AI gave me a great overview on Google:
Photographs of Johannesburg courtesy of www.joburg.org.za - This Blog is dedictated to Emily, in the Bon Jovi "have a nice day" tour programme, there is a note at the end that says "This is the story of my life and I write it every day, and I hope you're by my side when I'm writing the last page"
When I was home a few weeks ago, I met up with a few friends from the South of Jo'burg, who went to the same Primary school as I did: - "Highveld Primary".
One of my friends who became a teacher and eventually was appointed principal of a private school in Linmeyer, but has now retired was telling me how she spends her days. She told me she volunteers at St. Mary's home. We always referred to it as an orphanage, but it wasn't really a place for orphans but for kids who's parents either could not afford to keep them or neglected them.
On our way to meet up with the friends at "Gino's in Robertsham", there were a few kids begging at the traffic lights, my friend said that often these kids would land up at the home as well. This made me happy to know that they had somewhere they could go to have a meal and a warm bed.
I vowed that when I got back I would give back to the community where I grew up in and will start with "St. Marys", I have often helped other people who have organized events in the South, however this one is close to my heart and wanted to share it with all of you. If you perhaps feel the same then please see if there is something you can do to help them as well.
https://stmaryschildrenshome.org.za/news
Interesting facts about St. Mary's - In one of my posts I spoke about the Anglo Boer War and how the Johannesburg Concentration Camp was at the Turffontein Racecourse. My friend said that after the end of the ABW they opened St. Mary's which is not far from the Turffontein Racecourse.
"St Mary’s Children’s Home has been operating since 1902. Their services include residential care to 54 children designated to them through the Children’s Court on account of the Child Care Act, for reasons which include abuse (mental, physical, emotional and sexual abuse) and / or neglect, being orphaned or some have been affected by HIV/ AIDS virus. They come to them from surrounding informal settlements and many can be seen as the poorest of the poor."
We just returned from a couple of weeks in South Africa, far
too short a time!
It was a family wedding in the Midlands just near Nottingham
Road, I had not been to that area since I was engaged to a guy I met down in
Newcastle. His family on a farm on Botha's Pass just outside of
Memel on the way to Newcastle.
I was down on business and met him in the lounge at the Holiday Inn and we
exchanged numbers, can you believe it, this was back at the beginning of 1991
and yet to call the farm, you still had to go through the exchange ... remember
"Nommer asseblief" well that is exactly what it was.
They owned a farm which was 4000 ha of land, and they farmed
mainly sheep. When I look back now, I can see I fell in love with
the farm and not with the guy. It was an escape from the rat race,
as I would often go down on the weekend and spend my weekends there.
Then at one stage I had to go down on business and took my annual leave and spent 5 weeks down there. I think after that I realized that I was a "city" girl by heart. But the trip down to Nottingham Road, brought me back to a simple life. The farm was called "Donkerhoek" and was approximately 25km's from Newcastle. I remember that from turning into the gate of the farm it was a 5km drive to the main house, and the road wasn't the best.
The Farm was very colonial - the mother Eileen Mollie Steel (nee Davis) born 9th January 1923, and who obviously came from Money married Raymond Graham Steel. They had 3 Sons, Michael, Ian & Peter Graham Steel. They were all given the middle name Graham.
Eileen's father "John Richard Davis" came from Liverpool and was a sea Merchant, he must have had a lot of money as he acquired a piece of land in Witkoppen, Johannesburg called "Craigieburn" - I know his mom still had this land when Peter and I were dating. When John died in 1948 he left this piece of land to her, she was an only child. Eileen was baptised in Parktown, Johannesburg.Looking at Google maps this is all that is left and one webpage says: "A section of this once large castle now stands on its windswept promontory isolated from the mainland by years of erosion."
