CHAPTER SIX

I finished Standard 6 at T.K.P.S. and in 1924 went as a day girl to Good Hope Seminary. Once again I did not settle happily - I wasn�t really unhappy, but I never seemed to know what was happening and everything was a bit mystifying to me - although I had a crush on one teacher whom I already knew from Church and Sunday School. I got on, however, all right in French and was entered in the Eisteddfod to recite "Le corbeau et le renard" and acquitted myself adequately. I had weekly dancing classes with Miss Webb, which I disliked intensely, particularly the embarrassing occasion when I had left my petticoat at home so that, when I changed out of uniform into my white muslin frock for the class, my Liberty bodice and Navy bloomers were all too visible.

The dreary walk home, over one and a half miles, ending in the long pull up Camp Street, was sometimes helped by my furtively going into the Kloof Street Greek shop and buying two sugarsticks, one red and one green, for a penny. This was strictly against parental rules, as much of the Greek shop�s produce was unhygienic, so I had hastily to finish both sticks before reaching home, where a plate of dinner was kept for me to eat about 2 p.m. - an unappetising slice of tepid roast beef with thin congealed gravy and dried up green peas.

I had started as a Brownie with the St Barnabas Church pack. All the others were members of St Barnabas Anglican Church, just across the road from Aytoun. but I was happily welcomed, and I thoroughly enjoyed being a Brownie and, in due course, a Girl Guide. All the precepts and teaching of guiding appealed to me, and Miss Davie our Guider (a teacher at St Cyprians) inspired me greatly, and I got as many proficiency badges as I could - certainly knitting and swimming I remember. When I went to boarding school I became a Lone Guide attached to St Barnabas troop.

Mr and Mrs Low owned the beautiful Leeuwenhof estate, and we spent many happy hours there with Barrie, Elma (my age), and Peggy. For some charity do a tea party was held in their garden, and Elma and I were waitresses so self-conscious and yet managing to enjoy the occasion.

I learned to ride a bicycle - this had to be kept secret at first at home, as Dad would not allow us to own bicycles. He reckoned that the Cape Town hilly roads were very bad for hearts. My friend Daisy van Hoogstraten was given a bike, so I happily learned to ride from their house in upper Hof Street, which was reasonably level. I can remember many giggly sessions with Daisy, Elma and other girls as we gradually became aware of boys.

During the holidays I spent a few weeks with Betty Rennie (who was at school at Herschel and whose mother was a friend of my parents) at her brother Jim�s farm �Brownhills� at Stellenbosch. Jim was very indulgent to us little girls, and he made us stilts which we learned to use with dexterity.