Lily worked as a doctor at a “Family Planning Clinic”. I worshipped her as a small child. My brothers and I, amongst many things, received a love for reading from her.
She would call us to her side with a special whistle. We first lived in a flat (apartment) in a suburb of Johannesburg called Orange Grove. I have some clear memories from this period including a car trip to Cape Town where I leaned over from the back seat and pushed the shutter of Chaim’s Leica camera that was lying on the front seat. I was 2 or 3 years old. I still have the camera and the shutter has the same sound as it had then. Coming back from this trip I climbed into the flat through the bathroom window to open the front door for all of us. The keys had probably been misplaced and I must have been agile even at this young age.
We moved to our new home in Linksfield when I was 5.
The big house had been the main house on a farm in the past and was on an acre of land. The front of the house had a large lawn with big trees and in the back were servant’s quarters, long washing lines and many fruit trees. We did not have the patience to wait for the fruit to ripen much and to this day I prefer fruit to be not quite ripe. The roof consisted of oil impregnated wood that was much later upgraded to roof-tiles. I used to climb up one of the washing line posts to get on to it and then let myself down onto a balcony wall to get off.
Being of white skin and having enough money, we had a very happy (and naive) childhood, riding bicycles, playing soccer and cricket and swimming at the neighbours’ pools.
During the winter months we would spend time by the coal fireplace, sometimes using tin cans to melt lead that separated glass panes from unused windows we found in a storeroom. Our school was nearby and Linksfield Ridge known to us as the “Koppie” was close to us and was visited very often, being an adventure.
Because of droughts we would collect water, while it was raining, from the drain pipes coming off the roof and store it in a barrel. All this done barefoot, the rains in Jo’burg occurring in the summer.
I was close to animals and one of our dogs, Laika, was my special friend. She was killed by a car. This caused me, for years, to be afraid of travelling fast but I never let anyone know of this. Edna, the woman who worked as a servant for us, had a nickname for me, Tulele or “quiet one” in the Zulu language. I took up Photography at the age of 8. I think it made things easier because I could hide myself behind the camera.
Every Sunday, Chaim would go horseriding and after lunch he took us to the family farm near Vanderbijlpark on the Vaal river where he had a henhouse for eggs. Our cousins would visit there too and we used to ski on the water and horse ride on the land. Eggs would come back with us to Jo’burg.
Another family business was the only Kosher hotel in Johannesburg, the Wyntonjoy, that was run by my aunt and uncle, Tilly and Hymie, and my cousin, Mickey. My barmitzvah was celebrated there. I think that this business was not so profitable partly because our family would use it for so many family gatherings. I liked the food that was served there. Later, my grandmother Sima and my cousin, Judy, lived together at the Wyntonjoy.
I transformed the basement of our house into a darkroom and I developed my films and printed them there, carefully storing the negatives between sheets of paper and later in special sleeves.
Chaim separated from Lily, returning home after about 6 months in 1969.
After my army service I left South Africa for Israel where I began studies in engineering at the Technion in Haifa. Here I met Fanny and we began our relationship in 1973, the same year of the Yom Kippur War. I lived together with my brother, Chick and fellow students of his, Dan and Aubrey, both from Zimbabwe. When Chick and Yehudit were married, Dan, Aubrey and myself moved into another flat in Carmi St.
My brother, David, came to volunteer on Kibbutz Gadot in 1974 and later worked on a farm at Moshav Tal Shachar.
In 1975, Chaim and Meishke bought a unit at the “Golden Beach” condominium in Herzlia Pituach.