I think I went down a Rabbit whole with this post, my whole intention was to talk about how beautiful the Midlands are and the area. Where this probably came from was that after I was rescued from the Oceanos, I did not see Peter again, I broke up with him. However I did bump inot him and his mother at Sandton Clinic one day, I had gone to see the specialist about having my tonsils removed. And he had brought his mom up to see someone as she needed to get her 2nd hip replaced. I was around for the first one! She was a lovely lady and who knows where life would have taken me if I had ended up marrying Peter and inheriting a vast amount of money. But we will never know.
I don't even think I have a photo of the farm or the family, I will need to have a look.
A few Months ago, I was approached by a Canadian company who do podcasts called "Tell Me What Happened" - Here is the Podcast if you have aobut 35 minutes to spare.
I have started following them on Spotify as there are a lot of other interesting stories as well.
Back in 2017 I did a post from an email I received from David who was reading my blog, then in January 2025 Richard commented on my blog post, and today sent this photo to see if anyone remembers.
And here is Richards Comment:
Amazing to stumble on this blog. I was around a bit earlier than most of the history here - my time was 1971 to 1974 . I started Gasworks in '71and left in '74 after marrying one of other "inmates" - Gill, and still married - just made 50 years. Now living in Tasmania - 2 children (ha!) and 5 grandkids spread around the world. Great memories of Gasworks - largely in an alcoholic haze. I started the house olympics and actually have a picture of our team. (sorry John Cornell - he can claim fame to the "League of Gentlemen" darts league but not the olympics - sadly John died quite a while back). The Summer of '72 was an epic party - we even had Glenda Kemp who was a famous stripper. My wife had the task of looking after her snakes between acts. Then there was the gambling nights with full size roulette tables and blackjack. Not to mention movie nights with "under the counter movies" . I hope there's a statute of limitations because the number of rules we broke was huge. We built a great bar - there was always competion between houses for the best.
I can't see how to publish pictures on this blog but to name the Gasworks Olympics team - and where they are now: Bob and Jim - sorry can't recall surnames. Pam Martinez and John Cornell (John later married Marilyn) . Steve and Carolyn Kirk - now divorced living in Ireland. Jilly Warren, my GF at the time - married and living in Wales. Mike and Ardyne O Sullivan - now divorced DK. Stella Still - married and living in Jersey - still in touch.
Like so many ex-pats we decided life was getting too unpleasant ( bombs at the school , bricks through windscreens) and in 1987 we moved to Tassie - started up the same electronics business I had in Jo'burg which I eventually sold , retired, now into local politics for entertainment. Getting old gracefully.
Love to hear from anyone who can fill in the blanks.
And here is the email I received today along with the photo:
Hi Rozi
Here is the picture I refer to in post. Coincidentally, Stella Challinor now Still is visiting us in Tassie from another island - Jersey.
Happy to share my email if it can raise any old contacts.
Cheers
Richard (richardireland @ bigpond . com )
I was looking at the Stat's on my Blog, to see which posts have attracted the most attention, and it seems it is all the one's in which I reminisce about the old days.
I think a lot of us look over those days with fond memories, and by reading about someone else's memories, they think of their own and where they were and what they were doing at the time.
This reminds me of a post in a blog SA IN THE OLD DAYS from 2011, which triggered so many memories for me. So, I thought I would write something similar about my own memories.
1976 - TV was introduced to South Africa with the first Broadcast on the 5th of January 1976, we did not get our TV set until much later that year or the following year.
However, to start the programs were short, I think they only broadcast for a few hours every evening.
There was only 1 Channel to start and if I remember correctly each alternate day it would start with a different language, so for instance on a Monday you would have English from 6 - 8 and the news in Afrikaans, and then Afrikaans for the rest of the broadcast.
On Tues you would start with Afrikaans and go onto English with the news in English.
I destinctly remember Tuesday, as my mother would make us watch the programme "The World at War" which started at about 9 PM and had some horrific scenes of Hitler and how he killed the Jews. They even showed someone being shot in the head and the brains splattering on Hitler's shoes.
The sad thing about getting TV was that we no longer listened to our favourite stories on Springbok Radio. This was the start of the end of Springbok Radio and the many shows we would listen to in the evening, like "Squad Cars" & "The men from the Ministry", so many different ones. Wikipedia has a list of all the different shows here. But I think Springbok Radio probably deserves a post of its own, so watch this space. Oh, actually I did one previously ... Springbok Radio.
