Dust blown off

When R&G moved to Knysna they sorted through a whole lot of stuff, scanned some old pics etc.  So I got to take a look at some of these - blow off some dust - but first one of my own from long ago:

This is you and I in Glenstantia park, corner of Garsfontein Road and Anton Van Wouw St

 The rest start furthest back in time, and travel towards us:

This is my dad's family - so your Grandfather, and Great Grandfather on the right hand side; my Grandmother Amy on the left.  I didn't get to know her.  He was a big big guy, and as I recall, seemed pretty fierce - but I think now that he might just have come from a different time, maybe slightly less given to touchy-feely expressions.  I guess my dad is around 20 here - so approximately 1954

This is your Gran, age I'm not sure, but I guess around 18 years old, so around 1957.  I love this pic so much.  I'm not sure where it was taken, but I guess in a Joburg studio - very cool - very Goldblatt

Geordie and I with our dog Bengie at 121.  This was before the patio and the family room were built, or the wall closing off the washing line.  I guess I'm around 2 here - so 1971 ish.  I can't remember the cart, but I can remember that far-out Trike that Geordie is riding, which we called "the chain-bike".

Geordie and I in the pits at Kyalami.  My cousin Roger who was older than us - probably in his mid 20s then - used to run a racing car that he'd built in his dad's garage.  It was ******* cool, and loud - he was so cool - had a groovy mustache a bit like Jimmy Cook's and was sort of Hillbrow hey-day old school Joburg (this all in my own imagining of things).  Joburg always had this sort of mystique for me - my grandparents flat near the Wanderers - black and white brogues with a sharp cravat and fedora. 

This is Geordie and I somewhere near Second Bush at St Francis Bay - on the once were vast-empty dunes, now condos and a small boat harbour.  I loved this place - can remember the sand snaking and stinging in zigzags across the dunes, and the crisp, pounding surf.  Spent years there watching other people catch fish.

Then eventually I started catching fish of my own ... this was at the Wilson's place (my friend Graham Wilson's mum, Louise in the pic) in the Transkei in December 1987; I had just turned 18. - it was one of my best holidays ever, and marked the start of many trips on various forms of transport with various people to The TK. It is still my favourite place on earth.  (I'd bet R500 that you wouldn't be willing to wear those boots and shorts to Hatfield; nasty nasty nasty)

In our garden in Cape Town in 1992 with my then girlfriend Kath Fothers who was delightful.  Somewhere between the fish and this pic, my hair got long, I went completely wild, and had an absolute ball that I remain grateful for to this day.