A south african childhood

WOW... an almost comprehensive list of my childhood! it's long winded, but wow, the memories.

>>REMEMBER
Before the Internet or the Credit card and overdraft facility...
Before Aids, affirmative action, hi- jacking. Before pregnancy scares and regrettable one-night stands and cane and coke!...

Way back....
I'm talking about the time of Hide and go Seek in the garden or farm yard...or in the dark. The local cafe in town to spend your 50c pocket money after church while you old man was buying the Sunday Times.
Remember Rounders, Clay lyts, catches, touch rugby with a coke bottle (2L with removable black bottom used for flower pots at school) or leather super springbok (if you were really lucky!) for hours on a Saturdy afternoon while your folks played tennis at the club. Garden Cricket with a plastic garden chair as wickets, games normally ending in a wrestling match after a dispute over a run out - remember different runs allocated to different parts of the garden, six and out and breaking at least one window a season.

Beetle bailey, Sharki and Tom and Jerry while you ate your breakfast before school , Images (and the tunes) of "Tick-tock Time", "Willie Walie","Rupert", "LieweHeksie", "The Gummy Bears", "Pumpkin Patch" and "Bennie Boekwurm" still float through your mind.

Out door entertainment took the form of: Jumping the river, living on the beach or in the pool building a swing from a piece of rope tied to a tree (falling off the swing trying to impress your mates!), sliding down the banks on boxes, form little gangs, tennis on the street or swing ball in the backyard.
You had to beg your parents to let you stay up to watch "Dallas", WKRP", "Magnum PI", Family Ties", "Three's Company" and "Who's the Boss" at 8:30pm.

You went to the movies/drive-in to watch "Pretty Woman","Back to the Future" series,"Police Academy","Star Wars","Grease","The God's Must Be Crazy","ET","Rocky III", "Superman","Beverly Hills Cop","Ghostbusters","Top Gun" "Dirty Dancing" and "Jaws".
You owned either a Rubik's Cube, BMX, Donky Kong Game, luminous socks, walkman, Ken doll, Matchboxcars (esp."HotWheels") or a Cabbage-Patch Kid.

The smell of suntan lotion, hot tar and Oros. Wicks bubble gum and chappies for a cent. An ice cream cone from the kombi that plays a tune.

Wait... can you still remember...

Marble season ( goenes, arlies, glasses, moon rocks, spiders,Chinese checkers, ironies ( which ended up chipping many an unsuspecting crab goen), ( hollie ( eye drops, pillie drops, ect), pillie (pile-ons), yoyo season ( fanta , sprite and coke yoyo's or those one with the flashing lights)
Top season ( not as popular, as the above but crept in from time to time)

When around the corner seemed far away and going into town seemed like going somewhere, and your old lady made you "dress up" for the trip.
A million mozzie bites and peeling skin in summer. Sticky fingers and sand in and on everything. Cops and Robbers, Stingers, kissing catchers ( and actually being petrified of being caught by the cute boy in your class) Truth, dare and command - for that matter! foefie slides & climbing trees.
Walking or riding your bike to school - no matter what the weather.
Running till you were out breath. Laughing so hard that your stomach hurt.
Jumping on the bed..... Pillow fights and midnight feasts (which where always not as cool as you expected them to be!).
Spinning around, getting dizzy and falling down. Getting ichy from lying on the grass in the garden,or from the ticks you picked up herding cattle in the veld!

Being tired from playing...
Remember that...
The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team.
Paper water bombs and clay "layts" were the ultimate weapon.
A piece of card in the spokes held by a clothes peg transformed any bicycle into a motorcycle. And for the spoilt kids those coloured boggles which where attached to each spoke and made a lekker sound!
Talking about boggles who remembers those boggles the tennis players used to keep
their laces tied, what ever happen to that ingenious invention!

I'm not finished just yet...
Can you still taste and smell eating jelly powder from the box, ice lollies made from cold drink in Tupperware holders in the freezer.Or jumbo lollies in there plastic sachets, green and yellow were sour! Making sherbet from sugar and ENOS and boiling tins of condensed milk to make caramel - took hours! No camping trip was complete without a tin of condensed milk regardless of whether that camping trip was in your back garden or down at the river.
Marshmallow fish and mice, the more stale they where the better!

Remember when...
There were two types of takkies - Tommies and the canvas ones, and the only time you wore them at school, was for "PT". Or if you went to a farm school ever PT was done bare foot!
Getting into trouble because you were missing a few buttons or torn you school shirt during a tight game of rugby during little break! Normally English vs Afrikaaners - we reinacted the boer war every break during the winter months!
Your mom or aunt
made all your clothes, luminous kit was the heat, brighter the better although because your folks were still stuck in the fashion of the early seventies ended up wearing plenty of brown and earth colours!
50 cents was decent pocket money - bought you a pack of fire balls or jaw breakers and a stick of wicks or a box of smarties or nougat or you could get a lucky packet with the pink sweets!.
When you'd reach into a muddy gutter for 5 cents and feel lucky.
When nearly everyone's mom was at home when the kids got there.
Remember when it was magic when dad would "remove" his thumb or nose, or make 10 cents appear from behind your ear. When you could make your
nose krick with a thumb nail strategically hooked under your front teeth and
watching your younger boet also break his nose trying to imitate you!
When it was considered a great privilege and very unusual to be taken out to dinner at a real restaurant or in a proper hotel. Mikes Kitchen if you happened to be in town over your birthday!
Remember the spare ribs and badges (clowns, airplanes ect).
Remember when any parent could discipline any kid, or feed him or use him to carry groceries and nobody, not even the kid, thought a thing of it.
When being sent to the head master's office was nothing compared to the fate that awaited a misbehaving child at home.

Basically, we were in fear for our lives but it wasn't because of muggings, drugs, gangs, etc. Our parents and grandparents were a much bigger threat....and some of us are still afraid of them!!!

Didn't that feel good.....just to go back and say, Yeah, I remember that!

Remember when....
Decisions were made by going "eeny-meeny- miney-mo."
you could get out of doing crappy jobs if you were quick with"Nix!"
"A race issue" meant arguing about who ran the fastest.
Money was handled by whoever was the banker in "Monopoly".
The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was germs.
Having a weapon in school meant being caught with a BIC pen pea shooter or a "cattie".
Taking drugs meant orange-flavoured chewable vitamin C.
Ice cream was considered a basic food group.
Skills and courage were discovered because of a "dare".
Older siblings were the worst tormentors, but also the fiercest protectors.

If you can remember most or all of these, then you have LIVED!!!! (most likely in South Africa.)

Have a lekker day!
Carie