Mostly we listened to the Springbok top 20 which was late on a Friday night with David Gresham and then repeated on a Saturday. They eventually made Pop Shop which was shown on TV on a Friday evening with the latest top hits and music videos.
My best friend's brother "Alex Jay" (name dropping) eventually took over Pop Shop and hosted it for many years. Although now that I googled it, I think Alex's show was called "Fast Forward" and not Pop Shop. Check it out ...
Happy New Year to you all!
2024
I know I need to reflect on 2024, Why it was a Milestone year and I noticed that I only blogged less than a hand full of times.
I meant to have at least one post every single month, but as always life got in the way & work of course.
Let me go back to the beginning,
January .... Sick and tired you've been hanging on me
Not too much happened on the Social Scene, we played Tennis (Workclub) and we started a brand new project that was going to take the guts of over a year to complete, we are finishing Milestone 3 at the end of Jan '25 and will have the final hurdle before we go live ... exciting times.
February .... google says - the second month of the year in the northern hemisphere, usually considered the last month of winter ... really???
We have a bank holiday the first Monday in Feb, it's a new one they brought in from 2023, St. Brigid's day. So we took the day and went off to Kilkenny with my half grand niece (long story) and her husband to have lunch and do some exploring.
March - Britannica says "March, 3rd month of the Gregorian Calendar. It was named after Mars, the Roman god of war. Originally March was the first month of the Roman calendar.
The month before I was due to take the whole of April off, my birthday month! It snowed on the 1st, it always seems to snow at the start of March!
Played more tennis, and it was Mothers day and St. Patrick's day. The VP came over from the US and we had a night out at the Church, free bar (haven't had those in a while).
The first 3 series were really about these kids in a private school in Cape
Town and about a child who was kidnapped and trafficked as a baby and in the
end lead up to the perpetrators being caught and arrested and everyone being
exposed and how it affected some of these children whose wealthy parents were
involved in the whole scandal. Just a brief synopsis.
So yesterday I was off sick, I am so tired of looking for something decent
to watch on TV and Netflix, but I went straight to Netflix and what was there
waiting for me - YES series 4 of Blood & Water, a good way to kill 4 hours
(6 episodes in a series & no advertisements).
I had thought that after Series 3 there would not be another one, but of
course you are always left on a cliff hanger after every series.
They gave you a recap on what had happened previously, but this series spoke
about cheating in Matric exams (kids stealing test papers) and a blackmailing incident
and sex tapes which eventually led down to a pupil at this private school who
had been bullied and how it affected his whole future and ruined his
life.
It's something that I brought up a few years ago when someone was trying to
organize a school reunion, and suddenly the school bullies got involved and
started deleting people they did not want to attend the reunion from the WhatsApp
group.
It took me back 40 years and reminded me how this person bullied me and I
decided to walk away leave the slack channel - the next thing I got a private
message from this person and I just had to let everything out that had been
supressed for over 40 years, they said they can't believe I am saying these
things as they don't remember every bullying me. But I guess I wasn't the
only person they bullied.
It reminded me of something I read one day:
People may not remember what you said, but they will always remember how you
make them feel!
And I totally agree, I don't remember what was said to me, but I do remember
being excluded and how I felt on many occasions.
If you don't want to watch all 4 series and you were a bully at school, just
do yourself a favour and watch Series number 4.
I am grateful to work for a company where Mental Health is so important and there is always someone to help you. Gone are the days where you had to leave your problems at home and not bring them to the office and great that companies are prepared to help their workers through all their mental issues they have.
I guess having a Milestone birthday this year has made me think about life and ponder on everything.
Growing up we have our Music Idols, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones etc and you never really put an age on any of them ... then all of a sudden you hear "Mick Jagger" is turning 80 .... Whaaaat that means that I must be turning ... I mean after all these guys have been around playing music since before I was born, the rolling stones started playing in 1962.
