silly little me

i sometimes think about

the silly things i used to think and do when i was young

i remember way back to when i was small enough to

have piggy backs and asking my dad if the

freckles on his back were there because he

ate too many post toasties

he loved to eat post toasties with sliced banana
and the freckles on his shoulders were as big as a post toastie
(with no banana)

and then i remember at aged about 5 or 6

thinking that the songs

on the radio were people in the radio, behind the speakers

singing and speaking to you and i did not

understand where they went to when you switched them off
(we had one of those huge cabinet type "music centres" - i think
ours, like the one below had a space for a "booze cabinet" in it - vintage stuff)

i remember every time that "red rubber ball" song

came on i ran to my bedroom to fetch my ball and 

i held it in front of the radio and bounced

it on the kitchen table

when the line

"the morning sun is shining like a red rubber ball"

i would sing it loudly

while holding the ball next to my cheek
convinced that the singers could see my actions
(and ask me to join their band)

(just looked it up - sung by quite a few artists including the seekers
and cilla black, but this is the version i remember
the cyrkle - 1966 - sorry 7 years old - could i have been so
silly at 7??  probably)

i remember dalene and i walking to sunday school with the money for

the collection plate in my purse

dalene and i would have a plan and split the collection money,

half we would hide in a fire hydrant on the main road

near the sorrento cafe

we would split the other half and put it in the collection plate

then, after church, if the money was not taken by someone poor and needy

while we were at church

(it hardly ever was, it was too well hidden)

we would take that as an omen to mean that we could

buy ourselves some liquorice shoelaces,
we would eat them on the way home and be caught out
by our mother because our mouths were black

i remember our favourite game when we were
about 10 and 12
it was called "stewies" (students)
dalene was sylvia (my mom's glamorous friend)
and I was geraldine (a second cousin from Zimbabwe who lived
with my granny over the road who was really a student at uct)
we seriously loved those names
and we would sit in my mother's little grey simca and pretend
we were driving off to the beach or to varsity and
talk the biggest lot of nonsense to each other

(i promise you, this could have been our car - only dark grey)

i remember around the same age taking a whole months worth of pocket money
to a family outfitter shop in mowbray and buying
ourselves each a bra
(we told the lady it was for our twin cousins)
blue and white gingham checks with a daisy in the middle




(not really but you get the idea)

another time we spent our pocket money at the pet shop
in mowbray
and bought ourselves the cutest ducks
17 and a half cents each
we put them in the bath but when my granddad heard
them quacking in the morning we had to
take them back to the pet shop
(we got our money back as well)

quack quacks for cheap cheap


main road rosebank, the cinerama and savoy cafe (sorrento cafe was on the
 next corner where kentucky is now)