The Hill High School (1977 - 1981)

I haven't blogged for a while, but I was just reading over some of my comments and thought, I really should post some more of my nostalgic memories here! 

So where better to start then the place we got some of our Grounding ... or did we!?

Coming from a really strict Junior School (Highveld Primary) which had about 720 - 800 pupils, we were fairly disciplined, although if you compared it to the Afrikaans schools you would have said that we had no discipline at all. 

In Highveld we had three classes in each standard with approximately 30 students in each class.   Our first year in High School 1977 and we were practically bursting at the seams classes 6A - 6K or was it L, some with almost 40 students in a class, almost 12 classes of standard 6's.

So put a bunch of teenagers together from all walks of life, including a lot of new foreigners who were not used to the staunch Afrikaans government and ways of life in South Africa and what do you get .... Chaos!

When attending a Government School in Jo'burg you had to live in a certain radius of the school to attend it, with Primary Schools the radius was of course smaller as the schools were smaller, with High School this opened up to a wider radius.  So whereas in Primary School most of the kids came from Linmeyer, The Hill, Oakdene and the closer areas of Rosettenville - in High School because there were so few English speaking High Schools, this extended as far as South Hills, Regents Park, Rosettenville proper, all of The Hill and other areas too.  So lets say kids from about 6 different Primary Schools Highveld, Rewlatch, Regents Park, Rosettenville Primary, Townsview Primary, South Hills Primary attending 1 High School - of course not everyone would have gone to Hill, there were those fortunate enough to be sent to Private schools, but either way it was a lot of kids.

Depending on what additional subjects you chose going into High School, depended on what class you would end up in.  I chose "Art" and "Accountancy" as additional subjects and was put in "6G" with Ms Harvey as my main teacher. 

There weren't many Highveld Students in my Standard 6 class in High School, but then again there were so many students, I don't really remember who was in my class.  I do remember it was a very unruly bunch and if you couldn't beat them you had to join them.   There were a number of students who were repeating the year that were in our class.

"What I remember from Standard 6 in 1977"

Spending a lot of time in Detention, sometimes with the whole class and sometimes just me, the prefects seem to pick on the Std 6's and you were then sent to the library for an hours detention, and instead of being allowed to do your homework you had to either write out lines, or write stupid essays about "the inside of a ping pong ball" which had to be no less than 1000 words.

Joanne Botha and Luis San Emeterio - Joanne and Luis were dating and I only found that out because I fancied Luis and used to annoy him to try and get his attention.  I soon became good friends with both of them.  Luis was so talented, he played the Guitar and the drums and could sing like an Angel.  I remember staying after school one day while he played and sang "Charlie" which was a hit by Rabbitt  at the time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D77djVZdUHc - Sadly Joanne and Luis were killed in 1979 in a car accident, but that is a whole other story.

Our class teacher was very brave teaching us about contraception when very few of us even knew about the facts of life at that stage.

Being sent to the principals office for dropping a "stink bomb" on the corridor and remembering how Fino took the blame for me. 

Going on my first chaperoned date with Malcolm Messias, we went to a restaurant in Hilbrow, he was also my first real kiss - after leaving school and starting to work he took me out for lunch to tell me he was Gay!  Was a bit shocked but I was never into him so never really mattered.  God rest his soul.

Going down to the rugby field after school to watch a fight between C and Ingrid, but by the time we arrived, fight was over and C was washing out blood from under her nails.  And all over a BOY!!!  Ingrid came out worse with a dislocated back and scratches, and it was the last day of school! *Cat Fight* - C is so embarrassed about it would not tell anyone and pretends her past did not exist, hates being reminded of anything - hey get over it, it's part of your character if you can look back and laugh about it!

That story reminded me of my other BFF Morag, we knew each other from the age of 3, lived in the same street and saw each other at least 6 days of the week.  What a wonderful soul she was, I though my parents were strict until I met hers.  I do miss Morag so much, sadly she passed away in 1991.

Teachers - Oh wow, Mr Liversage what a hunk!  (Sadly he too has passed on) - he was the industrial Arts teacher, most of us girls wished we could do Industrial Arts but alas it was not to be.  Although I do remember one period that the teacher was off sick and when that happened you had to go to a substitute class, the girls were sent to one place and the boys to another, but I went with the boys!  I was not very popular with the girls after that, but it was because Nemo and I were working on something.

To be continued ...