Last week on BBC4 they started re-running shows from when "Top of the Pops" started airing back in 1964 yes it's 60 years old!
The Covid Lockdown period seems
like a million years ago now, but not sure if you also feel that 2 years of
your life disappeared, and you can't remember what happened in those two years?
There are so many people
especially the elderly that were affected detrimentally by Covid, and so many
of them that passed away. I guess we were the lucky ones who were
able to work from home, but it was hard on my daughter who did half of her transition
year and her final 2 years of schooling at home. She was also affected by
a boy in her class who had an aneurysm. He woke up one morning with a
headache and within an hour he was on life support in the hospital, only 18
years old an only child and so much to live for.
However, there are so many stories like that, again I was the lucky one – I have
never put this down in writing, but in 2019 early March I got Pneumonia, after
a trip to the Clinic and loads of medicine, I do not remember what happened as
it felt like an out of body experience.
That happened on a Friday evening, I cannot remember anything about the weekend,
on the Monday my husband left me to sleep and went to work, when he could not
get hold of me on the phone and felt that something was wrong he came home, to
find me collapsed on the bedroom floor.
He called the Ambulance who were there within minutes, they had to resuscitate me
and put 2 main lines in the sides of my neck.
Apparently, they had to resuscitate me again on the way to the
hospital. I was in ICU in a coma. When I woke up 10 days later, it was St.
Patrick’s Day as “D” had been at the hospital everyday talking to me, and on
this day, I woke up with him telling me that our daughter had gone to the St.
Patrick’s Day parade in the city. He was
also telling me that everyone was praying for me, and I just thought WTF is he
talking about.
I probably only realized a few days later, I had no clue what was going on or
why I was in the hospital, but I was on a respirator and the hospital had done
so much to save my life. Now most
people think, or I certainly did, that when you come out of a coma you can just
get up and get on with it. Well, I did
learn the hard way! I had to learn to
walk, talk, eat, and do everything myself again.
After having spent two weeks in ICU, I spent another 2 weeks in a private ward
getting rehabilitation every day. All
the holidays I spent in the hospital, Mother’s Day, my birthday, I was home for
Easter thank goodness and then home for another month recuperating. By this time, I had run out of paid sick
leave, so really wanted to get back to the office, the Occupational therapist
suggested against it and put me on a phased return to work.
Not long after I returned to work I had a month off as I had booked a trip to SA
for the July, it was the last family holiday that we would go on all together.
I returned to work in the August which I think was far too soon, my body and my
mind had not fully recovered from the Ordeal.
Then 7 months later Covid hit (although it was around a lot longer than
that as I am sure that is what I had).
We went into Lockdown exactly a year after I had ended up in ICU, it was
one of the BEST things that could ever have happened to ME! I had no stress; I could plan my day with 4
or 5 walks a day.
When we were able to travel locally, D & I also did a few trips around
Ireland and stayed at some magnificent places. Emily had asked for a cat while
we were in Lockdown, so this meant that we either had to get a cat sitter or someone
had to stay home. Worked out well
(sometimes). But that is a whole other
story about teenage parties!!!
I am so grateful to have had Lockdown to recuperate fully from my ordeal in
2019, but I am sad for those people that it effected in a different way. I am sad because we lost so many of our
elderly relatives during that time.
What do you remember? Besides watching
an awful lot of Television, watching WHO on a daily basis told how bad it was and how many
people have it and have died. Boris
Johnson having parties during Lockdown, Donald Trump saying it was all a Hoax
to start with – was it, were the pharmaceutical companies just profiteering
from this? There are so many unanswered
questions which I guess will take years before we find out the truth!
I was watching "Young Adult" on Netflix with Charlize Theron as the main actor, I must say I actually Fast Forwarded through a lot of the movie as it was really slow, but it got me thinking back to when I left the South, and when I moved back and where I am now!
