Those teenage years ... Rabbitt, Rules OK

OMG ... can you believe these pictures. Anyway getting to those teenage years, the first time I went to a disco was in Standard 6, 13 years old and somehow Charlene had talked me into it. They published free tickets in the "Tonight" section of "The Star" newspaper for a disco called Tramps at the Diplomat hotel, round the corner from the Joubert park in Johannesburg.

There was a spanish girl in Charlene's class who was quite a bit older than her, she lived in La Rochelle and was friendly with the Portoguese guys from the "La Rochelle United" gang. The Europeans were much more liberated that the South Africans, so going out to a disco during the week was nothing, and their parents didn't mind, however I think if mine or Charlene's mom and dad knew we would have been killed. Anyway it didn't happen often and the only reason we had to go with the guys from La Rochelle was because they had the mode of transportation.

Okay miss goody two-shoes here started off High school going to Girl guides, just so that I could get out of having to go grocery shopping on Saturday mornings. When girl guides eventually became too boring and we were allowed to go to the Sky Rink on Saturday mornings I quit Girl guides, besides there were so really hot guys at the ice-rink.

Then they started Teen disco's on Saturday afternoons, PLUMB CRAZY was down in Jeppe street in Johannesburg, I wasn't allowed to go to disco's so my mom would drop Charlene and I off at the ice-rink, we would go running across town to the disco and then 5o'clock go running back to the ice-rink in time for my mom to pick us up. It was all very innocent, there was no booze or drugs (not that we knew about anyway), just rock 'n roll. But of course having older parents Rock 'n Roll would have been the start of all Evils.

Talking of which all through high school I was teased about my father because everyone thought he was my grandfather.

We continued going to disco's without my parents knowledge but did not make a habit of it, especially after Jo-Anne and Luis were killed on that terrible night.

Jo-anne was a friend of mine in Standard 6 and she was dating Luis San Emeterio we were all in the same class in Standard 6, we hung out during the school holidays because Charlene normally worked during school holidays. I remember one day going with Jo-anne down to Luis house in Regents park / Rewlatch area and sat around while they made out. Luis was Spanish and had only been in South Africa for a couple of years, his mom never spoke a work of English - I was really there as a pawn so that his mother didn't think there was anything going on between Jo-anne and Luis, Rui was also invited that day.

Luis was nothing to look at, but he was very talented and played the drums and the guitar - he would often come to school with his guitar and during a free period or dentention when the teachers weren't around he would strum out some Beatles number or at that time a Rabbitt number. The one we loved to listen to him play was "Charlie" by Rabbitt. Had he not been killed on that fatal night back in 1979 Luis would have been famous now.

What transpired on that fatal night, was that they had all gone off to a nightclub (on a school night), on the way back there was a real bad intersection in La Rochelle and another car had collided into the side of them, pushing them into a lamp post. There were 5 of them in the car but only Jo-anne and Luis were killed. I could only believe that they must have been to good for this earth and that is why God fetched them.

Their funerals were the biggest event in the South that year, Luis funeral was in the morning at the Catholic Church in Hilbrow, there must have been over 300 people there. Jo-annes funeral was more low key in the afternoon at a funeral chapel, but they were both buried at West Park Cemetery.