Malvern days

When I was about 9 or so my grandparents moved to the houses in Malvern. I looked it up on Google Maps and was so pleased to see that it still looked presentable. The only change being the car port shelter. (Not like the Hillbrow house – That one gave me the heebies). Ma and Pop had the left side house and Aunty Maureen and Uncle Theo had the right side house. The boys stayed with Ma and Pop and the girls slept in the big front room of Aunty Maureen's house. Ma's house was the house for the day time although we often made free of both houses. Jumping over the back wall separating the houses or running out one gate into the other.

Uncle Theo loved to sing "Jerusalem" one year they went on holiday to Durban and in one of the games arcades there was a recording booth and he made a recording of "Jerusalem" for me. It was on a small plastic like platter that one could play like a 78 rpm record.

Aunty Maureen used to use an unusual type of coffee – it was delicious! It was like a coffee essence or a coffee syrup. Most households used ground coffee in a percolator. The percolator would stand on the stove continually, perking the coffee all day. There was always a constant supply of coffee. Later the percolators became electric. In my first years of marriage I was addicted to coffee – drinking something like 12 cups per day. The percolator was kept full and bubbling all day and until we went to bed. By the end of the day the coffee was so strong that the spoon almost stood up in the cup. I have since heard that percolating was very bad for you!

Aunty Maureen and Uncle Theo had Val – my closest cousin in age. I think there were 6 to 8 years between us. I used to sit with her on the veranda – there were no security guard in those days and amuse her!

Bob and I would often go for walk abouts through the neighbourhood. We would explore Malvern. We would walk up Marathon road to the Rhodes Park. We would walk down to Jules Street to the shops. We had a few of the family who also stayed in Malvern. We would walk across to visit my grandmother's sister, Aunty Dolly, stayed in a few blocks away from us. She had a son Brian who was my age so Bob and I often went around to visit her and raise havoc in a new sector of the neighbourhood. She also had 2 other sons, Trevor and Eric who were closer in age to Ken.

Uncle Bill and Aunty Zena stayed a few blocks up from Aunty Dolly so we would often pop in there. Uncle Bill was out at work but Aunty Zena welcomed us. I think she enjoyed having us around as we could help amuse the babies! By this time there were two of them – Richard and Jennifer. I can remember embroidering a bib for Jennifer that I was very proud to give her. I was very fond of Aunty Zena. I thought that Uncle Bill (who I loved!) had found himself a very pretty wife who seemed to love me as much as I loved her. (Michael hadn't made his appearance during those times.

At this time I think Uncle Len and Uncle Doug had both moved out to start their own life. Aunty Joyce was dating Uncle Jimmy and Joan was dating Johnny.

Dancing still surrounded me. Ma would take me to Poppy Frames for lessons so that I wouldn't miss out while I was on holiday – but there were no more visits to the seamstress shop but Dicks still got a look in!

Ken was working or studying at that time. All I can remember about him was that he danced into the house – switched the gramophone on and put on a pile of dance records and danced to the bathroom, closed door, had a bath while humming the songs, danced to his bedroom to get dressed, danced out of the room still putting tie on etc. danced to the kitchen, grabbed some food and danced out the house to his dancing lessons. Ma just shook her head and asked me to pack the records away and switch off the gramophone! It was at dance lessons (I think) that he met Nita. Nita partnered him both on the floor and in life. I was in awe of her but she took me under her wing when she realised my love for dance.  They competed on Durban one year at the City Hall. They took me to the competition. I was enthralled. I have a photo taken of them.

Talking of photos of dancing. Uncle Bill was experimenting with photography and would take photos of me dancing. No colour in those days but he touched up a few to give it colour. These photo and how they arrived soon lead to another passion of mine – taking and developing and printing photos!