop), I spent most of my childhood in the Cape Province. We moved frequently, because my father worked for the Cape Provincial Roads Department at the time, and so I got to live in small villages like Jansenville, Steytlerville, Alicedale, Petrusville and Douglas. Life in these villages was ideal for a young boy; we had the run of the place, and a few minutes' walk took one into the veld and virtually out of sight of the town. So we spent most of our afternoons and school holidays playing out in the open, barefoot and adventurous.

We also lived in larger towns and cities, spending some time in East London on the east coast and in Cape Town itself. But most of my younger days were spent in towns like Oudtshoorn, Graaff-Reinet, Klawer, Vredendal, Tulbagh, Willowmore and Villiersdorp, where I graduated from the De Villiers Graaff High School in 1969. Some of my holidays were spent in Worcester and Still Bay, but for many years it was tradition that we would go camping with my maternal grandmother and her family at Palmiet, near Kleinmond on the Cape south coast, less than two hours' drive from Cape Town.

Later I worked in Cape Town and Moorreesburg after I had served in the SA Defence Force, first as a National Serviceman in the Army Gymnasium in Heidelberg, Transvaal, and then in the Permanent Force at the Youngsfield Anti-Aircraft Artillery base in Cape Town and the Infantry School in Oudtshoorn. I studied at Stellenbosch University from 1973 to 1976, and then joined the teaching staff of the Paul Roos Gymnasium, one of the top boys' schools in the country. Here I taught from 1976 to 2000. At this time I lived in the lovely town of Somerset West, 20km or so from Stellenbosch.

PASTIMES

As children we had to amuse ourselves either by playing traditional games or by inventing new ones. Most of our afternoons, week-ends and holidays were spent out of doors. We grew up barefooted and unconcerned about sunburn, thorns in the feet, stubbed toes and the myriad of scratches, bruises and sometimes more serious injuries which came as part of our games. Some of these were quite dangerous and would no doubt fill modern parents with horror (I am sure, had they known it at the time, our parents would also have frowned on some of our more risky pastimes!).

An all-time favourite was kleilat, which involved finding a supple willow twig about a metre long and some really sticky clay. The clay was shaped into a ball about the size of a fist and moulded onto the thin end of the twig. Then, using an action similar to a surf angler's casting action, the twig was used to release the ball of clay, which thus became a formidable projectile. With some practice (and we were soon very adept at it!) such a clay missile could be hurled a good fifty metres with bruising accuracy. Kleilat fights normally involved two teams, usually arrayed on opposite sides of the river, dam or waterhole where the clay was to be found. The result was great fun and a fair number of bruises and black eyes!

When there was no clay to be had, we sometimes indulged in clod battles. These again required two sides engaged in furious battles, the projectiles being hard, dry clods of earth. Sometimes stones were surreptitiously substituted, and then the opposing party would follow suit. The standing rule, though, was that no "bullet" was allowed to be larger than our fists. These battles were usually fought between the "Boers" and the "Rooinekke or Kakies" (as the British troops were commonly known during the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902). Who was who was always determined by some sort of toss, as no-one wanted to be the British!

We also spent a lot of time building and sliding down what we knew as foofie slides. These were constructed by attaching a thick, strong steel wire as high up a tree (usually eucalyptus) as we could, the other end of the wire being anchored in the ground some 30 to 50 metres away. Running freely on the wire was a short length of steel piping. Going down the slide entailed climbing into the tree, grasping hold of the pipe and sliding down the wire -- and have a safe landing, hopefully! Broken arms were not an uncommon result of this activity, and sometimes the pipe became hot enough to leave the odd blister on the palm.

A game which was frequently banned by school principals was kennetjie. This was played with a thin stick about a metre long which served as a "bat" and a shorter, thicker stick, usually around 15 cm long, which was the "ball", the kennetjie. A very intricate game, with many rules, it was also highly dangerous, as the "fielders" had to try and catch the kennetjie once it had been hit into the air. A groove is cut in the ground, and the kennetjie placed across it.
Any number of people can play. The first, using the long stick, flicks the kennetjie into the air and then hits it as far as he can and one of the other players throws it back, trying to get as close to the groove as possible. The first player is allowed to hit it away before it comes to rest, but if it stops, he then measures with his hitting stick how many lengths 
it is from the hole. The closer it is, the more difficult will 
be his next hit. I remember a three (three stick lengths) 
being a "tip and a zip". This involved lightly tipping the 
little stick with the bigger into a spin and then
trying to hit the moving kennetjie. If you missed you were out. You were also out if on any return throw the kennetjie 
landed closer than a stick length to the groove. It was 
then someone else's turn. There were other types of 
strike (besides the tip and zip). Another involved balancing it on your cheek and then letting it slide off when you had 
to strike before it hit the ground. A third came off the
elbow and so on.  I still have a small lump on my
 forehead from a badly judged attempt at such a catch!

Other, less dangerous  favourite pastimes were playing with Dinky, Corgi or Matchbox vehicles, playing marbles or tops, or the usual cowboys and crooks/Indians or cops and robbers, played with toy revolvers or pistols for which we had to save quite a few weeks' pocket money. Not very politically correct by modern standards! but not one of the boys with whom I grew up turned into a mass murderer, armed robber or killer! Building model aeroplanes, ships or cars (at that time mostly Airfix) was a pastime for the evenings or rainy days, or those times when our parents had got wind of what we had been up to and "gated" (grounded) us!

In those days boys also formed gangs, but these were actually secret clubs, with their own rules, hideouts and badges. Often our varied forms of battles were between rival "gangs", although more usually the gangs were so secret that their very existence was not supposed to be known by any but members. Such secret clubs had swashbuckling names like "The Eagles", "Pirates" or "Knights of the Veld". There was even an Afrikaans youth magazine called "Patrys" which served as a forum for discussions, the exchange of ideas and stories about gangs and which also contained plans for making or building things like crossbows, canoes or any of the multitude of other objects we used to play with.
Building our hideouts was a serious
undertaking, as it was to be dry in the rain, well hidden from passers-by, comfortable and large enough to seat all the members.

As I recall more, and as I get more feedback from you (which I hope will happen!) I will add to these activities with which we passed our free time in the 50's and early 60's. Please do not hesitate to e-mail me, should you have information you think I could add here.