We walked up the Glen, past the church onto de Villiers� farm and to the old mill and then on to de Stadtler�s farm. Between the church and the farms there were no houses, but the Gordons� boys club had a campsite there, and some years Jeppe High School boys camped there too. Local Home-owners built a tennis court on a piece of land which had been cleared of the all-pervasive Port Jackson wattle, and on it we had lots of fun.

On the beach we enjoyed the days when the fishing boats went out trekking. Lookouts on the steep hillside gave a shrill whistle when shoals were sighted, and out went the boats paying out the enormous net as they went - and after circling round the shoal they came back ashore. All the children helped to pull in the heavy net with its squirming load of fish, and one would rush home to ask Mother if she wanted a fish, and to get the money for it. We fished ourselves, too, from the rocks, prising off periwinkles for bait or, for the keen types (not me) getting redbait and fishing far out on the rocks. Duikers, which I later learnt were cormorants, were for us just part of the scenery with their swift and accurate dives for fish.

But over and above everything I loved the sea. I was a very keen swimmer, and loved the calm, still days when one just swam and swam. I also surfed enthusiastically in all weathers, preferably when the waves were very big and the tide so high that I was able to surf right up under the railway bridge which crossed the tiny Elsie�s River. We had light wooden surfboards on which we lay to surf, and I also enjoyed surfing without a board at all. Learning to surf I had many painful experiences when I allowed the front of the board to dip so that it buried itself in the sand and impaled my chest on the unyielding back end. Or else I mis-judged a wave and was tossed and churned in the swirling sand and water while my surfboard was duly flung up on the beach. When I first knew Glencairn, there was a gated pedestrian crossing of the railway line to reach the beach, but about 1924 a subway under the line was built.

The 2nd January was a public holiday at the Cape, when by tradition the Coloured people dressed up and had wonderful displays of dancing, singing and playing music. It was on a big scale at Greenpoint Common, but it was small at Glencairn and we thoroughly enjoyed the fun.

When I was 12, Dad bought us a horse, Royal, and he tirelessly gave Russell and me lessons on the flat sands below the road. When he reckoned that I could manage on my own, he told me to carry on, and I dreamily rode off. Something startled Royal and he suddenly took off at a gallop - I hung on for a bit, then fell off on his right side - and my left foot caught in the right-hand stirrup and I was dragged some distance. Luckily the stirrup leather broke, but Royal kicked me on my forehead before I fell clear. In answer to my yells people ran down, and I was carried (feet first to my discomfort) on a makeshift stretcher up the road and along home. The inch-long cut was not really serious nor was the grazing on my body - I was wearing only a frock and pants and was a bit scarred all over - but the blood in my long hair took Mother ages to get out as she sat patiently beside my bed and sponged my hair tress by tress. (I only won my long battle to have my hair cut the following year.) The chap who had sold Dad the horse was very concerned, and came and talked to me for ages, but we couldn�t work out what had started the horse off, and Royal went back to his original owner.