I left the South back in 1985 or 86 and moved with my then boyfriend to Randburg, young stupid and in love. Well that didn't work out and I moved back home at the end of 1987 after breaking up with said boyfriend, changed jobs, and the new job was closer to home, however staying at home was always restrictive but I could not afford to live on my own.
My best friend at the time lived out in Linbro Park, I could drive I had my own car so ended up moving to "Party City", I was there for 2 years and then moved back in with the x in a new apartment in Randburg, a year later I was back home again another new job and saving like mad to afford my own place.
It was never to be, I worked for a great company - lots of young adults and we partied like crazy and that is were I met my husband! We eventually got married in '95 and that is when I moved out of my childhood home in Linmeyer for the last time. The only time we ever ventured back to the South was to visit my mom or help out a friend or relative who was moving.
Life Happens and we all chose different paths in life, from about '95 a lot of my friends were moving to Greener pastures. I never really bumped into anyone from school when I was back in the South and presumed that most of my school friends had moved away. Only to find out years later through the grapevine that a lot of school mates where still there.
It's funny how life turns out, how the guy who was expelled in Std. 8 for having weed at school is now a successful millionaire who owns his own company.
All those that went to university have had success in their lives and have moved on.
When you are approaching that big birthday in a few months and you realize you have lived more years than you have left, and what have you done in those years?
Life has been kind to me, my number was called a few times, but the Universe kept saying "Not yet" you haven't finished living, so I guess I am one of the lucky ones.
In Facebook there is a page called: The Hill High School Rememberance Wall and it is so sad to see how many of my school mates have gone before me.Do you ever still reminisce about the one that got away, or the boyfriend you had in high school and whether you may have ended up together. I can only think of one couple I know who married out of High School and are still together - Bev & Ivan.
One of the blogs I follow is called: Johannesburg 1912 – suburb by suburb research
A lot of the Night clubs we frequented would have been in these hotels, or we would have had the priviledge of going there for a meal at some stage, if you are curious have a read. (Link is in the title above).
Have you ever wondered how many South Africans have left South Africa in the last 30+ years?
Please don't bother googling it because the numbers they give you, is far less than what the real number is, that have left.Firstly, the ones who were able to leave first were those who had the insight to see that the country would eventually fall into disrepair and could find work in another country quite easily, along with some who had a foreign passport.
However, I have found that majority of my friends who still live in South Africa have foreign passports, so why aren't they leaving? Well as my really good friend once told me, South Africa is a beautiful country, and you can live there really cheaply and also employ people to do things for you without costing you a huge amount of money. (But if you are white, you need to own your own company or have some kind of income) - And ... then came the and, if something bad happens in this country, then the government of the United Kingdom will expatriate us immediately, because we have a British passport.
So hence the need to Emigrate and find another passport!
White South Africans were all immigrants into the country, those fleeing persecution would have left in their home countries in the 1600's up until the 1800's, the newer immigrants probably came to South Africa in the late 19th Century - 20th Century at the time of the Gold rush, and they were clever to hold onto their heritage and passport from their birth country. A bit like what we did when we came to Ireland and applied for dual citizenship before applying for Irish Citizenship, so that we could have both passports - should we ever need them.
The immigrants who came to South Africa after the 1960's would have been all the Rhodesians due to the war, who either came to SA or went to the UK, Australia, or other destinations. Then in the 70's when Mozambique was fighting for their independence, a lot of the White Portuguese settlers, either went back to Portugal or came down to South Africa.
In La Rochelle which was nicknamed "Little Portugal" a lot of the refugee families settled there with other relatives and integrated into the area.
If I take a look at the list of my friends on the "Book of Face" who still live in SA, majority of them would be privileged to have these Foreign Passports, British, Portuguese, Spanish, Greek to name a few and the rest, well a lot have done what we have and made a life for themselves somewhere else, others have ensured that their kids have been given a good education so that they can get jobs in another country.
Why, I am sure that most of "you" who regularly read my blog are part of the "South African diaspora", I don't think there are many who still live in SA who do read it. I write my blog to hold onto those memories that we had in SA and to share my experiences and thoughts since leaving.
