Bunking for American Gigolo: Memoirs of a 1980s College Girl

 I was at college in 1981—Modern Methods Business College in the African Life Building on Eloff Street. Weirdly enough, my boss years later when I worked at Premier Milling had gone to the same college, but that is not what this story is about!

Back in 1980, I really had not been interested in any of the subjects I was doing at school. My main subjects were Biology, History, Biblical Studies, and Maths, alongside mandatory English and Afrikaans, and I did not want to return for Standard 9. So, my mother decided I needed some kind of final practical education to help me figure out what I wanted to do. She pulled me out of Hill and sent me to "Secretarial College"—probably something that does not even exist anymore.

Because I hadn't done a lot of these commercial subjects before, I had to do a catch-up course, essentially compressing five years of learning into one. Typing, Accountancy, Pitman’s Shorthand, and Business Economics were the main ones. I excelled in the first term, so my parents knew they had done the right thing—except for Shorthand! My teacher gave me an "N" on my report. When I asked her what "N" meant, since most subjects were graded A through H, she said, "N is for Nil, Nought, Nada!"

The best part of getting on the bus every morning was being surrounded by all the other varsity and college students—and, of course, getting to wear civvies every single day! As I mentioned in my last post, the banter on the bus was always great.

I didn't know many people in my class at first. I ran into Heather, who had gone to school with me, but she had been at the college for a few years and was in a different stream. However, her friend Nicole was in my class. Nicole’s mom had passed away from cancer, and her father was very wealthy, so she was never short of money. She caught the same bus to and from college as I did because her dad would drop her off at her gran’s flat near my house.

Nicole had ended up in Sec B with me because she had failed Sec A; instead of repeating the full year, she decided to finish her college education by moving across to Sec B. She turned out to be a bit of a bad influence on both Heather and me. Whenever she didn't feel like going to college, she’d propose that we go to the movies at the Kine Centre instead, and she would treat us.

Instead of getting off at our normal stop, we would get off down near Old Vanderbijl Square and head toward the cinema. We always had about an hour and a half to kill since college started at 8:30 AM and the movies didn't start until 10:00 AM, so window shopping in the Carlton Centre was the order of the morning.

I distinctly remember going to see American Gigolo. It had just arrived in South Africa and was rated 2–18. Naturally, the usher asked for our age and knew full well we were lying, but let us in anyway. It was probably the first truly provocative movie I had ever seen in my life.

When my first report arrived, it listed four days absent. Cue internal panic! Thank goodness for Tipp-Ex. I did a pretty terrible job changing the 4 to a 0, but I managed it—and I didn't bunk many days after that! If I hadn't done so well in my other subjects, I wouldn't have shown the report to my parents at all, but I wanted them to see I wasn't wasting their money.

College really was the greatest time. It was an all-girls environment and we had so much fun. A lot of the girls smoked, and because some of the teachers smoked as well, they didn't always notice the smell when walking into the classroom. If anyone was still smoking when a teacher approached, someone would shout a warning, and cigarettes would be tossed straight out the window. Mind you, we were on the 10th floor, so you can just imagine this rain of lit cigarettes falling down Eloff Street! Fortunately, I never took up smoking at college.

My main friend at college was Pauline. Her parents lived in Simunye in Swaziland, so she stayed at a boarding house on Claim Street in the centre of town. Because she was in a boarding house, she would often come stay at our home for the weekend, and we would spend our time doing normal teenage things.

Pauline and I remained firm friends throughout the year. At the end of term, after our final exams, we went down to Cape Town together. Her sister was staying in the residences at UCT, so we had free accommodation. It was my first-ever trip to Cape Town, as well as my first experience taking a sleeper train.

After returning, I went to spend a couple of weeks at her parents' home in Swaziland—but I'll save all of that for my next post!