Zambia World Wide

My school days

The Goodwood Preparatory School was the first school I attended. Here I had my first real fight which unknown to me was arranged by my friends that I had met at the fence in the above chapter. I think I surprised quite a few in winning the fight, as I was the smaller of the two.

From there I went to Raymond Primary School in Vasco. The school was approximately 3 km from our house and we preferred walking to school as we could spend our bus fare of two pennies on sweets or we could go to the local bioscope on a Wednesday for a penny. The down side was in the winter months. Walking barefoot which was then common practice up to Standard 6(grade 8). We had to cross lots of open grassland and we had to negotiate stretches of water. Where the water was too deep for the smaller boys and girls the bigger boys would piggyback us across. These stretches of water were filled with frog eggs something not seen these days. Here I played rugby for the A team in the flank position for players under 80lbs. On practice days I would run home after school get changed, run back to school, practice and then run home after practice. I was a bugler with the school cadets

Most of my school days at Raymond Primary were during the 2^nd World War. At school the Army supplied us with food rations. We received soup, milk, cheese, fruit, and cocoa. Scarce items, which were possibly controlled by the government, could be purchased from the army trucks. They were parked at selected places on certain days of the week. When you required more than your quota your siblings would join the queue and we would avoid making eye contact. Only brown flour was available but this was overcome with some ingenious methods. Staying close to Wingfield aerodrome we were often made to partake in mock air raids. Tarred paper was used to seal our windows to ensure that no light was visible from outside.

My Mom bought me a bicycle when I was in standard six for six pounds. One afternoon a group of us were in a race. At an intersection a cart drawn by two horses coming at a fair gallop from the opposite direction failed to stop before turning up the intersection. Fortunately being some distance ahead of the others I was the only one that collided with the horses. To this day I am convinced that there was a guardian angel looking after me. There is no doubt in my mind that the horses made an effort not to trample me. As the cart went over me I was lower than its axle and in the center of the two metal wheels. I survived with a broken arm, a few cracked ribs, cuts and bruises. The bicycle looked rather bad, as it had gone under one of the wheels.

It was during this period that I learnt to swim. It was in a stream running through a pine forest where to day is the Grand West Casino in Goodwood. We would dam the stream up until it was deep enough to swim in. We could swim and sun bathe in our birthday suits knowing that not many people frequented the forest. The forest ranger would patrol on horseback and he would regularly blow a trumpet, which gave us ample time to grab our cloths and go into hiding. To think that in our time we never knew of water pollution.

My last two school years were spent at Epping High School. Here my hopes of going through school without a hiding soon came to an end. The first hiding was for smudging the class register with a water pistol I had made. With your head placed under a bookshelf you had no choice but to remain stationary during your caning. The last hiding I got made up for the years that I had escaped a caning. It was for placing a poisonous snake in the desk of one of the girls. When she spotted the snake her scream was enough to waken the dead. To crown it all we had a lady teacher a Miss Deetlifs that period for an Afrikaans lesson. On seeing the snake she was gone with half the girls behind her. I ended the last year with a fight over a girl, which I met through my eldest sister Cynthia. Cupid was certainly around as we just clicked. Had I known that her ex was not only insanely jealous but he was known as a fighter I possibly would have been more cautious. It was not long before he confronted me with an instruction to see him after school as he intended teaching me a lesson for courting his girlfriend. Arriving at the arranged meeting place I noticed him warming up. As I was removing my school bag from my back he rushed at me and landed a punch squarely on my left eye, which sent me flying backwards. In the process I saw him coming again at me but he was not expecting a handful of sand in his eyes. Before he could recover I was on to him like a fox terrier. When the spectators saw the blood on his face they stopped the fight. Parents those days seldom knew when you were in a fight as they would more than likely give you a hiding for fighting.