Since 2020 not only White South Africans have left but a huge number of Black South African's have left too. This year alone I have met and spoken to so many New South African Immigrants in Ireland, working in Deli's, pet shops, coffee shops, concert venues etc. etc. and majority have been here less than a year. They are stating that the infrastructure is falling apart, just look at the load shedding - if you google the stats since 2015, 2022 is the highest by far on record, however 2023 has already overtaken 2022, people cannot live like that.
Where are you from?
Today in Ireland, our favourite Radio station that started out as a Pirate Radio Station many years ago, and eventually go a licence to broadcast 13 years ago today!
So that was back in 2010 and I must admit that every single one of our radios are on 100.3 or Nova.ie - during their broadcast this morning, the DJ was saying about them turning 13 and do you remember when you turned 13, so of course sitting in traffic, I went down the nostalgic route of thinking about when I turned 13.
The Classes started from A so 6A, 6B right down to 6K with approximately 40 kids in each class. 11 x 40 = 440 kids, 320 more than what we had in Std. 5 and of course the school was huge with still classes from 7 - 10 - if I remember correctly there were about 1100 + kids in the whole school.
So that is the school bit done!
What else do I remember from 1977
But I must say I loved musicals, and 1977 was the year that one of the greatest musicals came out - who could forget "Saturday Night Fever" and John Travolta, which guy did not want to be John Travolta and which girl did not drool over him! Many a fantasy dream had John Travolta in, and of course this made the Bee Gees really famous especially with the young kids.
The way he moved on that disco floor was by far the sexiest thing, we had every seen. And then of course we had the teenage disco's at Club Chicago and Plumb Crazy, all of them playing "Night Fever" or some other song from the movie.
We would also go to the Skyrink on a Saturday as they would have the disco on ice and they would play all the hits.
Other Movies we saw that year
"Star Wars" - The first one - even though it was called Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope
It was the first of the series of Star Wars films made by George Lucas, we saw it at a movie house in Claim street (I think), I just remember it was the first time we had been to a surround sound movie and it was SO loud.
"Smokey and the Bandit" - Another "hot" actor Burt Reynolds
"The Deep" with Nick Nolte (hottie back then)
Music:
Who can live without music, my radio was always on constantly and the Top 40 with David Gresham on Springbok Radio, was all we waited for every week.
I just looked up and found the Top 40 for the year 1977 here is the list: https://sacharts.wordpress.com/category/1977/
I must say a lot of the songs I can't really bear to hear on the Radio anymore!
The list from the 8th of April a week after my birthday was:
Pos LW Weeks Song Artist
1 2 7 Don’t Leave Me This Way – Thelma Houston
2 1 5 Smile – Pussycat
3 4 5 Living Next Door to Alice – Smokie
4 3 6 Love Me – Yvonne Elliman
5 11 4 Rock ‘n Me – Steve Miller Band
6 5 10 Lost in France – Bonnie Tyler
7 6 12 If You Leave Me Now – Chicago
8 7 10 Livin’ Thing – Electric Light Orchestra
9 8 7 Just Another Poor Boy – Chris de Burgh
10 New 1 Don’t Cry for Me Argentina – Julie Covington
11 10 8 Keep on Smilin’ – John Paul Young
12 16 3 I Recall a Gypsy Woman – Don Williams
13 15 4 Couldn’t Get it Right – Climax Blues Band
14 9 8 Moody Blue – Elvis Presley
15 14 9 What Have I Done – Mike Eager
16 New 1 Hey Mister Dream Maker – Cliff Richard
17 12 5 When a Child is Born – Johnny Mathis
18 18 2 Who’s Gonna Tie My Shoes – Barbara Ray
19 19 2 Chanson D’Amour – Manhattan Transfer
20 13 14 Howzat – Sherbet
I am sure there is a lot more stored in the memory banks from 1977 but I think this post has been long enough and you are probably bored by now, so until next time enjoy the read!
