Rock and Roll Sherry After I turned 18, a couple of friends and I used to play snooker at the Plough Hotel (it and the Offsaddle Inn were the two hotels in town). We also had a drink or three. The cheapest drink available was a sweet Rock and Roll Sherry. It cost one shilling a …
Ixopo: some brief memories
The rolling hills Alan Paton put it better than I can. At the start of his book Cry the Beloved Country: "There is a lovely road that runs from Ixopo into the hills. These hills are grass-covered and rolling, and they are lovely beyond any singing of it." Mushrooming in spring Especially during the first …
Exploding granite boulders
The granite boulders in the pine plantation must have lain on this hill above Ixopo for tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of years. Yet there they are, shattered. The granite boulders have simply exploded. Why? A fire starts One spring, before the first rains, it is hot, and everything is tinder dry. A …
Melrose Days!
After rural Rivonia, we moved to more urban Melrose - Victoria Avenue, to be exact. I think we rented there for a couple of years before moving to Natal and dairy farming with his brother W.E.S Mansfield (Tony) outside Ixopo (Lufafa Road). We lived in Melrose from approximately 1952 to the end of 1955. I was about 11/12 …
Ten reasons to legalise dagga, now!
The world, including South Africa, has spent billions over many decades trying to stamp out dagga, otherwise known as marijuana, pot or weed. Those billions have been wasted. Worse still, they have diverted resources away from more important priorities. Happily, politicians in many countries and many states in the USA have come to their senses. It is …
A different time, A Different Country
Half-watching TV - an e.tv programme called A Different Country is on and it's about a bunch of SA kids going to a private school in England called Stowe. My ears prick up. My dad went to Stowe. He was born J.E. Mansfield (known as Roly) about 100 years ago (am 76). He must have …
Crisis in education: are we teaching our kids the wrong stuff!
The matric results are out. Educational and government spokesmen are blowing their own cracked trumpets and opposition parties are criticising the cracks in the trumpets. Government and opposition alike are focusing on a long outdated educational system. Very few are asking: are we teaching the skills (at schools and universities) our children and grandchildren are …
Continue reading Crisis in education: are we teaching our kids the wrong stuff!
