zandvlei Trust

ZIMP – History

Interview with Crystal Kotze (born Christina Maria Kroukamp) - March 2007. 

Crystal has lived in Lakeside all her life. She tells of her childhood memories from the late 1930’s and 1940’s. Crystal is one of ten children.

"Nurse Nisbett was the midwife in October 1935 when I was born. In those days babies were delivered at home with the help of a midwife. After me she rushed off to deliver my friend, Christina, in Craig Road - we were born two hours apart. Nurse Nisbett was a strong old girl to deliver all those babies. The cottage I was born in was in the area that is now opposite the SPAR, across the Main Road. There was no road to our home. I remember it as a corrugated iron cottage. My sister, Finnie, was also born in this home. My dad used to work in Wynberg at Elliotts Butchery. He used to cycle to work and left home at 4.30 a.m. to get to the butchery on time. The Reid family lived next door to us.

photograph Cape Town Archives 1974

This house was on the eastern side of Main Road , Lakeside at the intersection of Approach Road.

The Main Road was mixed. Whites and coloureds played together and I had lots of friends. This was when I was about five. Later we moved to Orient Road. I recall family names like van der Merwe, Wallace, Moffat, Hendrikse, Auret, Williams and Newman. We all knew each other. We were the community. We had an outside toilet and used the bucket system. In the early hours of the morning the council teams used to come to change the bucket. To heat the water for a bath we had a geyser that we built a little fire underneath. The wood needed to be chopped up fine. 

My maternal grandfather, Mr Joseph Norman and his family, lived in Lea Road. He worked for the council at the building where the tip trucks park on the Main Road next to Mezwallach. He had a big property on which he raised goats and pigs. Pigs were his mainstay. At Christmas time my grandfather got orders for pigs. Being a blockman, my father would slaughter and prepare the meat. Christmas was an elaborate affair. For us meat was not a problem. And then he also had geese – those geese were vicious, like watchdogs. On his plot he grew lots of fruit trees - peach, plum, and quince. We used to look forward to prickly pear season. He had rows and rows of prickly pears. When they were ripe we would take a knife and fork and newspaper and eat them in the field. He also grew mielies. My grandfather loved fishing – he would knit his own nets and caste them into the vlei. He used to catch springers.
In my grannies kitchen there was always something to eat. Coffee was on the brew. We used to grind the coffee beans ourselves. After school we may have soet patat or mielies. My granny cooked real boerekos - bredies like tomato and boontjie. She was 83 when she died. There were always chickens running around and we collected the eggs. Further along the Bassons owned cows and they roamed along Orient Road.
My older brother Norman went to a school run by the Stewart sisters. It was near to where the fire station is today. I did not go to that school. My dad took me there, but when I saw the old bird I got such a 'skrik' I never went back. I went to Muizenberg school for Sub A.

photograph Cape Town Archives 1974

Looking south in Main Road towards Muizenberg, this photo taken in front the present day Lakeside Fire Station. The street sign on the right is Approach Road.

We did not go far to buy our groceries. Just as well because we had no car. The Bergers had a shop on the Main Road, they stayed next door to the shop. Everybody bought on the book and paid at the end of the month. Mrs Berger was a sweet Jewish lady. You could buy coldmeats, bread and other groceries. Her sons were Naety and Franky.
There was a dairy called Midway opposite Mezwallach. Run by Mr and Mrs Banfield. Finny used to work there after school and on weekends. They used to deliver milk. In the shop they also had cheese and cream. But Finny can tell you more. The vlei was not like it is now. It used to dry up in summer and it became parched and cracked with dry moss underneath. One could walk from one side to the other. There were lots more birds 
then . No Egyptian geese. Always lots of bull rushes. When the vlei dried up a group of us kids would flatten a large area of reeds to use as a playground. Our gang was Finnie and myself, the Mullers, Van Ginkel’s – two boys and a girl and the Frick kids from Vlei road. There was a whole crowd of us. Some came from across the Main Road like David Rice and Christina Smit.

The games we played were kennetjie (a bit of a dangerous game), Bok-bok and rugby. I remember we made a foofy slide from one tree to the other. To make it daring we had a fire going underneath it. We used an open field down Vlei Road for football, we made our own goal posts. Bok-bok-staan-styf was played by two teams. The first team of four or five players stood in a row with their backs down, facing forward. The other team would come running up behind them and jump on their backs with a few fingers out stretched. And then they would say: "Bok-bok-staan-styf hoeveel vingers op jou lyf." If the person underneath you guessed the incorrect number of outstretched fingers then you stayed on top. One could end up with about six people on your back.

We went to Muizenberg to watch movies at the Empire, this was the local bughouse. The childrens’ movies were on a Saturday morning. Mostly cowboy movies starring Gene Autrey and Roy Rodgers. It cost eight pence for a ticket. We bought sweets and ice creams and swopped comics. At the interval there were talent contests. Kalk Bay also had a bioscope.I remember a brick kiln in an open field opposite what is now Craig Court. There was a clay pit or quarry nearby. We used to go sliding down the slopes on pieces of old "sink". It was very slippery when wet. They used the clay to make mud bricks. We were maybe 8 or 9 years old. 

In 1947 we school children lined the main road in anticipation of the passing of the royal family from England. And we waved our little flags as they glided past on there way to Simonstown.
Back then not many people had cars here. The Brand family had a car. A terraplane coupe, it opened at the back. Billy, my brother Norman’s pal, used to let us jump in for a spin. We only ever road bicycles.

Lakeside was a lovely place to grow up. It was not as popular as it is now. Later when I was young lady, about 19 or 20, my life long friend Christina and I used to catch the last train home from Cape Town. That was at 12.05, after a party. There was a crowd on the train. We were a happy family. We walked home from the station and Christina would have to go on her own, past the bakery, before she got home. It was safe in those days, everything was fine.

Some years ago when I was walking home from work up Station Road (it was about five-ish), I heard a crack like thunder. Right ahead of me a rock had broken loose from the mountain. As it rolled I saw sparks. I thought, "Oh my God, what about the cars on Boyes Drive?" It bounced down the mountain. Thankfully it stopped just short of Boyes Drive.

Larramie Damstra.