I remember in the nineties my father was visiting us in Durban and received a midnight call from Uncle Arthur in Johannesburg. Under normal circumstances nobody called our house after 8 p.m. unless there was a major crisis, usually equal to the death of a friend or family member. Imagine as well that this call…
Conversations about Farming
When I returned from a long trip, as I have now from Australia for Marina’s wedding, my father would phone me to make sure we had arrived safely. As I got older I thought it wiser and more respectful to phone him first. I miss that about him. I also miss the drama about him…
Conversations about J.S.Centre
Voortrekker Road is the main dual carriage way that runs through the industrial town of Alberton that manufactures for the gold mining industry of the Witwatersrand. It used to be the main road to Durban before the National Roads Department built the N3 that now bypasses the eastern border of one it if many suburbs.…
Conversations at Keza’s
“Gia sou Vasili. Ela. Ti nea? Ti na sou keraso?” Keza always greeted me almost like a son. Definitely like a nephew. His kafeneio is up in the village, a block away from the main square and church, in front of a triangle of roads where three roads meet in a low triangle. “Your health,…
Conversations on Speeches
Whenever I was faced with making a public speech as a child my mother always used to tell me to imagine the audience in their underwear, so that I would not be intimidated by them. In those days it was safe, but imagine today. Those that are cross dressers would vie for attention with those…
Conversations about Playing It By Ear
My father employed a lot of sayings, some of which are worth repeating, if not for their wisdom, then for their frequency of use. He used to play the piano. He loved playing La Paloma, and sat a tall graceful player with just enough flair to show off and be a spectacle when playing. He…
Conversations about Worry Beads
When I was small worry beads used to irritate me. When my father played with them in South Africa the concept jarred with the Anglo-Afrikaans culture. It just did not seem the done thing. He did not always tick the beads and swing the komboloi; he went through phases. Before he left for Greece and…
Conversations about Credit Cards
From a young age, in our mid teens, my father ensured we had a credit card when travelling aboard. Just for emergencies. When I started university this continued, to be used to purchase text books. And when I was studying engineering, an HP 40C calculator. So I suppose if I was studying now I would…
Conversations with the Minister of Defence
I received my call up papers for military service when I was 16, in 1978. After conversations with the minister of defence, I completed 2 and a half degrees by 1996 and conscription had been abolished. I never went through life as a boy or young man not wanting to do military service. I don’t…
Conversations as I look past my feet
There is a photograph that was stored on my father’s small Olympus camera. He was in the alone in the village and had taken a whole lot of pictures of the house, the village, the mountains and the plain filled with red poppies. He was alone because from the time my mother had her spinal…
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