At the end of the day after we had athletics, all the men did a relay, teachers as well as parents.
This use to be so much fun until the last time I ever ran a relay again. We use to let the fastest guy who could get out of the blocks start, then we let the 2nd one pass to the 3rd and the fastest guy use to run to the end.
This day I ran in second place and was not very worried as this big guy Alwyn Visser who was a Springbok in wresting a parent ran next to me. I really thought today I have a chance as he was very big and maybe I could stay ahead of him. Where was my brain, not in my feet as I took the relay stick from our first guy and ran all I heard was something that sounded like a lorry chasing me the ground even moved and there he went?
I really taught I had a chance, but he was the wrestling champion and very fit. I did not realise he was fast as well. He ran so fast that I lost him in my view and there and then decided that I would never make such a fool of myself again, even for fun.
It was tradition that we all went to his house, all the teachers for a braai the evening of the athletics and had a wonderful time eating and taking in some liquid to help us feel good. This was always a fantastic evening, he had this lovely house that he had built himself out of the rocks on his farm.
He was such a friendly person and we always enjoyed this after being in the sun the whole day.
In those days the woman still dressed up for this occasion and they all had stockings on with very nice dresses as it was a party. Not long after we got there it started raining, but Alwyn said no problem we will put everything in the garage as he had an enormous garage that took four cars. Everything was carried in and the tables were against the wall and we started making fires for our braai. But everything was wet and he said no problem we will throw some petrol on the wood and light the fires that way.
I so wish you could see this in real life. He put petrol on all the braai's and started lighting them. All we heard was a phoof sound as the gasses that had spread lighted up and the next minute my wife said my stockings are gone. The gasses took to the nylon of all the woman’s stockings and burned them off up to their knees. Nobody got hurt but it was really funny, seeing the woman with their bare legs and no stockings. I must say the liquid had really started to work and we were laughing like mad.
After we all ate, the men decided to go and swim, he had this big pool with a slide and all the men got on together and he was on top. We all slid into the water except one who fell off and hit his ribs against the side of the pool.
This teacher who was really nicely liquidised got up said he was fine and we all kept on playing just like kids. When we left, the wife’s were driving of course, my wife said, here is Stapies's shoes take them with us and we will give them back to him tomorrow. He had left without taking anything.
The next day we drove to his flat to give him his shoes, and after struggling to get him up he opened the door. He looked at us and said, I really don’t know what happened last night but I am really struggling to breathe. We just laughed and told him how he fell and that he was still playing with us in the pool for hours afterwards that was why we thought he was fine.
The poor thing had broken some ribs, and it took quite a while for them to heal as with everybody on top of him, something had to break.
We had one teacher that was a little different from the rest of us, nothing wrong with him but he would not swim and we could not think why. He did all the other things with us so we thought maybe he was not a swimmer until someone saw in the bathroom that he had long underwear on and would not like to swim in it as it would have been very funny. His wife always insisted when they go out in the evening that he had to wear long underwear as she was afraid he would get cold.
This one he never lived down as everyday somebody would say pull up your pant so we can see if it is cold or hot outside. People can be cruel sometimes but maybe next time he will think twice before doing everything his wife tells him to do.
These are the days that made teaching fun for once in a while we could just get together and have fun, for normally we had to be able to be examples for the kids, that made life a little difficult as we never knew when we would meet up with one of them in town. I have always said do as I do not as I say, can you imagine if we had kids at that party what they would have thought of us.
Hope you have a wonderful day and greetings from the Wild Coast.
