1977

 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.

It brought back many memories, the year was 1977 to be exact, and I had just started High School at the Hill High.   It was daunting, coming from Highveld Primary where we probably had about 120 kids in Standard 5 in 3 classes, to going into the Assembly Hall and there were hundreds and hundreds of kids going into Standard 6.  

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. 

Our class was pretty evenly split with Boy / Girl ratio, and as you can imagine that age the hormones are running wild.  I was in 6G pretty much the worst behaved class in the whole school.  Our teach Ms. Harvey was pretty strict and very liberal, me coming from a very conservative background where we never spoke about sex at home, and my form teacher giving the girls a lesson on sex education on probably the first week of high school, and telling us all about contraception and the various types.

However, we figured the reason for this was there were a lot of kids from "Pram Valley / Stork City" that attended the school.  

In context Highveld was probably the best primary school in that part of the South of Johannesburg, most of the other primary schools work in more disadvantaged areas not all but some such as South Hills which was known as Stork City as the girls would fall pregnant in High School and end up having to leave. 

So that is the school bit done!

What else do I remember from 1977 

Elvis died and yes I cried ... I remember waking up and hearing the news on the radio before I went to school, it was still winter and dark and depressing and I was now even more depressed! 

This man was my hero, I was going to see him in Las Vegas when I finished school and could afford to go - I always wished he was my dad when I was that age!


The same teacher who taught us about Sex-ed arranged for us all to go to the movies after school one day to see "Close encounters of the third kind" it had just been released on circuit. 

We all took the bus into town and went to the Kine centre in downtown Johannesburg, across from the Carlton Center.  It was a great afternoon out and a great sci-fi movie for it's time!  

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!

The Bug House ....

Our main entertainment growing up was going to the "Movies", there were only 2 movie houses in Rosettenville which my father referred to as the "Bug House", mostly we would go to the "Grand" which was in Main street, Rosettenville. 

My mom would take us to the "Bioscope" on a Saturday afternoon, I remember before the movie started they would have "News Reel" which would have news mainly from London and all in black & white, then they would show a short either "Flash Gordon" or a disney short.

Then they would have a 15 minute interval and the movie would start, just enough time to get an ice-cream, my favorite was the Zoom ice-cream that had a collectable disney toy in the bottom of the cone.  It was 3 flavours of ice-cream in the shape of a rocket, strawberry, vanilla and chocolate at the top, covered in a bit of real chocolate.

It was this shape but made from real ice-cream! 

When we were teenagers we were allowed to go to "The Adelphi" which had been revamped and for the life of me I can't remember the name, I just know they had Kinekor Kiddies Club on a Saturday morning, so you would get in to see a movie for less than on any other day and you would get popcorn and a drink with your ticket.

I remember seeing "Grease" there when it first came out, and my friend Morag and I went to see "Mary Poppins" during the school holidays, there was a lady sitting behind us singing to every song, until we told her to Shut up!!!

Later on we were allowed to go to the Kine Centre in Johannesburg to watch movies, it was across the road from the Carlton Centre and the place to go.  When I was at college, I remember going with all the college girls, my friends Heather and Nicole were part of our group, anyway we took up a whole row of seats - but I have no idea what we went to see! 

There was a guy on his own who sat in front of us, anyway we were passing popcorn up and down the row and I remember someone dropped it, and it went all over the guy sitting on his own ... he didn't budge, until the lights went out and then he moved seats, probably because we spent the entire time killing ourselves laughing ... poor guy!

I saw my first "No under 18" movie at the Kine Centre - Heather, Nicole and I would catch the bus to college together, Nicole would always entice us into bunking and it was the time "American Gigolo" came out.  The usher was checking our tickets and I almost didn't get in, he said to me "You're not 18" and I said I am, he said "No you're not, you're only 17", (and I was), he must have seen the shock on my face and just let me go in!  He never queried Heather and Nicole who were the same age as me, but I guess I just never wore as much makeup.

I just found this really interesting web page on Movie Theatres in Johannesburg > https://johannesburg1912.wordpress.com/2013/07/29/theatres-in-early-johannesburg/

My dad owned a Movie house in Yeoville and in this article it talks about the "Bug House" in Yeoville, which must be where he got it from.  ‘Bughouse’ bioscope in Yeoville - My mom and dad lived in Fortesque road in Yeoville when they got married in 1956 and I remember my dad saying he owned a bioscope, we still had the projector when we were kids and loads of Black and white TV shorts from America on film called "My little Margie".

Before the Kine Center, we would sometimes go to His Majesty's or The Colosseum in town to see movies, at one stage they were showing all Elvis's movies at His Majesty's and my mom love Elvis so we were dragged along to see them, however I grew very fond of Elvis!!!

If you have read a lot of my blog, my father was in construction and had his own construction company, he helped build his Majesty's in the 40's and I have a photo somewhere of him shaking hands with General Smuts.

Would love to hear your memories of the Movie houses in Johannesburg.


 

Southern Suburbs Sports Club

Do you remember the SSSC - I have fond memories from my teenage years of spending a lot of time at the club.

We played Squash often at the club, I think it was the closest Squash club to where we lived!   We would go and watch cricket there, I think my friends dad was the chairman of the Cricket club back in the late 70's.

Cyril Mitchley the umpire was a member of the Cricket Club and his son Cyril Mitchley played for the club, but please correct me if I am wrong, my memory is not as great as what it used to be.

I just researched the SSSC to see if it still there and they mentioned the public pool??? When did that happen, it looks like the club has gone from strength to strength.

There used to be disco's every now and then at the club and of course when we got to the "drinking" age, if the pubs weren't open on a Sunday at least the Clubs would sell alcohol!

The tennis courts were superb and I would sometimes go with a friend as her parents played tennis.  I only really got back into tennis a few years ago and now lead the tennis club at my work.  It's not great playing on outdoor courts in Ireland as most of the time it would rain, or just generally be bloody cold out there, I have photos of us playing in our winter rain gear ... lol.

Anyway back to the SSSC - I think almost every kid who lived in the South would at sometime have been to the club, would love to hear your memories. 

There were also the koppies behind the club, where we used to go and climb over the rocks or take a short cut to the club, even though our parents forbid us from ever going to the koppies! 

Tobries / Tobies Ridgeway

Does anyone remember the pub Tobries or Toby's in Ridgeway in the South of Johannesburg?  I remember back in the day when I was working for Metro Cash & Carry, probably about 1989, it was our local hangout from work.

There were a few places in the South that were good, and mostly Tobries was good because of the music.   Shaun Liebenberg who was also ex Hill High would play his music there every Friday and Saturday night.   A brilliant guitarist and singer and I became a groupie.

Shaun was married to another ex Hill High pupil Beverley who lived up the road from us, one of the most beautiful girls I have ever known both inside and out.   Tragically Shaun and Beverley were killed in a car accident on the 14th of July, 2001 coming home from a gig.   Not long after we left South Africa.

I always believed that when Shaun sage "Kiss from a Rose" by Seal he was singing it just for me. 

We frequented Tobries from about 1989 until about 1992 when it just went downhill from then on.  It was a great pub and you would always bump into someone you knew there.

I do believe I was even kicked out of the pub one night, some friends and I were playing a sambuca game with black sambuc and we ended up setting the table on fire.

I could tell you a hundred stories from Tobries, but I think we will leave it there for now.