At one stage back when I was really young, I think the only route we had was on the Nr. 46 that went from the Hill into town on the old Trolley buses, I hated those buses as the back was always open and people could run and jump on the bus while it was moving. I always had visions of falling off the bus. And lets not mention them coming off the lines and the conductor having to try and put them back with a long pole.
The bus ride during College days was always fun, we would always sit upstairs - some of us smoking, I did not smoke in those days. The bus was also the place to check out the guys, the year I started College a group of the guys from Marist Brothers started at Wits University and together with my "Girl" friends we used to have loads of banter and arguments with the guys, so much so I think we always disturbed the older folk on the bus. But it was fun! There were also days where we used to Bunk college and instead of getting off near College, we would get off way before and head down to the Movie house opposite the Carlton Center.
I decided to go onto Google Maps and travel the route the Nr. 45 bus would take and the memories just came flooding back.
College would start around 8:30 in the morning, so we would leave the house around 7:30 and get the 7:40 bus into town.
The Route the bus would take started from the Bottom of Linmeyer - It would leave from Elizabeth Street in Linmeyer and travel up Lena Street, past the Linmeyer Post Office and Hilltop Cafe.
The Road then turned into Johan Meyer Street, where it would stop just near the Top Shops and the United Building Society where we would get on. Normally Heather was already on the bus as she lived further down the road.
Crossing over South Rand Road into The Hill, Linmeyer Gardens is on your right. Had many friends who lived there growing up.
The bus would travel down Plinlimon Road and then turn left into 3rd avenue and continue down past the Hill shops where my mom would go to the Hairdresser (cheaper than the one in Linmeyer ... lol) and on towards Rosettenville. It would take a left into Drakensberg Road and then head up towards the shopping area of Rosettenville, past the Kine 606 Cinema on the left (Previously the Adelphi Bioscope) where we spent many Saturdays watching moves at the Kinekor Kiddies Club.
Travelling down 3rd avenue, always reminds me of the Shebeens that were just off to the right around Grampian Road if my memory serves me correctly, they had a driveway where you would drive in on one road and then drive out onto another road, so basically like a drive through liquor store but of course it was illegal.
The Kine 606 ... wow memories abound - Alan sent me some of his memories too! There was a little restaurant next door where we would go for Milkshakes after movies. But movies ... this is where I saw "Greece" for the first time, at the kiddies club they would have events before the movie, competitions where you could win prizes if you did things, like stand up and sing etc. It was really popular and always packed!
During School holidays we would go and watch the latest movie or old movies, I remember going with my dear friend Morag and her brother Craig to see "Mary Poppins" and there was an elderly lady sitting in front of us singing the songs on the top of her voice, we had to tell her to please be quiet, this coming from a 13 year old did not go down well. Then her younger brother Craig who was utterly bored decided to crawl around the movie house under the seats and pop up at random areas and wave at us! (lol's) it was hysterical at the time.
My dad sometimes would take us to see an old Western and fall asleep and then tell us what a good movie it was! I hated Westerns in those days.
When the bus got to Rosettenville corner, where the Bata shoe shop used to be on the right handside and and of course I missed out on Uniwinkels where we got our school uniforms and just below in La Rochelle was Checkers where we did our weekly grocery shop, and the dentist was around there too. At the Corner the bus would turn right into Turf Road, the Turffontein Racecourse now on the left hand side (and if you read one of my other posts, this was the Johannesburg Concentration Camp during the ABW).
From then on, the journey was pretty uneventful, as we were now going into more of an industrial area.
Just before you got to the James Hall Museum the bus would take the left fork into La Rochelle road and past the Rand Stadium on your right. Here was were there were a lot of sports events, Soccer, Tennis, Cycling, Squash etc. I always remember the smell of Coffee beans being roasted when you got past the Squash courts, aparently there was a coffee factory somewhere there and they would employ people with special needs, quite a number getting on the 45 bus. Once past there we got to the junction at Eloff street extension.
It feels like another lifetime ago, but I vividly recall my high school years when mandatory military enlistment loomed large for all boys...